On Wednesday, February 10th we had the wonderful opportunity to hear the story of one of the women in the community named Clara.  She is an amazing woman of God.  She is also very unique since she is an albino aboriginal, which means she is a full blood aboriginal but has white skin and blonde hair.  Clara has been through a lot.  When she was born her parents wanted to kill her since she was albino and a girl.  They didn’t see any use in her.  So one day when she was a baby her dad laid her on a stump and took an ax to swing at her.  When the ax was in mid swing Clara’s aunt jump in between Clara and the ax and saved her life.  Shortly after that Clara was rescued again by adoption.

When she was only a small child the government took all the children away to live in dormitories.  They believed that the children were not being taken care of properly by their parents and thought they should be raised in the ways they felt were right.   The children were raised by a dorm matron and made to attend church and learn the white man’s ways.  Clara hated it there because she missed her adopted family so much.  She was also teased and made fun of a lot because her skin was white and the girls didn’t want to spend time with her because they thought she had a disease.  At the young age of 7 she escaped the mission and walked a few miles towards home.  She was caught and taken back. 

Eventually the government closed the mission and she was allowed to move back home.  To this day there are only a handful of women from her dormitory who believe in Jesus.  Because they were forced to attend church and treated poorly by the “Christians” most of them don’t want anything to do with God.  Clara continues to reach out to these women with the loving story of redemption and forgiveness.  On her biological mother’s deathbed she was able to receive and give reconcilation and forgiveness for the sins of the past. 
 
The night she told us her story she also showed us pictures from her past.  It was so amazing to hear this women of God share with us her past and show us how God loved her despite her circumstances. 
If you want to lear more about the way the aborginals were treated, I would encourage you to watch the movie, “The Rabbit Proof Fence”.
 
 Some of the girls with the dorm matron.              Clara with her family
 
Here is a video of Clara singing her favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art”, in her native tribal language.