Fiction featuring Care Experience Family likeness Caitlin Davies 2013 Family Likeness explores identity, race, and family secrets. The story follows Muriel Grey, the daughter of a white Englishwoman and an African American soldier stationed in England during World War II. Abandoned by her mother at a children’s home in the 1950s, Muriel grows up feeling unwanted and different. Despite her hardships, she builds a life for herself—attending college, working, and eventually marrying and having a daughter, Rosie. After her husband's death, Muriel focuses on providing for Rosie, content to leave the pain of her past buried. However, Rosie is determined to uncover her mother’s history. She tracks down Muriel’s father, Jonas Murrey, now living in London. When he rebuffs her, Rosie becomes relentless, even taking a job as a nanny for his children to force a confrontation. Her pursuit reveals painful family secrets but does not necessarily lead to the closure she seeks. Rosie takes the children to Kenwood where both Ella and Rosie share an interest in Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate daughter of a Navy Captain and a West Indian woman. Here is another mixed race child whose life was dictated by her colour. The novel sheds light on the discrimination faced by mixed-race children in post-war Britain, the stigma of interracial relationships, and the emotional scars passed down through generations. It offers a moving reflection on identity, loss, and the complexities of family ties. External Website

Films/Videos The Thirteenth Tale 2014 Biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman) arrives at the country house of famous novelist Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave). She has been invited to stay there and help Vida write her biography before she dies of cancer. Margaret is hesitant, as Vida is known for telling a different story each time she is asked about her background in interviews, so she requests some verifiable information from public record. Vida reveals her birth name was Adeline March and the local newspapers wrote about a fire that burned down her family home when she was seventeen, of which she bears proof in the form of a key-shaped burn on her palm. Vida tells her the events leading up to the fire. She grew up at Angelfield, the decaying family estate, with her identical twin sister Emmeline. Their mother Isabelle was suffered abuse at the hands of her unhinged brother, Charlie, and eventually taken away to a mental asylum, so the girls were mostly left to their own devices, becoming unruly, anti-social and running wild. The only adult supervision they had came from the two servants, nicknamed "Missus" and "John-the-dig." Ambrose, a young man who is the hired help gets Emmaline pregnant. This leads to Adeline trying to kill the baby. Margaret works out there were three girls at Angelfield. Vida confirms this, revealing she wasn't Adeline, but presumably the daughter of Charlie, abandoned at the estate by her unknown mother. The real Adeline was dangerously violent and jealous of anyone who got Emmeline's attention. This means there three orphans at the house. Margaret reveals her story and admits that she herself had a twin who was fatally struck by a car as a child, a tragic accident for which Margaret has always blamed herself. External Website

Authors O Orphan Black (TV Series) ➝ Ordeal by Innocence ➝ One Hundred Years of Solitude (TV series) ➝ One Plus One: The Elders ➝ Orange is the New Black ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Luce 2019 Luce Edgar was adopted from war-torn Eritrea and at the end of his high schooling is a star pupil. He develops animosity towards his history teacher, a woman he believes treats students unfairly depending on whether they fit stereotypes or not. External Website

Academic Articles The Care-Experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations Project: Phase Three Report Zoe Baker 2024 The Care-Experienced Graduates' Decision-Making, Choices and Destinations Project: Phase three report. Phase Three explored any changes in their living, employment, or educational circumstances since Phase Two, their plans for the future, and their views about what policy and practice developments were needed for future generations of care-experienced graduates. External Website

Non Fiction Abandon All Hope Bonney Djuric 2011 Abandon All Hope (2011) by Bonney Djuric is a history of the Parramatta Girls Industrial School The book explores the history of the Parramatta Girls Industrial School as the nation’s first (Catholic) orphanage in 1841 during the colonial period to its closure in 1983 by which time it was an institution run by NSW child welfare agency. Abandon All Hope includes testimony from former inmates of Parramatta Girls Home and tells the story of feminist Bessie Guthrie’s attempt to expose the institution for the horrors visited on girls there. External Website

