Stolen generations testimony: trauma, historiography, and the question of "truth".

In recent Australian Aboriginal history, testimonies have played a significant role in bringing into the public domain knowledge about the practices and effects of the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities. Broadly defined, the category of testimony includes a wide range of texts, such as autobiographical narratives, oral histories, semi-official testimonies such as those published in Bringing Them Home, legal testimonies, Link-Up testimonies, psychotherapeutic testimonies, filmed testimonies and videotape testimonies. While testimony has proven an invaluable means of transmitting experiences and memories of people whose stories often go unrecorded, the category of testimony is a contentious one — especially for historians, who are often concerned with establishing what actually happened in the past.