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Fiction featuring Care Experience The Feast Margaret Kennedy 2021 The Feast originally published in 1949. A surprisingly funny novel about a hotel that has collapsed and buried a number of the guests. Who had died and how did it happen? One of the families has one natural daughter and three adopted children, and their plot does include the adopted girl struggling with her identity as the adopted daughter. Cornwall, Midsummer 1947. Pendizack Manor Hotel is buried in the rubble of a collapsed cliff. Seven guests have perished, but is it murder, and what brought this strange assembly together for a moonlit feast before this Act of God - or Man? Over the week before the landslide, we meet the hotel guests in all their eccentric glory: and as friendships form and romances blossom, sins are revealed, and the cliff cracks widen .. External Website

Television Shows Every Family Has a Secret 2019 Every Family Has a Secret (2019-2022) is an Australian documentary series which follows everyday Australians as they uncover family secrets. Along with adults who want to understand their parents (some of whom were institutionalised as children), and people raised with a non-biological parent seeking out their biological parent, there are also adoptees seeking out biological family. The show is presented by Australian favourite Noni Hazlehurst and 3 series are available on SBS On Demand. https://www.artemisfilms.com/productions/every-family-has-a-secret/ External Website

Poets David O'Brien David O'Brien Australian poet, David O'Brien (b. 1957), spent his childhood in orphanages. David and his three siblings were abandoned by their parents in the late 1950s and made Wards of the (South Australia) State. David grew up in a Catholic orphanage with his brother, later attending a Catholic boarding school. The boys were separated from their two sisters.David has had a varied career, including working as a model. He's been living in the Blue Mountains, NSW, for more than 20 years. Two years ago he set up the Blackheath Community OpShop. Encouraging men to live in a more peaceful way - with other humans and with the earth - is the theme running through his 2014 book, A Hunbler Mankind. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Character Type: Orphan Scott Myers 2018 Scott Myers explores the orphan archetype in literature. External Website

Television Shows The Peripheral 2022 The Peripheral (2022) is an American sci-fi series (loosely) adapted from the book of same name by William Gibson. The Peripheral is set about a decade in the future. One story is located in rural North America where jobs are scarce and drugs are rife. Another story is set in a sparsely populated London where money is plentiful. Two characters in The Peripheral are adoptees: Wilf Netherton (Gary Carr) and Aelita West (Charlotte Riley). Wilf and Aelita were friends as children and siblings after they were adopted by a wealthy family. External Website

Sport Karen Menzies - Soccer Player Karen Menzies Karen Menzies was the first Aboriginal Australian to play for the Australian women’s soccer squad, the Matildas, playing for 6 years from 1983. Karen Menzies was forcibly removed from her mother when she was an 8-month-old infant and made a Ward of the (NSW) State. Karen went into foster care with Anglo-Scottish Australians who treated her well. However, her love for playing soccer with her foster brother and other boys was actively discouraged by school teachers, even punished. Monitored by the NSW welfare authorities at home, Karen was suddenly removed, because of truancy, from her foster parents—who didn’t even have an opportunity to say goodbye—and put into an institution in Glebe for wards of the state and children who had committed criminal offences.After 2 months, Karen was transferred to a 2nd institution, the King Edward Home in Newcastle, NSW. Here, there were only 15 girls, all wards of the state without criminal convictions, along with houseparents and onsite youth workers. The staff at King Edward Home were “wonderful” and encouraged girls to participate in sport. Karen was dropped off at the local soccer club the same afternoon she arrived. Karen’s soccer career took off while she was living in King Edward Home; she was chosen to play in the NSW state soccer team when she was just 14. At 21, she made it to the national team. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience White Oleander Janet Fitch 2000 White Oleander is a painfully beautiful first novel about a young girl growing up the hard way. It is a powerful story of mothers and daughters, their ambiguous alliances, their selfish love and cruel behaviour, and the search for love and identity. Astrid has been raised by her mother, a beautiful, headstrong poet. Astrid forgives her everything as her world revolves around this beautiful creature until Ingrid murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life. Astrid's fierce determination to survive foster care and be loved makes her an unforgettable figure. External Website