Authors Jaiswal International Cricketer ➝ Back to Top

Poets Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley African American poet, Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), was trafficked on a slave ship called The Phillis from West Africa when she was about 7 years of age She was “purchased” in August 1761 by Susanna Wheatley, the wife of a successful Boston, Massachusetts tailor, John Wheatley. Phillis worked as a domestic for the Wheatleys, but they also taught her to read and write. By the time she was 18, Phillis Wheatley had a collection of poems which were, eventually, published as Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). She was the first African American woman to have a book published. The poem for which Phillis Wheatley is best known today is “On Being Brought from Africa to America (1768). A statue of Phillis Wheatley forms part of the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. Image from here: https://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/2023/03/01/womenshistory-phillis-wheatley-march-1-2023/ External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Korean-born Australian woman overturns adoption as federal inquiry launched ABC News 2026 In February 2026, a Korean-born Australian successfully had her adoption discharged. Rose Mary Smith, 39 years old & from regional NSW, won the right to have her adoption nullified after the Supreme Court found she had been abused as a child. “The court heard Rose Mary, had suffered "inescapable distress" knowing two "child abusers" were listed as her legal parents and felt like she was in a "fake family"”. Although Rose Mary is believed to be the first Korean adoptee in Australia to have her adoption dismissed, it is likely more will follow. The Australian government has said it is investigation the South Korean-based Eastern Social Welfare Society as there appears to have been a number of concerns, including that prospective adoptive parents weren’t adequately screened. External Website

Television Shows Marriage 2022 Marriage (2022) is a British television series starring Nicola Walker as Emma, a solicitor, and Sean Bean as Ian, her unemployed husband of 27 years. Emma and Ian have a 22-year-old adoptive daughter, Jessica, played by Chantelle Alle. The adoption of Jessica is not talked about in the family because of the tragedy of Emma and Sean losing their son before. Jessica does, however, tell her new friend that her parents are white and that she has no interest in finding out about her biological family. External Website

Academic Articles ‘Is this a joke?’ Exploring how care experienced people feel their way through inheritance and what their emotions ‘do’, Delyth Edwards & Rosie Canning 2023 The article explores how care-experienced people navigate the emotions tied to inheritance. Inheritance is often a way of making or unmaking family bonds, yet for care-experienced people it frequently provokes exclusion, loss, and anger, as seen in social media responses. The authors argue that inheritance acts as a source of feeling for this group, who, though marginalized in conventional inheritance practices, use their emotions to reimagine and create alternative forms of inheritance. Drawing on Ahmed’s notion of “what emotions do,” the article shows how care-experienced people transform feelings of being othered into new ways of forging inheritance. External Website

Performing Arts Guitarist, singer, songwriter Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (March 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was born to sixteen year old Molly Clapton and then raised by her parents as her sibling. When his mother married and moved to Germany, Eric continued living with his grandparents. In 1963 Eric Clapton joined the Yardbirds, later joining Cream and touring the United States. is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009. External Website

Films/Videos The Garfield Movie 2024 The Garfield Movie (2024) is an American animated film based on the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis. A young Garfield (Chris Pratt) is taken in by Jon Arbuckle (Nicholas Hoult). Sometime after living with Jon and Odie (Harvie Guillen), Garfield & Odie are kidnapped by 2 dogs. After they are rescued by Vic, Garfield’s father, we find out that Garfield bitterly resents his father for abandoning him in an alley as a kitten. Garfield’s mother is not in the film. Eventually Vic is reconciled with Garfield and moves into Jon’s house. External Website

Artists Rachael Romero Australian born artist, Rachael Romero, was in one of the infamous convent-run Magdalene laundries for 9 months as a teenager in Adelaide, South Australia. After two years at the South Australian School of Art, she raised the funds to leave Australia and travel around Europe and on to the United States. She has lived in New York for many years, practicing and teaching art. She holds a double Masters from Antioch University. External Website

