Dirty Laundry

The Crimes a Country Tried to Hide

De: Lily Arthur

Narrado por: Lily Arthur

At 17-years-old, Lily Arthur was caught between an era of women's liberation and the draconian ideology that young women should be punished for deviating from society's "moral codes".

For the "crime" of being pregnant, Lily was forcibly taken from the man she planned to marry and incarcerated in Brisbane Watch House before being sent to work in a notorious Magdalene laundry.

Committed to the Holy Cross home for unwed mothers in Woolowin, Lily's son was taken from her in the labour ward and put up for adoption.

She promised him: "I will see you again, little one. I will see you again."

A true story from the war-torn ravages for East End London to the far north of Queensland, Australia, Dirty Laundry recounts a journey that took Lily and a movement of women like her on a lifelong battle for justice.

©2022 Lily Arthur (P)2023 Lily Arthur

Should be compulsory reading for every Australian

This is a real and human telling of one of the crucial, difficult parts of the history of our country which we are never taught in school. As Lily points out in her honouring of the wisdom of our First Nations’ Peoples, we must always begin with truth telling, however difficult those truths are, in order to heal and mocc be e forward in better ways.
Lily tells this story as though you are sitting at her kitchen table over many cups of tea, and maybe even a wine. It is heartbreaking, bravely vulnerable, and a call to action for us all to do better and to demand better. Her anger - still so disallowed in women - is not just deeply understandable, but refreshing. Thank you, Lily. Sharing your anger, your deepest hurts and the wrongs inflicted on you, alongside your hope, is a gift that we should all be abundantly grateful for. I certainly am.