The Leaving of Liverpool

The caning scene

The Leaving of Liverpool is an Australian television film from 1992, directed by Michael Jenkins.

Synopsis

Spoiler Alert

The film is about Home Children, poor or orphaned British children who were forced to emigrate from the UK to British settler colonies, or later to countries of the British Commonwealth. Specifically, it is about Home Children who were taken to Australia following World War II.

The film depicts the sufferings of these children, first in the UK and then in Australia where they did not find a brighter future but instead suffered neglect, exploitation, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

Background and social impact

In 1987, British author and social worker Margaret Humphreys carried out an investigation which led to the exposure of the child migration scheme. The 1992 film portrays these findings.

A Child Migrants Trust was established with the aim of reuniting parents and children. Full details of the scheme emerged as late as 1998 during a parliamentary inquiry in Britain, which confirmed that many migrant children were subjected to systematic abuse in religious schools in Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.

The film The Leaving of Liverpool brought a forgotten chapter of British/Australian history to public attention and resulted in a massive public and political debate. In 2001, Australia's Roman Catholic Church publicly apologized to British and Maltese child migrants who suffered abuse including rape, whippings, and slave labor in religious institutions. In 2009, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised on behalf of the government of Australia. In February 2010, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown issued an official apology for the 'shameful' child resettlement program and announced a £6 million fund designed to compensate the families affected by the "misguided" program.

The spanking scenes

The film contains several spanking scenes and other scenes of child maltreatment.

a small boy in a British orphanage is beaten with a walking stick to his head, leaving him deaf
another boy in the same British orphanage is brutally caned
boys forced to inhumane work in Australia are driven with a switch by a tyrannical "slave driver"
Lily, a 14-year-old girl, is locked in a lathed space for saying the word 'fuck'
a group of girls is spanked with a wooden spoon for misbehaving while preparing food in the kitchen
Lily is then caned by the principal for throwing chops at the teacher and calling her a cow (see YouTube video)
Lily is threatened with a "lickin'" for reporting that she just nearly got raped