Films/Videos The Christmas Bunny 2011 The Christmas Bunny (2011). When a lonely foster child discovers an injured rabbit on Christmas Eve, an eccentric woman helps her nurse the bunny back to health. Julia’s foster family is dealing with financial troubles & must learn to have faith that things will improve. External Website

Poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was the youngest of 10 children. When his father, the Reverend John Coleridge, died in 1781, 9 year old Samuel was taken to London by a family friend and enrolled in Christ's Hospital, an orphanage and boarding school established to provide for the city's poorest children. Samuel didn't visit his family home in Devon until he was almost 17 years old. Samuel Coleridge went on to Cambridge University, courtesy of a scholarship and unusually for a Christ's Hospital alumnus, but left after 3 years without completing a degree. While living in Stowey, Somerset in 1797 for 2 years, Coleridge befriended William Wordsworth and the 2 became founders of Romanticism, an literary and intellectual movement which emphasised the individual and their experiences. In 1799 Coleridge and Wordsworth published the Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems which includes one of Coleridge's best known poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge lived with Dr James Gillman from 1823, after he'd initially sought help from Dr Gillman with his opium addiction. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature the following year. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People A History of Silence Lloyd Jones 2013 In his A History of Silence (2013), NZ writer Lloyd Jones explores his family history and discovers that both his parents were displaced from their birth families as children. Jones' father, Lew, was put into an orphanage when his mother died. From then he was in and out of foster care. Jones' mother, Joyce, was given up for adoption when she was 4. Lloyd Jones is one of NZs best known contemporary writers. He says he was lucky as the youngest child because he didn't have to leave school at 15 and his older brother insisted he go to university. External Website

Films/Videos The Department 2021 This documentary aired in Australia on Sunday 10 October. It was billed as "a look inside the never-before-seen New South Wales child protection system, following careworkers across the state." The documentary explores the experiences of parents who have lost their children to the state as well as Dept workers charged with protecting children. The Department acknowledges Australia's history of removing First Nations children on racist grounds, but does not acknowledge other problems resulting in state and federal inquiries since the 1990s. External Website

Television Shows Peaky Blinders 2013 Peaky Blinders is a British period crime drama television series created by Steven Knight. Set in Birmingham, England, it follows the exploits of the Peaky Blinders crime gang in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional gang is loosely based on a real urban youth gang of the same name who were active in the city from the 1910s. Series 2 has mention of the death of a child after being migrated to Australia in the early twentieth century. Polly's two children Sally 3, Michael 5, were forcibly taken from her because of her alcoholism and mode of life. Polly said that her two children were adopted to local families. While the boy stayed with his adoptive family until he was at least 17, the girl's adoption did not work out and she left the new family. The child was then migrated to Australia. The girl died of Spring Fever shortly after she arrived. The only bit of the episode is when Tommy Shelby presents his Aunt Polly with two case files -one for each of her children - detailing all that had happened to them. It's hard enough for people to get access to files in 21st Century so this representation is unlikely. The second episode of series 3 introduces a 'charitable institution' for boys and girls which was being set up by Thomas and Grace Shelby in Birmingham in 1924. The institution is described as a cover for Thomas's dealings with the Russians. We are introduced to Father John Hughes of St Mary's Boys' Reformatory. It seems pretty clear that Father Hughes intends to abuse the children in Shelby's institution. External Website

Television Shows Tracy Beaker Returns 2021 Tracy Beaker Returns is a British television programme. Based upon the novels by Jacqueline Wilson, it is the sequel series to The Story of Tracy Beaker, a girl in state care. The series stars Dani Harmer as protagonist Tracy Beaker. The third and final series ended on 23 March 2012. A spin-off entitled The Dumping Ground started airing on 4 January 2013. External Website

