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Autobiography/Memoir Recipes for Survival: Stories of hope and healing by survivors of the state 'care' system in Australia Deidre Michell et al. 2011 Recipes for Survival: Stories of Hope and Healing by Survivors of the State ‘Care’ System in Australia is a collection of stories by those who have grown up in care in Australia during the 20th century and is therefore contribution to a growing body of literature on the experiences of the Forgotten Australians. Contributors to the volume are: Christina Riley, Priscilla Taylor, David O'Brien, Karen Wilson, Deidre Michell, David Jackson, Frank Golding, Amanda Gargula, Pam, Ryszard Szablicki, Margo O'Byrne, Al Smith, Josephine Kunde, Therese Williams, Tamsin Dancer. External Website

Authors A Charlie Chaplin (biography) ➝ Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time ➝ Back to Top

Academic Articles The Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Care-Experienced People Rosie Canning et al 2024 Taylor, Jonathan, Siân Pooley, Rosie Canning, Aoife O’Higgins, and Lucy Bowes, ‘The Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Care-Experienced People’, The British Journal of Social Work, 2024, bcae038 External Website

Authors J Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story ➝ Jedda ➝ Just Us (TV Film) ➝ Jane Eyre (film) ➝ James Bond Series ➝ Jojo Rabbitt ➝ James and the Giant Peach ➝ Back to Top

Performing Arts American singer-songwriter Anita Baker Anita Denise Baker (born 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. She was born in Toledo, Ohio. At two years of age, Anita was abandoned by her mother and raised in foster care in Michigan. When Anita was twelve, her foster parents died and the girl's care was provided by her foster sister. By the time she was sixteen, Anita was singing in nightclubs. Anita Baker is regarded as one of the most popular singers of soulful romantic ballads during the height of the quiet storm period of contemporary R&B in the 1980s. Starting her career in the late 1970s with the funk band Chapter 8, Baker released her first solo album, The Songstress, in 1983. In 1986, she rose to stardom following the release of her Platinum-selling second album, Rapture, which included the Grammy-winning single "Sweet Love". As of 2017, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards and has five Platinum albums and one Gold album. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The Train of Happiness Phyllis Macchioni 2021 Blogger Phyllis Macchioni has written about the Trains of Happiness. She speaks of having discovered a book by Giovanni Rinaldi called I Treni della Felicità about the thousands of Southern Italian children who were taken in by Northern Italian families after WWII because of the poverty and debris in southern Italy. Teresa Noce was the initiator of the program. She had been in a concentration camp in Germany and back home in Milan she became concerned about children who were abandoned and hungry. Macchioni writes: “In the two winters following the end of the war, thousands of children left their homes in the war torn Southern provinces to stay with families in and around Modena. They were clothed, sent to school and cared for…” An estimated 70,000 children were part of the ‘trains of happiness’ program. Image from here: https://giorinaldi.com/2021/05/27/the-train-of-happiness-dal-blog-di-phyllis-macchioni/ External Website

Radio & Podcast Charlie Chaplin's Funny Walk and Other Music Hall Mysteries The History Listen 2021 In this interesting podcast, Australian journalist and broadcaster, Fiona Gruber, argues that Care Experienced actor and comedian Charlie Chaplin's funny walk may actually have been created by her great grandfather, Walter Groves. It was not uncommon back in the old music hall days for people to take ideas from others, and apparently the practice continues to be rife in the entertainment industry today. External Website

Authors B The Coral Island ➝ Madeline ➝ My Forever Family: from fostering to adoption ➝ Tarzan of the Apes ➝ Peter Pan in Kensington Garden ➝ The Ghosts and Jamal ➝ An Angel for May ➝ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ➝ Paddington ➝ A Little Princess ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir Burnished: Burnside Life Stories: A collection of life accounts from residents of Burnside Children's Homes, Sydney Kate Shayler 2015 Burnished: Burnside Life Stories is a collection of life accounts from residents of Burnside Children's Homes, Sydney, compiled by Kate Shayler, author of 'The Long Way Home' and 'A Tuesday Thing'. When Kate released 'The Long Way Home', her own story of childhood at Burnside, she was overwhelmed by the response and found herself wishing that other homes kids could have that healing experience too. As Kate gave talks on her book, she was asked questions such as 'Why did you have to go to a home?' and 'What happened to you when you left the home?' Eventually, Kate advertised for people who were willing to share their stories, and the result is 'Burnished: Burnside Life Stories'.Burnished was nominated for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the Colin Roderick Prize and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in 2012. External Website

