Magdalene Laundry Australia 2008 Tour of Abbotsford Convent Victoria Australia

• Description: This video of a 2008 tour of the Abbotsford Convent, Victoria, was previously uploaded in 6 parts, and has since been re-uploaded as a single video. [Description taken from Youtube]: This video is a tribute to my mother, her two sisters and three brothers who were all put into Catholic Institutional care in 1921. My mother and her sisters were taken in by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd at their Abbotsford Convent. Neither my mother nor her sisters were Magdalen inmates The Magdalen inmates were in the section of the convent called Sacred Heart and my mother and sisters were in St Josephs section. Sacred Heart was known informerly as the Penitentiary because it was in effect a prison with bars on windows and high cast iron gates to prevent escapes. The Magdalens were made to work up to 50 hours a week, for no pay to keep one of the biggest commercial laundries in Melbourne running. Income from the laundries made possible all the other pastoral work of the 'Mother House' that was the Abbotsford Convent and in the South Pacific region, for 100 yrs. [Former Description taken from YouTube]: This video was taken in Nov 2008 at the Good Shepherd Convent in Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a present day guided tour with a tour guide. This first of six videos features the tour intro with a general introduction from the Arch-Bishops Office at the Abbottsford Convent. The camera work and production were undertaken by Paul Curwood, the son of a former inmate who endured this home between 1928 and 1931. In its heyday and for many decades the laundry at the convent was one of the biggest commercial laundries in Melbourne, serving many public hospitals and church clergy. It was a big money earner for the Catholic Church and the Good Shepherd nuns. As late as 1970 it was totally staffed by unpaid young women who had fallen foul of the law or the social morality of the time. These young women had the misfortune to end up enslaved by the nuns until they were eighteen years old. The girls self esteems were systematically disempowered by the nuns. All inmates became severely institutionalized. Some stayed in the nuns 'care' until their deaths. The women who were released were often crushed characters who never realized their full potential. These are the stolen generations: different types of 'stolen generation' when compared to the Australian Aborigines. These unfortunates, numbering thousands, have never been apologized to ,or compensated for, their enslavement. Who said slavery was not a twentieth century practice in the civilized Western World?
• Date: 2008
• Creator: Curwood, Paul
• Source: YouTube
• Rights: Paul Edward Curwood
• Archival Reference: Former title: Magdalene Laundry Australia, 1 of 6 - Good Shepherd Convent in Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria
• External URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfJI-XGISo

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