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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

Television Shows The Secrets She Keeps 2020 The Secrets She Keeps is an Australian thriller, the first series of which is based on the epynomous 2017 novel by Michael Robotham. In Series 1, there is a forced adoption story. 16 year old Agatha was raped by a church elder and not allowed to keep the resultant baby. Years later, Agatha is plotting and planning to steal a baby. In Series 2, Agatha is facing trial for stealing a baby and it's the daughter she was forced to give up who comes out in support of Agatha, arguing the older woman should be treated sympathetically because of the early trauma. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir The God Squad Paddy Doyle 1988 In 1988, Irish disability activist Paddy Doyle (1951-2020) published his memoir, The God Squad, about being sent to live in St Michael's Industrial School run by the Sisters of Mercy in Cappoquin, Counter Waterford. Paddy Doyle talks in The God Squad of being so badly abused at St Michael's that he was left with psychosomatic condiitions and confined to a wheelchair from the age of 10. The God Squad was groundbreaking, an immediate best-seller which won the Dublin Lord Mayor's Award, the Sunday Tribune Arts Award for Literature and the Christy Brown Award for Literature. Dermot Bolger, who published The God Squad, said the book "played a part in transforming Ireland." 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

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Stone Girl Eleni Hale 2018 An unspeakable event changes everything for Sophie. No more Mum, school or bed of her own. She's made a ward of the state and grows up in a volatile world where kids make their own rules, adults don't count and the only constant is change. Until one day she meets Gwen, Matty and Spiral. Spiral is the most furious, beautiful boy Sophie has ever known. And as their bond tightens she finally begins to confront what happened in her past.I'm at the police station. There's blood splattered across my face and clothes. In this tiny room with walls the colour of winter sky I hug a black backpack full of treasures. Only one thing is certain . . . no one can ever forgive me for what I've done.Winner of the Readings YA Book Prize, 2019Voted the Best Young Adult Book of the year by Readings customersVoted Favourite YA Read of the year by Kids' Book ReviewVoted in the top 100 great reads by Australian womenShortlisted for New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature, 2019Contains mature content. Suitable for older readers. External Website

Television Shows Louis Theroux's Altered States: Take My Baby 2018 Louis Theroux talks to women who want to give up their babies and to people who want to become adoptive parents. The program is based in California where there are high rates of adoption. External Website

Children's Fiction The Coral Island RM Ballantyne 1857 "According to several sources, William Golding got the idea of Lord of the Flies from the children’s novel, The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1957) by Scottish writer RM Ballantye. The Coral Island was one of the first examples of fiction for children to feature children exclusively as heroes. Three boys are marooned on an island in the South Pacific, the survivors of a shipwreck. One of the boys, Ralph, is the narrator, reflecting on his childhood adventure. The Coral Island was enormously successful. Today, there are themes of imperialism and colonisation that are questioned and considered outdated but it was voted one of the top Scottish novels in 2006 at the 15th International World Wide Web Conference." External Website

Writers Kathryn Harrison 1961- American writer Kathryn Harrison (b. 1961) was raised in the kinship care of her grandparents from the age of 6. Harrison was born in Los Angeles, California. Her young parents divorced when Kathryn was 6 months old. At the time, Kathryn and her mother were living with the maternal grandparents and they stayed there until, when Kathyn was 6 years old, her mother left home. As Harrison tells the story, her mother didn’t move far away but she never gave her parents, nor her daughter, her address or her phone number. Harrison interprets her mother’s behaviour as evidence of her needing to be independent but not being able to achieve that while caring daily for her daughter. The young Kathryn saw her mother often, including at church on Sundays. But she never had a room for her daughter at her house until Kathryn went to college. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles ‘I lived in a state of terror’: Patricia Cornwell on childhood trauma, her new novel and the search for Bigfoot The Guardian - Patricia Cornwell 2023 ‘I lived in a state of terror’: Patricia Cornwell on childhood trauma, her new novel and the search for big foot. Cornwell's father walked out when she was five. Her mother suffered from severe depression and wasn't able to look after her or her siblings properly. The mother became obsessed with Billy Graham and moved to where he lived. Two years later she had a breakdown and the Graham's took them in whilst a foster family was found. The foster mother was cruel to Cornwell. The breakdowns continued and the children moved in and out of foster care. External Website

Performing Arts British singer-songwriter Seal Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel (1963), known professionally as Seal, is a British singer-songwriter. He has born to a Nigerian mother and Brazilian father. He was in foster care for about four years from when he was born, remaining with the one foster family. He was then returned to one of his parents (some sources say his father, some his mother, some his father and stepmother). Whatever the situation, he remembers the experience of having been in foster care as a positive one and was intensely moved when he was reunited with a foster sister on Oprah in 2007. Seal initially planned to be an architect, and has a degree in that field. However, he pursued a career in music and scored a major hit in 1990 with “Killer”. A debut album was released in 1991 and he’s since become an internationally renowned singer/songwriter. Seal has sold over 20 million records worldwide, with his first international hit song, "Crazy", released in 1991; his most celebrated song, "Kiss from a Rose", was released in 1994. Seal has won multiple awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards; he won Best British Male in 1992, as well as four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. As a songwriter, he received two Ivor Novello Awards for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors for "Killer" (1990) and "Crazy" (1991).. External Website

Writers Angela Carter 1940-1992 Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, née Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works. Carter was in kinship care as a child when she was evacuated to live in Yorkshire, with her maternal grandmother, where she suffered from anorexia for the majority of her teenage years. Nights at the Circus (1984), winner of the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of orphan Sophie Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she has become a celebrated aerialiste, and she captivates the young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits had not prepared him to encounter. Nights at the Circus was the first to bring Angela Carter widespread acclaim. External Website