Poets Shane McCrae Shane McCrae African American poet, Shane McCrae (b. circa 1976) was born in Portland, Oregon to a white mother and Black father. He was 3 years old when he was kidnapped by his white grandparents who told the young Shane that his father had abandoned him. Shane dropped out of high school, but later went on to a community college. In addition to other degrees, he has a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School (2007) and a Master of Arts from the University of Iowa (2012). Shane McCrae now teaches creative writing at Columbia University. He has published 10 volumes of poetry. Shane McCrae has recently released his memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun, in which he explores life with his racist grandparents (which included being beaten), occasional visits from his mother, his unhappy experience at school, and how he found his way to poetry. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles America's Riches School Serves Low-Income Kids. Propublica 2021 Chocolate entrepreneur, Milton Hershey (1857-1945) and his wife, Catherine (1871-1915) set up the Hershey Industrial School in Hershey, Pennsylvania during 1909. The Hershey Industrial School began with just 4 orphaned boys as students in 1910. In 1915, there were about 60 boys, with the numbers increasing to over a 1000 boys in 1937. With changes over the years, the school now takes in children from low-income families. In this 2021 article by Bob Fernandez and Charlotte Keith, a claim is being made that the Milton Hershey School could do more to help poor children. They say: “Hershey’s fortune, which funds the school, has ballooned to be larger than that of the Ford Foundation. But the school has faced persistent criticism for helping only a fraction of the vulnerable children it could reach with its vast wealth. New questions have arisen over its spending after a former board chair sued in early April for access to financial documents he says he’s been denied for more than a year.” The authors report John Kinnaird, a 1949 graduate, as saying that Milton Hershey – whom he spent time with as a student – would have wanted his money to help more children. In 2020, apparently, the school spent $90,000 per year on each student, but still had $1billion left over. External Website

Television Shows The Rookie 2018 The Rookie (2018-2024) is an American police procedural. The story follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), a man in his forties, who becomes the oldest rookie police officer at the Los Angeles Police Department. The show is based on William Norcross, who moved to LA in 2015 and joined the LAPD in his mid-40s. Afton Williamson plays Talia Bishop who is appointed as Nolan’s training officer. Talia Bishop – who grew up in the foster care system - leaves the LAPD at the end of Season 1 after it is revealed she withheld information about her past, ie, that her foster brother has a criminal record. External Website

Television Shows Anh Do's Brush with Fame 2016 This Australian series features comedian Anh Do painting a portrait of his high-profile subject while conducting an interview with them. CEP who have been painted and interviewed by Anh Do include: Jack Charles, Kyle Sandlilands, Jack Charles, Sigrid Thornton, Saroo Brierley, Archie Roach, Jack Thompson & Layne Beachley External Website

Radio & Podcast Life after Adoption from Foster Care The Measure of Everyday Life 2024 “The Measure of Everyday Life” is a weekly American public radio program featuring discussions with researchers, practitioners and professionals about their work. In the 28 August 2024 episode, 3 researchers discuss their survey of adults who were adopted from the foster care system. Included in the discussion is the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) Adoption Follow-Up Study. You can find more information about that study here https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/national-survey-child-and-adolescent-well-being-nscaw-adoption-follow-up-study-findings External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Ruin Dervla McTiernan 2018 In her debut novel The Ruin (2018), the 1st in her Cormac Reilly series, Irish-born writer Dervla McTiernan includes several Care Experienced characters. There is Jack Blake who was orphaned as a 5-year-old, then adopted by the family who had taken him in as a foster child. Jack becomes an engineer but at the age of 25 is a victim of murder. There is also Tom Collins who was in and of foster care as a child but is now a lawyer with his own practice. Tom’s sister, also in and out of foster care, is a recovering drug addict. *spoiler alert* the man responsible for Jack Blake’s murder was initially in an orphanage because his mother was 16 & on her own. When his mother married 9 years later, Danny was removed from the orphanage and went to live with her & his step-father. External Website

Poets Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift onathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". Swift's father died in Dublin about seven months before his namesake was born.He died of syphilis, which he said he got from dirty sheets when out of town. At the age of one, child Jonathan was taken by his wet nurse to her hometown of Whitehaven, Cumberland, England. He said that there he learned to read the Bible. His nurse returned him to his mother, still in Ireland, when he was three. His mother returned to England after his birth, leaving him in the care of his uncle Godwin Swift (1628–1695), he sent the younger Swift to Kilkenny College age six, Swift graduated in 1682, when he was 15. External Website