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Autobiography/Memoir The Rale Rasic Story Rale Rasic 2006 Bosnian born Australian soccer player and coach, Rale Rasic* (b. 1935), grew up in an orphanage. Rale Rasic was the second of 4 children born to Stanislava and Ivan Rasic in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The children were separated, the 2 girls going to different orphanages and his brother, Dragoslav, who was born in 1944, was adopted. Rale stayed in the orphanage until he was 17. He grew up playing soccer, and was drafted into a professional team at the age of 13. At the age of 26, Rale Rasik made the decision to move to Australia, but was not in Melbourne long before he was called home to complete national service. While in the army he completed his university degree in education. Rale returned to Australia in 1966 and 4 years later took up a position as coach of the national soccer team, the Socceroos. He is fondly remembered as the first coach to take the team to the World Cup in 1974 and owns a considerable collection of memorabilia from the event. External Website

Behind the Scenes Pierce Brosnan ​ ​ Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor, film producer, activist, and environmentalist. His father abandoned the family when Brosnan was an infant. When he was four years old, his mother moved to London to work as a nurse. From that point on, he was largely brought up by his maternal grandparents, Philip and Kathleen Smith. After their deaths, he lived with an aunt and then an uncle, but was subsequently sent to live in a boarding house run by a woman named Eileen. The young Pierce Brosnan began his working life as a trainee commercial artist, until a colleague invited him to join his theatre club. From there he joined with others to form the Oval House Theater Company, working during the day in a range of jobs to support himself. After two years Pierce decided to study acting at the Drama Centre of London and worked on stage at the West End. He moved to Los Angeles in 1982 with his first wife, Australian Cassandra Harris. Soon after he was cast as Special Agent Ben Pearson in the American police procedural, Remington Steele, which aired first in 1982 and continued production until 1987. Brosnan began in the role of James Bond in 1994. In later years, he has become known for his charitable work and environmental activism. He has earned two Golden Globe Award nominations. In 2020, he was listed at number 15 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. External Website

Behind the Scenes Robert Harris ​ ​ Robert Harris (1829-1904) arrived in Tasmania with his convict mother, Elizaeth in 1831. 2 year old Robert was admitted to the new Orphan School in 1832 and not released to his mother until he was 12. At the age of 34, Robert Harris set up his own printing and publishing business and started a newspaper. With his sons, Robert Harris and using a family business, The Harris Compnay, launched the North Western Advocate in 1899, which became the Advocate in 1918, with 3 of Robert's grandsons running it, and great-grandsons after that. Harris & Company bought the Launceston Examiner in 1990 but was taken over by Rural Press at the end of 2003. Rural Press was incorporated into Fairfax Media during 2007. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood Oliver Sacks 2002 In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks' extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his "Uncle Tungsten," whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes-in his own home laboratory. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Transfiguring Adoption ​ 2018 Transfiguring Adoption develops media, resources, and tools that nurture growth in foster and adoptive children – strategically we focus on resourcing foster and adoptive parents. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The Life of Riley Christina Riley 2014 In 1958 when she was 3 years old, Christina Riley was taken from her parents and made a Ward of the NSW State. This book is a record of her 'travels' through the system, from foster care to children's home and back again. External Website

Behind the Scenes Peter Llewelyn Davies ​ ​ English publisher and a muse for J.M. Barrie, Peter Llewelyn Davies (1897-1960), was in foster care. Peter Llewelyn Davies was the middle of 5 boys born to Sylvia du Maurier and Arthur Llewelyn Davies. In 1897, celebrated writer J.M. Barrie, met the eldest 3 Davies boys—George, then 4, 3-year-old Jack and baby Peter in his pram - while walking his dog in the local park, and the 4 became good friends. Later that year, Barrie met the boys’ parents and they became friends too. In 1907, Arthur Davies died of cancer. In 1910 Sylvia also died of cancer. Barrie then “informally adopted” or fostered the 5 boys, which included the youngest, Michael and Nicolas. At 17 Peter joined up and served in the British Army, service for which he received a Military Cross. 6 years after the war ended, Peter Davies, with Barrie’s help, set up as a publisher and made his business a success. A majority share of Peter Davies Ltd was bought by William Heinemann in 1937. Heinemann Ltd fully incorporated Peter Davies Ltd in 1977. Peter Davies killed himself in 1960. By then he was in his early 60s and chronically depressed. Davies’ eldest son, Ruthven, believed that his father felt exploited by Barrie and resented not being included in Barrie’s will when he died in 1937. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles How one stray dog changed my life forever Ishbel Holmes 2019 Adventure cyclist Ishbel Holmes had a traumatic early life (including time in foster care) - here she explains how an encounter with a stray dog finally healed her. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles How the Mainstream Media Sees Us Shalita O’Neale 2015 According to Shalita O'Neile, public knows very little about the foster care system. She believes the accurate representation of foster youth in the media is necessary to destroy negative steroetypes and stigma. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Neil Morrissey revisits his children's home roots Raekha Prasad 2011 The actor tells Raekha Prasad what inspired him to be involved in a documentary about growing up in care. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Filming The One Percent The One Percent 2018 A discussion of the One Percent project, which explores the experiences of Care Experienced young people transitioning from care to independence. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires Richard Bradford 2021 Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is lauded as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books. In this new biography, Richard Bradford considers Highsmith's bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life, including time spent in kinship care as a child. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Henry Fielding, Tom Jones and care Amy Cotterill 2021 A discussion about 'The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling' by Henry Fielding which was first published in 1749. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Nicky Campbell: "There was a life long whisper: 'my mother didn't want me'" Georgia Shepheard 2021 After struggling for years to come to terms with being adopted, Long Lost Family presenter Nicky Campbell finally had a breakdown. In this article he talks about searching for his birth family. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Hegel's Owl. The Life of Bernard Smith Sheridan Palmer 2016 Hegel's Owl is a history of ideas as well as a biography of Bernard Smith who, from humble beginnings in foster care, became known as the 'father' of art history in Australia. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Films about orphans Anon 2020 Films featuring orphans. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles A Reflection on a long career in Social Work Ruth Martin 2020 Preface by Richard Devine: This is a guest blog by Ruth Martin, a recently retired (mostly!) Social Worker from Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) who has written a reflection on changes in social work practice over a 42 year period. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Stanley: Africa's Greatest Explorer Tim Jeal et al. 2011 British explorer, journalist and politician, Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), was in kinship care, foster care and the workhouse as a child. Henry Morton Stanley was born John Rowlands. He never knew his father, who died shortly after he was born. He was abandoned by his mother, 18-year-old unmarried Elizabeth Parry, almost immediately on his birth and handed over to the care of his grandfather, Moses Parry, who lived in Denbigh, Wales. John was about 6 when his 84-year-old grandfather died in 1847. The boy was taken to live with another couple, Jenny and Richard Price, and his care paid for by 2 uncles. When the Prices decided the rate was too low, and the uncles declined to pay more or care for the child themselves, John Rowlands was transferred to the St Asaph Union Workhouse. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles I wanted to write about a care system that didn’t care very much': Kit de Waal on My Name Is Leon Kit de Waal 2020 The novelist did not set out to write a political book, but a lived experience. She ended up writing about a system that did not seem to care very much. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Orphan's role in movie upsets adoption groups David Crary 2009 Often divided over policy and practice, America's adoption community has unified in dismay over Orphan, a horror movie some say will fuel negative attitudes toward real-life orphans. External Website