'At the age of six, Debbie Barben was 'fostered' with a non-Aboriginal family in the Manly area where she remained for a few years until that 'placement' broke down irretrievably and she was returned to the Bidura receiving home. When she was thirteen years of age, Debby was again placed with a foster family on the South Coast of NSW. That placement lasted for three months and Debby was returned to Bidura, then to Lynewood Girls Home before being transferred to Newcastle Girls Home.
Finally, Debby went to a family on Sydney's north shore, where she was apparently given a chance to further her development working in residential care and youth work. She studied welfare at Milperra College and has been employed as a welfare worker. Her aspirations have been to find her father, write her autobiography and one day have a country house for kids with nowhere to go. ' Source: Inside Black Australia : An Anthology of Aboriginal Poetry (1988).
