The Kinchela boys are back together this weekend. They are aged from their late 50s to their 80s, but as Manuel Ebsworth put it: "We may be old men now, but we still think of each other as boys."
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They will recall the horror stories of what happened to them as children incarcerated in Kinchela Boys Home, between Kempsey and South West Rocks, as they gather to mark the opening of the institution 90 years ago.
While they will cherish it like a family reunion, they will also be remembering "the bad old days", says 74-year-old Cecil Bowden.
The NSW Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Victor Dominello, will be there to acknowledge the poor treatment and abuse that many of the 500 inmates endured.
Mr Dominello said a chain-cutting ceremony would be held on Saturday afternoon at the gates "where decades ago these men entered the home for the first time, leaving behind their names, families and identities".
"They became known only by a number and I commend the survivors of Kinchela Boys Home for their courage in speaking publicly about their experiences at the home," he said.
Several of the men, including 65-year-old Mr Ebsworth (No.28) and Mr Bowden (No.29), have told Fairfax Media their stories. They are among successive generations of inmates who have described an almost daily punishment ritual known as going "down the line".
A manager would order the inmates to form a single row. A boy to be punished would walk down the line and each boy in turn – as many as 60 of them – would be compelled to punch him.
Richard Campbell, 58, also went down the line, often. He became No.28 after Mr Ebsworth and he was among the last of the Kinchela boys when the institution closed in 1970.
"This weekend is about healing and the acknowledgment that these things happened to us," Mr Campbell said.
Mr Dominello said: "We have provided $38,000 in funding to Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation to enable around 20 men who lived at the home to record and share their incredible stories through film."
He said the films, to be screened on Saturday, were "a remarkable insight into the hardship these men faced and enduring bonds they have formed to support one another through the healing process".
