-Lise-May will be transferred in Mainland France in 1969. She won’t be hosted by the same foster family as her brother Philippe, who arrived in 1966, despite the repeated request of the foster-mother. Instead, she will be placed in a farmer’s family with a fellow native, where both girls will be sexually assaulted. The social worker will finally consent to the sibling’s reunion. She will find out, years later, thanks to an older brother who stayed in the Reunion island, that her father is well and alive, despite the mention of his death in her record. She now lives in the Creuse region.
Ex'île - Liz May from Elisabeth Schneider on Vimeo.
- Virginie was born in July 1973 (she has 3 birth certificates), and arrived in Mainland France on June 12th, 1975. She will be adopted against her mother’s will, who couldn’t read or write. Both arrived by plane from the Reunion island. The only way Jean-Baptiste wishes to testify is by holding this picture with Virginie. She will lengthily talk to me about her path since she was born. After the steps she took to find the facts out in 2000, she found her biological mother, in January 2002, even though she thought having been born through anonymous delivery (40’’ recording). She finds her biological father in 2009, at 36 years old. Jean-Baptiste and herself are holding the original picture taken by the girls’ aunt as they boarded in the Gillot airport, Reunion island, in 1975 to get to Mainland France. Plane: Super constellation. The person who sold me the picture on eBay (reproduced in large size by myself) confirmed on the phone she has been placed with her sister in the Saint-Gilles les Hauts orphanage. It’s her way to silently testify.
-Virginie says she has suffered a great deal from her skin tone in France. Her adoption at a very young age will not play well, to the extent of her beginning to search for her roots. She finds her parents in the Reunion island and finds out she’s of Chinese and Malbar descent (Southern India). Estranged from her adopted family, she found her father in 2009 and built a very close relationship with him. Still, between Mainland France and her adopted family, and the Reunion island where her birth family still is, numerous and severe conflicts of interests stand.
-Jackie was born in June 1959 in the Reunion island. Her Caucasian and European father died when she was born. Her birth mother, of Indian Malbar descent, found herself alone with 7 seven children to care for - one of them being stillborn. Jackie is the last of 8 children. She arrived in Mainland France in 1965 and was placed in a youth center with her sisters, “Le bon Pasteur” (“The good minister”) in the city of Pau, of strict education methods. She was only 6 years old when she was separated from her brother. She will then be fostered in a very respectable family of which mother, traumatized by her deportation in Nazi Germany during WWII, might have been a Kapo. A friend, also fostered by the family, will end up reporting the situation to a social worker. She will be removed from the family after investigation and brought back to the youth center with her trousseau, all the presents she had received from the family being taken away from her. During almost a year, she won’t say a word. She will be lucky enough to meet a female teacher who will take her under her wings, and will access a higher education. She joins the FEDD in 2017. She decides to speak up, together with her brother Inel, to make sure those stories are heard. Her grandfather was a white man, going by the name of “Gauche”. Inel provides details: « some wanted to connect our history to slavery; I opposed. I feel no connection to slavery. My name is Anette because of racism. Why? It goes back to my grandparents. My grandfather was named Gauche. If you mention Gauche, in particular in St André, it’s a significant planter family of the island. A high-rank family of means. They had children, among which my grandfather, who fell in love with a woman of colour named Annette. But the family refused their union. They loved each other, and had four children, among which my father. And we got named Annette. "
-Jean-Luc arrived in 1968. He recalls flying in a propeller aircraft, and making a stopover in Madagascar. Landing at the Orly airport, he was immediately sent to the Buissonnets foster home, in the region of Hérault. He remembers there where children from the Reunion island, aged 6 to 17. He was 8 years old. Jean-Luc was never adopted, only was he temporarily placed in foster families during school vacations. Then nothing. He recalls abuses: “Many things happened, there. Often, the martyr of children is mentioned … what do they call it … pedophilia ; well, I’ve seen quite a few things … children being f … by farmers ; we’ve been abused ; not me, but quite a few things happened … abuse on children … we saw it ; they took us ; I mean they took children and then quite a few things happened … we were young, completely innocent … we discussed it, between us kids“.
-Simon A. & Jacques D. standing in front of the foster home in Guéret, Creuse region. Jacques arrived at 14 years old, whereas Simon’s grandmother asked for his leaving, as well as his brother’s. They’re holding a stamp bearing the effigy of Michel Debré, father of the Constitution and founder of the Bumidom, as well the instigator of children’s displacement from the Reunion island to Mainland France, in order to repopulate the French regions affected by rural exodus.
-Lise-May will be transferred in Mainland France in 1969. She won’t be hosted by the same foster family as her brother Philippe, who arrived in 1966, despite the repeated request of the foster-mother. Instead, she will be placed in a farmer’s family with a fellow native, where both girls will be sexually assaulted. The social worker will finally consent to the sibling’s reunion. She will find out, years later, thanks to an older brother who stayed in the Reunion island, that her father is well and alive, despite the mention of his death in her record. She now lives in the Creuse region.
