The Secrets of Dawn Exhibition will be launching in mid-2024 at Carriageworks in Sydney.
Aboriginal children can be seen smiling from the pages of Dawn Magazine but there is a darker story behind the pictures. Dawn and New Dawn Magazine were created by the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board and published monthly from January 1952 to December 1968. They were distributed to all Aboriginal stations, reserves and institutions in the state where they were read by Indigenous people who had limited access to information about their kin and community.
Aunty Jean Carter is a survivor of the Stolen Generations who was taken to the Cootamundra home. When she was first placed there, she started reading Dawn and enjoyed it. "At the time, I thought it was good because we were starting to see pictures of our family that we didn't know were around," Ms Carter said.