Interviews · 10 April 2011

Margaret Humphreys Oranges and Sunshine

Margaret Humphreys interviewed by Kevin Durham, 10 April 2011. 1m 57s on tape.

In this interview clip of Margaret Humphreys she talks about the movie Oranges and Sunshine. The Reluctant Heroine: Margaret Humphreys and the Legacy of Oranges and Sunshine

What's on the tape

A transcript, made by machine from the audio and tidied up. It gets names and the odd word wrong, so treat it as a way to find the bit you want rather than as a quotation. Every timestamp jumps to that moment in the video.

0:01 Challenge when you were creating the child uh migrant trust oh getting people to believe me no one believe you well of course not there's been a lot of denial. About child migration schemes and the Havoc that it played with children's lives and families and how how did you go about changing the mindset of governments. And ministers well it of course it took 23 years and I think that's sort of thing that we feel very concerned about at the moment. Something that was so that we could have done something about 23 years ago government funding was so limited and there was such a sense of denial. That this hadn't happened how could we have done this um so look two things we have to do is to reunite people with their families. As quickly as we could and alongside that of course inform government Lobby Advocate and uh and of course U the culmination of that was uh uh last year when Gordon.

0:54 Prown apologized on behalf of the nation which is quite a critical Landmark actually. Did it actually feel like when you saw Gordon Brown apologize well I thought I mean for child migrants of course and their families and that's what this is all about it was that moment. That they hadd waited for for so long that recognition that their country had been involved in the deportation of children separating them from their families. Telling them they were orphans when they definitely were not so it was a you know big milestone for them for the trust um again I think for the trust. Much lesser extent it was acknowledgement that uh yeah acknowledgement of our work and what does it feel like to be at cause for reuniting so many. Families look I think the work of reuniting families particularly separated under these circumstances very it requires very skilled.

1:45 Work um but I mean look this is what the trust is all about that's the heart of this project families restoring them trying to deal. With uh with his past.

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