Behind the Scenes Paul Abbott Paul Abbott (born 22 February 1960) is an English television screenwriter and producer. When he was nine his mother left home to pursue a relationship with another man. His father, left two years later. Abbott and his many siblings were in the care of their pregnant seventeen-year-old sister. Although a compulsive truant, Abbott cites his English teacher at Barden High School as an early positive influence. Age 11 he was raped by a stranger, leading to him jumping from the roof of a multi-story car park in an attempt to take his own life. Two years later after another suicide attempt he was sectioned into an adult mental hospital for a short while, later becoming a voluntary patient. On his release, he was taken into foster care. He attended a local Sixth Form College and started attending Burnley Writers' Circle. Abbott enrolled at the University of Manchester in 1980 to study psychology but decided to leave to concentrate on writing when a radio play was accepted by the BBC. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless, the last of which he created. He is also responsible for the creation of some of the most highly acclaimed television dramas of the 1990s and 2000s, including Reckless and Touching Evil for ITV and Clocking Off and State of Play for the BBC. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Macbeth Jo Nesbo 2018 Shakespeare’s dark and tragic play retold and set in the 1970s. Jo Nesbo has imagined Macbeth has spending his childhood in an orphanage where he was sexually abused. The character of Duff (originally Macduff) has also been reiminaged by Nesbo as living in an orphanage where he is Macbeth's best friend. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors The Widow's Children Paula Fox 1976 The novel begins when Laura finds out her mother has died and concludes with the burial of the old woman. In between is a long night of a gathering to “see off” Laura and her husband Desmond before they embark on a voyage to Africa. The evening begins in Laura and Desmond’s hotel room as they have pre-dinner drinks and then moves to a restaurant. All are dependent on alcohol to get through the event, playing their various roles of the wag, the supplicant, the outrageous, and the drunk. Included in the gathering is Laura's 29 year old daughter, Clara. Clara didn't grow up with Laura, however, she grew up with Laura's mother, Alma, but Laura decides that Clara shouldn't be told about her grandmother's death. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Island Jane Rogers 2000 Nikki Black, intent on punishing the mother who abandoned her at birth and left her to grow up in an uncaring care system. Nikki goes to the island with only one aim in mind: revenge. But her plans are confounded by the discovery that she has a brother. Not just any brother but a brother strangely possessed by their mother; a brother with a terrifying violent streak; an apparent simpleton whose head is filled with the stories of past islanders, Crofters, Vikings, Little People. External Website

Comics, Comic books & Graphic Novels Warrior Nun Areala Ben Dunn 1994 The Warrior Nun (2020) television series is based on the Warrior Nun Areala comic book series created by American artist & writer Ben Dunn & published from 1994. The current in the series, Warrior Nun: Lazarus, was released in 2006. The comic books follow Sister Shannon Masters, a member of the Order of the Cruciform Sword & modern-day warrior nun fighting demons and evil forces. The Netflix show adapted this concept rather than a specific book plot. Shannon Masters was born around 1959 & orphaned at the age of 4. She was first left on the steps of a convent & later adopted by a family in Japan. Shannon lived in Japan with her adoptive family until she was 11, after which she was chosen for the Silver Cross Program & raised to be a Warrior Nun in Saint Thomas Academy, New York. This experience was like being in a boarding school. External Website

Academic Articles A New Stolen Generation? Michael Lavarch 2017 A New Stolen Generation (2017) by Professor Michael Lavarch is the publication in the Flinders Law Journal of Professor Lavarch’s Elliott Johnston Memorial Lecture at Flinders University, South Australia, given on 6 October 2016. In the article, Lavarch revisits Australia’s history of removal Aboriginal children from their families resulting in what is now know as the Stolen Generation. He also the apology given in February 2008 given by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to all members of the Stolen Generation. While Lavarch notes the importance of that apology, he also reflects on the reality that “separation of Aboriginal children from their families is not only our past.” He goes on to say: “The sobering and distressing truth is that, today, Indigenous children are being removed from their families at a rate which is far higher than at the time of the apology. In fact state intervention into Aboriginal families has accelerated child removal in the 20 years since the Bringing them Home Report.” External Website