Content warning: This story touches on the topic of mass shootings and domestic violence, which may be triggering for some readers.
Every year on 18th September, people all over Australia remember Alannah and Madeline Mikac, two little girls aged six and three, who lost their lives in the tragic mass killing at Port Arthur in 1996. Out of that horror, thanks to their father, Walter, the kindness and generosity of the two sisters lives on through the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.
The Alannah and Madeline Foundation is dedicated to helping children who have faced trauma or violence. It’s best known for its Buddy Backpacks program, which distributes thoughtfully curated bags of essentials and small gifts to children who have been forced to leave their homes and move into refuges or foster care.
Every year, around 11,000 Australian children are removed from unsafe or abusive situations and taken into emergency care, often arriving with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The foundation would love to be able to provide a backpack to every one of those kids.
Today, on Alannah and Madeline Day, Walter shares with The Weekly readers some of his memories of the girls, his hopes for what their legacy might still achieve, and he asks for our support.
Can you take us back to those early days, after you lost Alannah and Madeline and your wife, Nanette? Out of all that sorrow, how did you find the strength to build a foundation?
After Port Arthur happened, I had thousands of letters from around Australia and from overseas as well. One of the letters was from a father from Melbourne who had daughters who were exactly the same age. He saw Alannah and Madeline’s paintings on my wall and on the fridge in one of the interviews I did, and he thought it would be a fitting idea to set up a foundation in their names. The first meeting was in my mum and dad’s lounge room. From the little seeds that were planted there, it continued to grow. Now, here we are 29 years on.
Has the foundation been healing for you as well as the kids you help?
Definitely, especially in that early time when it was hard to find a reason to continue. A reason to be here. The gun laws were the first thing. Once the government acted quickly on that and introduced the legislation to ban automatic and semi-automatic firearms, then the next thing was the foundation. And that really helped me to have a focus outside of my own grief and sadness. Knowing it was going to help other children who have to deal with witnessing violence or loss of their family really helped me a lot.
Tell us a bit about the Buddy Bags program and how important it is to those children?
That Buddy backpack is really the crux of what the foundation is all about. I always envisage that we are the guardian angels for these kids who have been displaced out of their homes, or they’ve had to leave because of violence or whatever is going on there. In that instant, they receive a backpack filled with all these personal items, which sometimes they’ve never had before. There are pyjamas, a teddy bear, a book, a comb, a toothbrush – all those sorts of things. In their darkest moment, I imagine it’s going to be the one thing that puts a smile on their face …
How did the Buddy backpack program start?
We started out with an anti-bullying program, which was the Buddy Bear program. Children who are usually in Year Six are buddied up with someone in Prep School. The Buddy backpack program sort of grew out of that. We’ve packed 140,000 backpacks over the journey. And there are still a lot of refuges and places that could do with more of them.
Unfortunately, the demand for Buddy Bags is continuing to increase, and that really saddens me. In the years the foundation has been going, the domestic violence situation hasn’t improved. There’s not a lot of positive light in sight just at the moment.
One of the things on my wish list is that we can start making inroads on preventing domestic violence with this message of kindness and looking after one another, like the Buddy Backpack does.
What’s the achievement of the foundation that you’re proudest of?
The fact that we’ve continued to grow and help more and more children over that time … We now have an E-Smart Program that helps keep children safe online. That’s in the majority of primary schools in Victoria, a lot of schools in other states and in all public libraries. And I’m proud that Alannah and Madeline’s names are still remembered, and that they’re remembered for helping other children. That gives me the most succour and the most satisfaction.
You recently spoke with NSW Premier Chris Minns about a Shooters and Fishers’ private members’ bill. Are you afraid gun legislation in Australia could roll back?
There have been times over the journey when we’ve had pressure from the hunting and gun lobby. But in [the proposed NSW] legislation, they want to make hunting a right, and that’s obviously a big concern.
The National Firearms Agreement that followed Port Arthur has been incredibly successful. We’ve only had one mass shooting in all that time. That speaks for itself. When you look at the United States, they’re averaging more than one mass shooting per day.
We’ve had a paradigm shift in the way we look at firearms and gun violence in Australia, and it’s served us pretty well in that time. That’s a legacy for all those people who died that day. And for the people who suffered and the people who were the first responders and witnessed that. I don’t want that to be diminished in any way.
Your work on all these fronts has been so tireless. What do you think Alannah and Madeline would be thinking now, looking at everything you’ve achieved?
I think they’d be smiling. They’d be looking down, thinking, ‘Go Dad! We’re not here but at least the love we had and the care we had care for other people is being embraced.’ It’s totally what the foundation is about.
To donate to the Alannah and Madeline Foundation’s Buddy Bag program, visit their website. Donations are doubled by a foundation sponsor on Alannah and Madeline Day.
If you or someone you know is affected by family violence, help is available through 1800RESPECT, the Kids Helpline or Lifeline. If you are in danger, please call 000.
