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Performing Arts Kutcha Edwards Kutcha Edwards ​ Aboriginal Australian singer-songwriter, Kutcha Edwards (b. 1965), was in institutions as a child. Kutcha is a Mutti-Mutti man; he was born in Balranald, New South Wales, the 9th of 12 children to Mary and Nugget Edwards. A member of the Stolen Generations, Kutcha was removed from his family when he was 18 months old, along with 5 siblings. When he was later moved to Orana Methodist Children’s Home in Burwood, Victoria, Kutcha was reunited with his siblings. As a young man, Kutcha trained in Melbourne to become a community health worker at Koori Kollij, an Aboriginal health service. During the 1990s, Kutcha began signing professionally, with Melbourne band Watbalimba and later with Blackfire. He became a solo artist in 2000. In 2006 Kutcha joined with other Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal performers to form Black Arm Band, a company which tours communities in remote regions. External Website

Non Fiction Welcome to My Country: A Therapist's Memoir of Madness Lauren Slater 1997 Lauren Slater, a writer who is a young therapist, takes us on a personal and professional journey in this memoir about her work with mental and emotional illness. The territory of the mind and of madness can seem a foreign, even frightening place-until you read Welcome to My Country. She closes the distance between "us" and "them," transporting us into the country of Lenny, Moxi, Oscar, and Marie. She lets us watch as she interacts with and strives to understand patients suffering from mental and emotional distress-the schizophrenic, the depressed, the suicidal. As the young psychologist responds to, reflects on, and re-creates her interactions with the inner realities of the dispossessed, she moves us to a deeper understanding of the complexities of the human mind and spirit. In the final chapter, the psychologist confronts herself, when she is asked to treat a young woman, bulimic and suicidal, who is on the same ward where Slater herself was once such a patient. Slater was in foster care. External Website

Authors E Every one of us has a different story': a historic portrait of care system success ➝ Back to Top

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Water under the bridge Sumner Locke Elliott 1989 A tapestry of surprise, bright dreams and foiled ambitions, which begins at the opening in 1932 of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Archie Ewers, son of a laundress, finds ways of disrupting the comfortable lives of those who have rejected him over the years External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Intelligent women are dangerous, no?’ Samantha Morton on sexism, success and survival The Guardian 2022 Taken into care, abused, objectified: the actor had a traumatic start to life – and her career. Why does she feel such a strong connection to her new TV role: privileged, notorious Catherine de Medici? External Website

Films/Videos The Missing Children ​ 2021 A powerful documentary about an Irish scandal has won an award at the 2022 Baftas for best Specialist Factual. The Missing Children tells the story of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, which operated between 1925 and 1961. In 1975, 2 boys playing on the site discovered skeletons. There are 2 stories explored in the documentary. One is that as many as 800 children had died in the Home and been carelessly buried in the grounds. The others is that as many as 1000 children were illegally sent to the US for adoption. Survivors tell the stories - adoptees who grew up in the US, and siblings of children who died in the Home. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16022722/ External Website

Poets Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (poet) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper ​ Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was well known in 19th century America. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland and, orphaned at the age of 3, raised by an aunt and uncle. Her unce was an abolitionist, a Methodist minister and ran his own school called the Watkins Academy for Negro Youth. Frances attended the Watkins Academy until she was 13 and then took up paid work, as a nursemaid and seamstress for a family that owned a bookshop. In her spare time, Frances read and wrote, and she published her first volume of poetry at the age of 21. Frances Harper had a long career as a poet, a short story writer, and a lecturer for the Anti-Slavery Society. In addition, she published 3 novels and several essay collections. External Website

Poets Langston Hughes (poet) Langston Hughes ​ James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901 – 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was born in Missouri. His father abandoned the family soon after the birth. After his parents divorced, he was raised by his maternal grandmother in Kansas as his mother needed to travel for work. When his grandmother died, Hughes lived with family friends for 2 years. Eventually Hughes lived again with his mother after she remarried and settled in Cleveland. There he wrote for his high school newspaper and published his first poetry. One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue." In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote plays, and short stories. He also published several non-fiction works. From 1942 to 1962, as the civil rights movement was gaining traction, he wrote an in-depth weekly column in a leading black newspaper, The Chicago Defender. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Swallow the Air Tara June Winch 2006 Swallow the Air (2006) is the critically acclaimed first novel by Aboriginal Australian writer, Tara June Winch. The narrator is May Gibson whose mother has killed herself and she and her older brother, Billy, have been taken in by their Aunty. When Aunty’s gambling and alcoholism has become unbearable and Billy has left home, 15 year old May leaves home too, in search for her white father and for her mother’s Aboriginal family. The story May tells of grief and loss is devastating, but the story has a hopeful ending when May realises where home is. External Website

Authors O Foster families who ignore race are participating in a pernicious form of racism ➝ Back to Top