Films/Videos Blue Miracle 2021 To save their orphanage in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, which is sliding into financial disaster, the children's guardian and a group of the boys team up with a grumpy former marlin fishing champion to attempt to win a lucrative fishing competition. External Website

Authors W Sophie Willan ➝ Orson Welles ➝ Jane Wyman ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story 2009 Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009) is a biopic of African American neurosurgeon, Ben Carson (b. 1951). The movie was adapted from an autobiography written by Ben Carson with Cecil Murphey and published in 1990. Gifted Hands begins in 1987 when Dr Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) travels to German to meet a couple whose twins are conjoined at the back of their heads. The film then goes back to 1961 and we find out that 11-year-old Ben (Gus Hoffman) and his older brother Curtis (Tajh Bellow) are living with their single mother, Sonya (Kimberly Elise), in a mostly white neighbourhood and the boys are not doing well at school. We also find out that Sonya was in the foster care system until she was 13, which is when she married the boys’ father. Sonya, who is illiterate but doesn’t want that for her sons or for them to even know she is illiterate, devises ways to encourage the boys to read. It’s not long before Ben, who was failing, is top of his class. For a period, Ben and Curtis are looked after by a member of Sonya’s church community as she is institutionalised because she is suffering from depression. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen 1938 When sixteen-year-old Portia is orphaned, she is plunged into the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother's home. There she encounters the attractive cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and he fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal - and sets in motion one of the most moving and desperate flights of the heart in modern literature. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu review – a fresh and powerful debut Michael Donkor 2019 A review of the first novel by Derek Owusu, a coming of age story of K, a boy born to Ghanaian parents in London who ends up in the foster care system. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Childhood Interrupted Kathleen O'Malley 2006 In 1950, Kathleen O'Malley and her two sisters were taken from their mother and placed in an industrial school ran by the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns, who also ran the notorious Magdalene Homes. The rape of eight-year-old Kathleen by a neighbour had triggered their removal - the Irish authorities ruling that her mother must have been negligent. They were only allowed a strictly supervised visit once a year, until they were permitted to leave the harsh and cruel regime of the institution at the age of sixteen. A turning point in Kate's life came when she applied to become a magistrate and realised that she had to confront her hidden personal history and make it public. This is her inspiring story. External Website

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

Films/Videos James Bond Series The James Bond Series of films are based on a fictional character, James Bond, character by Ian Fleming. Fleming featured Bond in 12 novels and 2 short story collections. After Fleming died in 1964 other writers have authored Bond-inspired novels. James Bond or 007 has been adapted for a range of other media including video games and a comic strip. The films are famous for their music and the gadgets Bond uses. External Website

Films/Videos Simone Biles Rising 2024 Simone Biles Rising (2024) is a documentary released ahead of the Paris Olympic Games. The documentary explores the champion gymnast’s childhood in foster care & subsequent adoption, the overwhelming shame she felt after dropping out of the 2020 Olympics, and her preparation for 2024 Games. Simone Biles has tattooed on her collar bone the line of a poem from Maya, And Still I Rise, because, as she says in the documentary, she has always risen. External Website

Academic Books & Book Chapters Parragirls: Reimagining Parramatta Girls Home through art and memory Bonney Djuric 2019 Parragirls profiles the transformative artwork Parragirlsrealised in collaboration with contemporary artists and communities since theParragirls Memory Project began in 2012. This vividly illustrated book revealshow art can change places and perceptions, in this case the long-neglected siteof Parramatta Girls Home in Western Sydney, located on the lands of theBurramattagal people of the Darug nation. Centred on the art and activism of itsformer residents, this is the first publication of its kind to use images andcreative writing to open up the difficult spaces of an Australian former childwelfare institution, one where significant abuse took place right up until itsclosure in 1974, as evidenced in the royal commission into child sexual abuse. 'Parragirls is an impressive book that serves as both an art publication and a record of social change. As an enduring testament to the experiences of the Parragirls – a collective of former residents of Parramatta Girls Home, where abuse and cruelty were rife – it charts the work of the Parragirls Memory Project across seven years of visual art, performance, events, exhibitions, writing, advocacy and activism...Parragirls is able to deliver something that is at once rigorous in its detailed presentation of a clear model, and accessible through its compelling narrative.' ― Eugenia Flynn, The Saturday Paper External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Comment: Is ‘lived experience’ a change-maker or ball and chain? Kenny Murray 2021 Kenneth Murray on the stigma associated with 'lived experience'. External Website