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Plays & Musicals featuring Care Exp Melody loses her Mojo Keith Saha 2013 Melody is in the care system and has been separated from her little sister Harmony – she’s got to keep hold of her toy monster Mojo to keep her on the straight and narrow. But when new girl Blessing arrives from Nigeria and tries to steal her best mate Rizla, Melody’s demons begin to take over her Mojo, with devastating consequences… External Website

Radio & Podcast Today in Focus: Bangladesh The Guardian 2023 A three part series on the Bangladeshi children who were taken from Bangladesh in the 1970s. As a consequence of the Bangladesh Liberation War 1971, and the birth of thousands of babies born to women who had been captured and raped by Pakistani troops, an international adoption campaign was launched. Thousands of “war babies” were adopted overseas, for example, in Denmark, England, Sweden and Canada. External Website

Authors C Care Left Me ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Bones ​ 2005 Bones is an American crime procedural featuring forensic anthropologist, Dr Temperance "Bones" Brennan. Temperance was put into foster care when she was 15 years of age. The foster system was unstable and abusive. Despite going to 12 different schools while in foster, Temperance ended up with 3 doctorates and does occasional contract work with the FBI External Website

Films/Videos The Unloved ​ 2009 A film that gives a child's eye view of the U.K.'s government-run care system for orphans and children in danger. Directed by Samantha Morton, who was in the care system as a child. It is about an 11 year-old girl, Lucy (Windsor) growing up in a children's home in the UK, and shown through her perspective. It is the directorial debut of Golden Globe Award-winning and two-time Academy Award-nominated actress Samantha Morton. The story is semi-autobiographical, Morton wrote and produced the film in collaboration with screenwriter Tony Grisoni. External Website

Poetry Blackberry's Child Joy Williams 1991 Poems on various subjects including, family, race relations and removal of children; includes brief biography of author and her removal from her mother early. External Website

Films/Videos The Last Jedi ​ 2017 The Last Jedi follows the character Rey, an orphan character, as she seeks help from Luke Skywalker. External Website

Poets Joy Williams (poet) Joy Williams ​ Joy Williams (1942 - 2006) was an Aboriginal Australian author of poetry. A Wiradjuri woman, Joy Williams was born Eileen Williams to Doretta Williams. She was removed from her Aboriginal family at the Erambie Mission at Cowra in New South Wales when she was a tiny baby and taken to Bomaderry Home near Nowra, around 335km south-east of Cowra. At the age of six, Joy was transferred to Lutanda Children’s Home in Wentworth Falls, 228km north of Nowra. After the founder of Lutanda—Florence Dalwood—died in 1949, Lutanda (and Joy Williams) was relocated to an orphanage 90km east of Nowra to suburban Boundary Road, Pennant Hills. During the 1970s Joy Williams enrolled at Wollongong University to do a Bachelor of Arts where she became interested in Black Literature. She also become involved in the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody and in other Aboriginal community groups. Joy Williams’ poetry appears in over 65 publications. External Website

Television Shows Good Morning, Veronica ​ 2020 Good Morning, Veronica (2020-2024) is a Brazilian crime series available on Netflix. It is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Brazilian lawyer and crime writer, Raphael Montes. Set in Sao Paulo, across 3 seasons, Good Morning, Veronica tells the complex story of an organised crime gang running a baby farm and child trafficking operation, and protecting the identity of a serial killer. At the heart of the story are orphanages. Some of the orphanage children end up with respectable careers, others are criminals. All have been victims of crime. Veronica Torres (Taina Muller) begins in the civil police but from Season 2 she is a vigilante as the organised crime gang has infiltrated the civil police. She is also an orphan and *spoiler alert* an adoptee. External Website

Authors D Kevin De Bruyne ➝ Back to Top

Radio & Podcast Philip Pullman (BBC) World Book Club 2005 In this podcast talks about his His Dark Materials fantasy triology which features Care Experienced character, Lyra Bbelacqua. He stresses the importances of having helpful characters in children's stories so that children - no matter their circumstances - know there are good people in the world. External Website

Radio & Podcast Jeanette Winterson - Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 2012 A conversation with English writer Jeanette Winterson about Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit 30 years after the book was published. External Website

Authors P Banjo Paterson ➝ Back to Top

Radio & Podcast Jackie Kay: Trumpet World Book Club 2018 Jackie Kay in conversation with the World Book Club community about her award winning debut novel, Trumpet (1998). External Website

