Child Migration to Australia

I've applied NSFW to this post as it involves discussion about child abuse
abuse

ps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/13/i-couldnt-love-her-the-last-uk-child-migrants-to-australia-on-the-long-lonely-search-for-their-mothers#:~:text=Between%20the%201910s%20and%201970,where%20large%20numbers%20suffered%20abuse.

I'm an Australian with Maltese heritage, my grandfather came here at about 11 years old. He was sent here in the post-war period. A number of children from England and other war torn European countries came here under a government scheme to send the children to Australia, and unfortunately, many were sent to churches run by The Christian Brothers, and they were physically, sexually and emotionally abused by them.

This post is a bit of an emotional one, as since my grandfather was so young, his experience with being sent here stripped him of his language and culture, he rarely talks about Malta, he's maybe spoken about it to me a handful of times. Don't get me wrong, he is still Maltese, the memories of him cooking Maltese food like Imqarran, Pastizzis are forever with me, sometimes catching him swear in Maltese, but he almost rejects a lot of what being Maltese is, I feel like this comes from a place of Trauma.

But my main point is, a few years ago my father went on a bit of a rant on a Maltese Australian fb group, and nearly all of them rejected that any of the child immigration even happened, I don't really understand peoples reasoning for totally rejecting the Idea, even parts of my own family don't accept the situation. Does anyone else know of or have relatives that went through that? Sorry of this itself seems like a rant, I just wish I had other Maltese people to talk to about this. Not Tryna be a sook, but it hurts me that I have zero connection to my Maltese heritage. I look in the mirror and look at my face, I see the face of a people that I don't even know. Thanks if anyone replies to this, I'd appreciate it a lot.