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Meera Mistry Meera Mistry 2021 Meera Mistry, a care-experienced Associate Director at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Meera spent her teenage years in foster care. She was placed in families from different cultures and backgrounds which she says has 'given me a unique perspective'. She is a Trustee at Become Charity. External Website

Non Fiction The Market in Babies Marian Quartly 2013 The Market in Babies (2013) by Marian Quartly, Shurlee Swain & Denise Cuthbert tells the history of adoption in Australia and is the result of a 5 year-long research project. As the authors point out in the introduction, 50 years ago (from the time of writing) the generally accepted view in Australia was that adoption was a permissible way to form a family, and it was a means of providing for orphans. It was also a secret within many families. That view is now contested as support groups formed from the 1980s and exposed the pain of separation felt by mothers and children. The number of adoptions per year has declined significantly. The Market in Babies includes excerpts from the stories people contributed to the project website. External Website

Poets Malik Al Nasir Malik Al Nasir ​ Malik Al Nasir, formerly Mark T. Watson (born 1966, Liverpool, England) is a British author and performance poet, born to a Welsh mother and a Guyanese father. He grew up partly with his family in Liverpool and after the paralysis of his father, he was taken into local authority care. He successfully sued the government for neglect, racism and physical abuse whilst in their care, and received a public apology from Liverpool's Lord Mayor. External Website

Performing Arts Gil Scott-Heron Gil Scott-Heron ​ Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) born Gilbert in Chicago to singer Bobbie Scott-Heron and soccer play Giles Heron. was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. Not long after Gilbert’s birth, his parents separated and Gil was sent to live in Tennessee with his grandmother, Lillie Scott. Lillie Scott bought a piano and young Gil learnt how to play by ear. His grandmother also introduced him to the work of Langston Hughes. After his grandmother’s death, Gil moved to New York to live with his mother. At DeWitt Clinton high school in the Bronx, an English teacher was impressed by Gil’s writing ability and recommended him to receive a scholarship so he could attend Fieldston School, a private university preparatory school. Wanting to reach a wider audience, Scott-Heron recorded his first alum in 1970. External Website

Films/Videos The Real Mo Farah ​ 2022 The Real Mo Farah tells the astonishing story of how the British-Somali athlete was trafficked to the UK as the age of nine. In the UK, Mo Farah worked as a domestic servant. After telling his PE teacher about his plight, he went into foster care. School staff helped the boy gain British citizenship so that he could compete in international running events. Mo Farah has won 4 Olympic gold medals. He received an Order of the British Empire, a CBE in 2013 and another, a knighthood, in 2017. External Website

Performing Arts B.B.King B B King ​ African American blues singer-song writer, BB King (1925-2015), was born Riley B King to sharecroppers in Mississippi. His father deserted the family when Riley was young and his mother died when he was 10. It’s not clear with whom Riley lived from then, some sources say his grandmother, others say other relatives. In 1949, King left for Memphis then went on to Chicago where he soon was regularly performing at a nightclub. The following year, King signed with a Los Angeles based label, Modern Records, which specialised in jazz. From the 1960s, BB King toured all over the world. He continued touring and recording until shortly before his death in 2015. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles The people making a difference: the woman who created a community for fellow adult adoptees The Guardian 2022 In 2013 when Claire Moruzzi began thinking about here experiences as an adoptee, she found there was little in the way of helpful resources. In response, Moruzzi set up a website, How to be Adopted, which acts as both a community for adoptees and a place where tips and other information is shared. External Website

Films/Videos Lost Girls ​ 2020 Mari Gilbert's daughter is missing and Mari is relentless in following up with the police to find out what they are doing to locate her. Mari suspects that because her daughter is a sex worker who was in foster care, that the police are not taking the case seriously. External Website

Performing Arts Sinead O'Connor Sinead O'Connor ​ Sinead O'Connor (b. 1966) is now known as Shuhada Sadquat. She is an Irish singer-songwriter. Her first album, The Lion and the Cobra, was a hit after it was released in 1987, achieving gold record status and earning O'Connor a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. Sinead O'Connor was born in County Dublin, Ireland. She was sent to one of the infamous Magdalene Laundries when she was caught shoplifting at the age of 15 and later wrote about the girls and women there "washing priests' clothes in sinks with cold water and bars of soap" for no pay. Sinead was in the Laundry for 18 months. In 1992, and as a protest against the stories of child abuse by Catholic clergy coming to light, O'Connor tore up the picture of then Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. At the time, Sinead was vilified for her actions, but she was later vindicated as more stories of abuse surfaced. External Website

Performing Arts Jimmy Wayne Jimmy Wayne ​ Jimmy Wayne was born in North Carolina. He and his sister were in and out of foster care when their mother could not care for them. When he finished high school he worked at the Gaston Correction Facility before moving to Nashville, Tennessee where he signed a recording contract with DreamWorks Records in 2001. He released his debut single in 2003. In 2010, Jimmy Wayne sent out on a 2670km walk to raise awareness of the homelessness faced by young people aging out of the foster care system. External Website