Films/Videos Northern NSW Football Indigenous Round 28-30 May 2021 ​ 2021 Karen Menzies, the first Aboriginal Australian woman to play for the Matildas, talks about growing up in foster care, her enduring interest in soccer despite being caned at school for playing, being sent to a children's home in Newcastle where her love of playing soccer was encouraging, and on finding out about her Aboriginal heritage. External Website

Performing Arts Trent Reznor Trent Reznor ​ Michael Trent Reznor (born 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He was born in Pennsylvania. After his parents divorced, he went to live with his maternal grandparents. While in high school he joined a band. He is the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until 2016.He has contributed to the albums of artists such as Marilyn Manson, whom he mentored, and rapper Saul Williams. Alongside his wife Mariqueen Maandig and long-time Nine Inch Nails collaborators Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan, he formed the post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels in 2009.Reznor and Ross scored David Fincher's films The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2014), and Mank (2020). They won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The duo also scored the films Patriots Day (2016), mid90s, Bird Box (both 2018), Waves (2019) and Soul (2020), the documentaries Before the Flood (2016) and The Vietnam War (2017), and the TV series Watchmen (2019), winning a Primetime Emmy Award for the lattermost. In 1997, Reznor appeared on Time's list of the year's most influential people, and Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music". External Website

Performing Arts Sharyn Crystal Sharyn Crystal ​ Australian singer and entertainer, Sharyn Killens (also known as Sharyn Crystal, b. 1948, was in as born at a time when illegitimacy and black skins were problematic in Australia, and abortions dangerous. Her mother chose, therefore, to keep her baby—the father of whom was an African American serviceman—but to not raise her. Instead, Grace initially put baby Sharyn into foster care. In 1950, friends of Grace, concerned about the child, travelled out to Liverpool and were appalled to discover she was covered with lice and bruises. Ellie and Dorrie retrieved Sharyn, and cared for her over the next 3 and a half years. In 1954 it was Grace’s turn to retrieve Sharyn from her friends’ care, this time taking the now five year old to St Martha’s Industrial Home. When Sharyn was 9, and after a couple of Christmas holidays with her grandmother and mother, Sharyn began running away from St Martha’s, until finally, in 1960, she was allowed to live permanently at her grandmother's. Until in 1961, Grace and Sharyn moved in with Grace’s husband, Lars.Openly rebellious and defiant, Sharyn hung out on the streets until she was eventually charged, as a 15 year old, with “being exposed to moral danger” and taken to the Glebe Children’s Shelter. Eventually Sharyn found herself locked up the notorious Parramatta Girls Home with up to 160 other girls who’d been neglected and abused by parents and/or the state. From there she was imprisoned in the hard core jail, the Hay Institution for Girls. As an adult Sharyn tried out a range of work. She trained as a nurse, became an exotic dancer, worked in musical theatre and “and as a housekeeper and personal assistant” for 20 years. From 1985, Sharyn worked on cruises as an entertainer, her professional name being Sharyn Crystal. External Website

Performing Arts Prince (musician) Prince ​ Prince Rogers Nelson (1958 – 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. Prince was born in Minneapolis to jazz musician, John Nelson, and jazz singer, Mattie Shaw. His parents separated when Prince was about 10. From then he alternated living with both of them, even after his mother remarried. Hayward Baker, Prince’s stepfather, took the boy to see James Brown, an important influence on Prince’s songwriting and performing. Prince became good friends with Andre Anderson (to become known as Andre Cymone), a newcomer to Prince’s school at around age twelve. After Prince became tired of moving between his mother’s and his father’s house, he ran away and moved in with Andre and his family. Prince was still in his teens when he signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. His second album, Prince (1979), sold more than 1 million copies. External Website

Television Shows My Life with the Walter Boys ​ 2023 My Life with the Walter Boys is an American coming-of-age drama series, based on the 2014 eponymous novel by Ali Novak. Recently orphaned Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodrigeuz) is a 15-year-old from Manhattan who is relocated to rural Colorado and the Walters family after the death of her parents. Katherine Walter (Sarah Rafferty) is a veterinarian and was Jackie’s mother’s best friend from Columbia University. During the series it is also revealed that she was adopted as a child. The Walters is a large family with 7 sons and one daughter. They also have the 2 Garcia boys living with them, cousins of the Walter children. The first season of My Life with the Walter Boys concludes with Jackie deciding to return to New York where she will live with an uncle. External Website

Radio & Podcast Adoption and moral obligation The Philosopher's Zone 2022 An interesting conversation on adoption as a 'moral duty' giving the number of children in the world (an estimated 16.2) who are orphans. Why the ongoing 'genetic preference' in families when so many other children need a home, is the question being explored. External Website