-Lise-May shows me a picture, dated 1994, of her with her father. She found him thanks to a sibling who stayed on the island. She then shows me her record, stating that her father is deceased.
-Jean-Luc arrived in 1968. He recalls the DASS (social services) car that used to ride on the island to take children from their families. There were rumors about that car “abducting children”. He recalls being scared as a boy, hiding in the bushes when the car was around. He remembers it as a 1951 yellow Citroën 2CV. The 2018 commission of inquiry never confirmed that fact, yet, most of the witnesses I have interviewed and photographed mentioned it. The question of why locals would see that car as a threat to their little ones is standing.
-I met Virginie in Elbeuf, where she lives with Jean Baptiste, another Reunion native exfiltrate. She underwent therapy. She writes poetry and has put together her childhood memories in that book, as well as proof of her three different birth certificates and other documents.
-Jacques D. is expressing the absence of a cuddly toy with this gesture. It comforts him. He recalls: " .../... I was 14 years old, we had been promised … nothing came .... /... I haven’t been sent to school in France, I’ve been sent to farms right away. I thought hell, something is off … I learned nothing in those farms … I thought I would be an apprentice, going part-time to school … but nothing happened. I never graduated. There was no follow-up, I saw nobody, nobody came for a year, no social worker, no one, I’ve been forgotten. ".../....
-Valérie, spokeswoman for the FEDD, has proof that her personal records have been forged. This child’s ID was in the records that was provided to her by a Reunion island social worker, when she went back there aged 40 to find out about her past. She contacted the Ministry of Justice where it was confirmed to her that French laws allow a name change, but prohibit modifying the place of birth: that’s proof of personal records forgery. She now lives in France.
-Jean-Luc was a transplanted child, as the 2018 commission of inquiry renamed the process. He arrived in 1968. He recalls a painful life in the island and an immense loneliness in France. After landing at the Orly airport, aged 8, he will be sent to the Buisonnet foster home of Lespignan (Hérault region). Jean-Luc was never adopted, only was he temporarily placed in foster families during school vacations. Then nothing. He recalls abuses: “Many things happened, there. Often, the martyr of children is mentioned … what do they call it … pedophilia ; well, I’ve seen quite a few things … children being f … by farmers ; we’ve been abused ; not me, but quite a few things happened … abuse on children … we saw it ; they took us ; I mean they took children and then quite a few things happened … we were young, completely innocent … we discussed it, between us kids“. He is now married to Marjorie, an island native. They have a daughter and live near Saint-Gervais.
-Inel is Jackie’s brother. They have been separated upon arrival in Mainland France. He joined his sister to speak up. He as well, suffered from the forced exile and multiple separations, even though he considers having been lucky: he received a higher education. He has a clear view on the native Reunion island children’s transplant. Two of the five transplanted and separated siblings are speaking up. His father passed away when he was only 3 years old. He says: “some wanted to connect our history with slavery; I opposed. I feel no connection to slavery. My name is Anette because of racism. Why? It goes back to my grandparents. My grandfather was named Gauche. If you mention Gauche, in particular in St André, it’s a significant planter family of the island. A high-rank family of means. They had children, among which my grandfather, who fell in love with a woman of colour named Annette. But the family refused their union. They loved each other, and had four children, among which my father. And we got named Annette”. He has no recollection of Asian children during those transfers. According to him, the Asian community was very solid and didn’t their children go.
- Records document, partially burnt. It states that André M. requested to be transferred to Mainland France, whereas he has no recollection of having received previous notice.
-I met André M. at his home on February 10th., 2018 in the Calvados region, the day before he left for the Reunion island to attend the February 22nd., 2018 meeting. He landed at the Orly airport in 1963, aged 13, after having stayed in the island’s Hell-Bourg foster home. After landing and being sent to the Cantal region for the summer, he will be placed in a farm, in the region of Oise, where an ordeal will begin for him. He mentions a monastery and a priest, and emotionally (with tears) recalls sexual abuses of his friends without being able to help them. He also talks about the ban on speaking Creole or be subject to sanctions. "It was closed. Looking at it now, it looks like a cult. We weren’t educated. ..../... The foster family where I was sent, it was awful. You could wonder if they were in for the money. We were four in there, sharing a bedroom, we ate separately on a table. Hygiene was scary, just once a week. At least on the island, we used a hose outside. We used to be clean, on the island."
- After interviewing Philippe, Lise-May’s brother, he mentions island friends who committed suicide. He recalls three of them among which Jean Marc Moutien, whose grave I find in Bellegarde, Marius Trajean and another one, whose name he doesn’t get hold of.
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