The Last Daughter

A powerful journey of identity, truth, and reconciliation across two worlds.

The Last Daughter tells the remarkable true story of Brenda, an Aboriginal woman who was taken from her birth family and raised by a white foster family in 1970s Australia. For five years she lived a happy childhood with her foster parents, Mac and Connie, and her white foster sister, until one day she was suddenly taken away and returned to her biological family without explanation. The separation left Brenda with fragmented memories and a lifelong sense of disconnection.

Now an adult living on Bundjalung Country with her husband Mark, Brenda feels caught between two identities. She begins to explore her Aboriginal heritage and, in doing so, opens up about her past as part of Australia’s Stolen Generations. When she learns that she was removed even after the Child Welfare Board had been disbanded, new questions arise about how and why this could have happened. Determined to find answers, she embarks on a deeply personal journey to find her white foster family after forty years of silence.

Her search leads her to long-buried secrets, government lies, and painful memories that still haunt her mother, Nana Brenda, who lost seven children to forced removal. Filmed across Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, and created in partnership between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal filmmakers, The Last Daughter is an inspiring and emotional documentary about truth-telling, healing, and the possibility of reconciliation between families — and within a nation still coming to terms with its past.