Australian Rules Footballer (AFL), Sam Powell-Pepper (b. 1998), was in and out of kinship and foster care as a child.

Sam’s parents (a white Australian father and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander mother) separated when Sam was little. Until he was 8 he lived with his dad, a former rugby player.

Caroline Powell-Pepper, Sam’s grandmother, cared for Sam and his brother Jacob intermittently in her North Perth home for 5 years.Sam debuted for the East Perth Football Club in 2016, and that year was also chosen to play for Port Adelaide in the 2016 national draft.