With torment still in his voice, Frank Byrne recalls the day six decades ago when he was taken from his mother and their community in Christmas Creek, Western Australia.

He was just five at the time, and his mother, Maudie Yooringun, had long feared the day that the government would come to seize him - and he would be "stolen".

"The government came to Christmas Creek where we had a mud house and told me I was been taken away," he said.

"My mum was completely ignored. She was not a human. That's what they thought in those days. The government fella said: 'I am your total guardian'."