Two long-lost cousins, separated generations ago during the stolen generation period, will publish a book about their extraordinary story in Tamworth.
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The pair will launch their children's book Star Dreaming about the tale of rediscovery today.
Mel Armstrong and Jodie Herden are both Gomeroi and are cousins.
But they only met for the first time two years ago.
Their grandmothers Ella and Mei Kim were sisters forced apart by the Australian government's policy of removing Indigenous children from their parents.
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Miss Armstrong, who now lives in Newcastle, spent a quarter of a century trying to reestablish her connection to the area. Her side of the family fled from likely arrest by police, to Taree.
Finally, just two years ago, she met a cousin she never knew she had.
They immediately hit it off.
"Initially there's all those uncertainties, like I wasn't sure it was legit," Mrs Herden said.
"With my nanna Ella, we weren't told of any of her siblings. I knew of two or three and it turns out there's like 10.
"There was those reservations for me, like thinking who's this chick, is this legit, what's going on?
"As soon as we met, we connected straight away. Once we started sharing things and photos, we knew."
"I feel like I've known each other forever," Mel said
Both of them agreed it was the sort of story that needed to be published. By astonishing coincidence, they are both established in the publishing industry. Mel is already a best-selling author. Jody, a prominent Tamworth Indigenous artist, illustrated the book in watercolour.
Star Dreaming has a unique format, with two separate stories written by each author individually.
"My story's about a little girl called Mary - she's off country," Jody said.
"It tells a bit of a story about how you can connect back to culture through the stars, that's what the star stories are about. And we'll be touching on it in both our stories. It's about families that want to connect back to their culture, but are unsure how to do that."
The children's book will be available for sale online and locally in Tamworth.
The pair have set up a production company, Ella and Mei Productions, and plan to publish several more books. They have other projects in mind as well, but have kept them under wraps for the moment.
The 'stolen generation' refers to a government policy to deliberately remove Indigenous children from their parents to church-run missions in order to eliminate Aboriginal culture. The policy was ended in the 1970s.
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