A group of survivors has created Australia's first travelling Stolen Generations education centre.

Key points: The Kinchela Boys Home housed more than 500 Aboriginal boys between 1924 and 1970

The Kinchela Boys Home housed more than 500 Aboriginal boys between 1924 and 1970 The children who attended the home were forcibly removed from their families and make up part of the Stolen Generations

The children who attended the home were forcibly removed from their families and make up part of the Stolen Generations Now, former residents are taking their story on the road in a mobile education centre to tell the truth about what happened to them

Former residents of the infamous Kinchela Boys Home, near Kempsey on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, will take an exhibition about the centre around the state to share their experiences, marking 50 years since its closure.

Richard Campbell is a former resident of the boys' home, where he was identified by the number 28.

"That trauma that we endured, telling us that we didn't have a name, we didn't have a family, we didn't have a culture, we didn't have a language," Mr Campbell said.

He and other survivors created the mobile exhibition to make sure the injustices of the past were not forgotten.

The boys' home housed more than 500 Aboriginal boys between 1924 and 1970.

The children were removed from their families, where many suffered serious physical and psychological abuse.

"We can get out there and tell the truth and that history about what really happened behind closed doors," he said.

A classroom at the Kinchela Boys Home near Kempsey. ( Supplied: W Pederson/National Archives of Australia )

Education is key

In partnership with the Department of Education, the project aims to expand current understanding of the Stolen Generations taught in schools.

"Sadly here in NSW the reference point still seems to be the Rabbit Proof Fence," Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation CEO Tiffany McComsey said.

"There's a whole local history that needs to be understood."

Kinchela Boys Home survivor Roger Jarrett speaks to a group inside the Stolen Generations mobile education centre. ( Supplied: Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation )

Built into an old bus, the centre houses an interior exhibition display developed in consultation with survivors.

The back half of the bus has been converted into a cinema that shows a short animated film produced by some of the Uncles.

Ms McComsey said the bus created a safe space for students to talk with survivors about their experiences in the home and provide a broader understanding of the ongoing impacts of the Stolen Generations.

"Having the Uncles who can share their stories and their lived experience is critical to the success of this," she said.

"We're here as living proof to tell the truth about what we went through," survivor Uncle Roger Jarrett said.

Survivor Uncle Roger Jarrett hopes to share the details of what the boys endured at the home. ( ABC Mid North Coast: Kirstie Wellauer )

It took six years before Mr Campbell could talk about his time at the home, and for others much longer.

He said the process of "truth-telling" was important to end intergenerational trauma.

"That is very important for our kids because they suffer from our trauma through intergenerational trauma and it's still affecting our kids at the moment," Mr Campbell said.

"That trauma is affecting a lot of Indigenous people around New South Wales.

"Our trauma has got to stop with us as a Kinchela boy, through our truth-telling and through the educational system."

Reconnecting communities

The project will also reconnect survivors with the communities from which they were taken.

Ms McComsey said welcome back ceremonies will be held, hoping to encourage healing between the community and the Uncles.

"Going back to these communities where a lot of times these stories aren't even known at a local or community level," she said.

Roger Jarrett said it was not only the survivors who were affected by the policies of the Stolen Generations.

"When they come out of that town they lost their identity," Mr Jarrett said.

"[But] it's not just the people that were taken … it's the mothers, the fathers, and all the neighbours," he said.

"The town was traumatised as well."

Judy Williams and Kim Gillbert visited the mobile education centre during its pilot in Stuart Point. ( ABC Mid North Coast: Kirstie Wellauer )

'Hunger for our history'

Judy Williams and Kim Gillbert attended the education centre's pilot at Stuarts Point on the NSW Mid North Coast.

Ms Williams went to school with Mr Campbell in Kempsey, and was surprised to hear what happened to her classmate inside the gates of the Kinchela Boys Home.

"My understanding was that Richard was an orphan," Ms Williams said.

"Why were children who had a mum and dad put into an institution?"

The pair believed the education centre would have a big impact.

"You sit there and listen to the story and you're able to connect with people from the Kinchela Boys Home," Mr Gillbert said.

"I think it will have a tremendous impact on people discovering a part of our real history of Australia."