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Roach, who was taken from his family because he had a white grandfather, knows what they went through. His third set of foster parents treated him well, as an equal to their own three children. But his life was shattered when Roach, 14, received a letter from his sister Myrtle, who had tracked him down through welfare agencies. Their mother, supposedly dead, had passed away the previous week. Furious that he'd been lied to his whole life, Roach ran away from home and spent the next 14 years drinking, sleeping in parks, playing the guitar to earn enough for the next bottle. Finally, he dried out and began writing and singing songs, including his 1987 hit, Took the Children Away, which launched him on an upward musical career. But, he says, "I still feel the pain, every day. Sometimes it threatens to engulf me. But I'm not going to let it destroy me."
Howard, fearful that a formal apology would strengthen the case for compensation, has issued only a statement of "regret" for the Stolen Generation. Polls suggest that just over half the population supports him. Many already resent existing welfare payments to the mostly impoverished Aborigines. "The government can't even say the word s-o-r-r-y," Roach says. "Most Aborigines I talk to just want a simple statement from the heart. If you hit someone, you don't say, 'I regret what I did.'"