Blogs/Web Pages/Articles As Stolen Generations survivors ‘pass away at a rapid rate’, some still await official redress The Conversation 2026 It's been 18 years since then prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to more than 27,000 survivors of the Stolen Generation. As academic Narelle Bedford writes in this The Conversation article, "the ripple effects of taking thousands of children from their families continue today." Bedford has been 6 months examining redress schemes provided by Australia's states & territories & shows that "compensation available varies hugely"... External Website

Artists Terri Broughton Broughton had an inauspicious start in life following the death of both of her parents, but she went on to become the Head of a secondary School at an academy in Norfolk, a highly qualified life coach, a successful educational consultant, and now a highly sought-after artist. Broughton’s paintings are deeply personal, reflecting a traumatic childhood following the death of both parents when she was just seven years old. Terri and her sisters were separated, placed with a succession of foster families, some with wholly unkind treatments, and were only reunited together again in adulthood. She was awarded a Tate Modern prize for her Masters Degree ‘The Identity Project ‘, in which she pioneered the questioning and challenging of first year A Level Art students in Britain about their limiting self-beliefs and values which were inhibiting their creative potential. It was a project that turned art education on its head and has since been incorporated into the National Curriculum for all year groups. During the 18 months that we have all been locked down, Broughton has been working tirelessly in the creation of an extensive body of work which, while often narrative, explores the psychological behaviours of people. External Website

Artists Louise Allen (artist) From an early age, Louise Allen was adopted into a family who from the beginning said they didn’t want her. Louise absolutely believes, that like smiling, 'being creative' helps us feel grounded and happy. Louise has made art all her life. I have an innate and human need to make, to experiment and see what happens. I draw a lot, it grounds me and makes me look, really look. A documentary was recently made about her life 'It started here'. Her first book Thrown Away Child reveals the abuse and neglect she and a fellow adopted child suffered at the hands of their adopted mother Barbara. Ten years ago, Louise and her family became a fostering family. They have looked after over twenty children, some have stayed long term. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Jamaica Inn Daphne Du Maurier et al. 2003 After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan crosses the windswept Cornish moors to Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. There she finds Patience a changed woman, downtrodden by her domineering, vicious husband Joss Merlyn. The inn is a front for a lawless gang of criminals, and Mary is unwillingly dragged into their dangerous world of smuggling and murder. Before long she will be forced to cross her own moral line to save herself... External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Just us Gabrielle Carey 1984 Just Us, tells the story of a romance between a prisoner and a journalist. Terry Haley had been in institutions from the time he was 8. Haley was serving a sentence for abduction and rape in 1972 when he escaped from Yatala Prison in South Australia. He was in Parramatta Gaol when Gabrielle Carey, a journalist, met and fell in love with him. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Lost Girls of Willowbrook Ellen Marie Wiseman (5) 2022 The now infamous Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, New York is the venue for The Lost Girls of Willowbrook (2022). Wiseman tells the story of Willowbrook by having 16-year-old Sage Winters head there in December 1971 in search of her twin sister who has been reported missing. Once Sage arrives, everyone thinks she is Rosemary, and so Sage experiences what life at Willowbrook would have been like for Rosemary—the regular doses of sedatives given out to everyone on her ward; the isolation cell or ‘pit’ used as punishment; the ward full of girls and young women rocking all day; the violence of inmates towards themselves, the staff, and each other; and the violence of staff toward inmates. She also learns about the experiments that had been conducted there, children “intentionally given hepatitis in an attempt to track the development of the viral infection” between 1956 and 1970. External Website

Films/Videos Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016 Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a movie starring Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, and Rima Te Wiata. A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious foster kid and his foster father who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush. The film is based on the 1986 book, Wild Pork and Watercress, by NZ writer Barry Crump. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Keeping in step George V Martin 1995 George Martin and his brothers and sisters grew up in a Salvation Army Orphanage. 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

Television Shows Dublin Murders 2019 Police procedural, with the story revolving around the investigation of the murder of a 13 year old girl in the woods around the town of Knocknaree. There are two detectives on the case, Rob Reilly who was put into boarding school, and Cassie Maddox who grew up in kinship care from the age of 8. Dublin Murders is based on 2 Tana French novels, In the Woods & The Likeness. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Care leavers tell stories in 'pain into power' art BBC News (Manchester, UK) 2025 “Pain into power”: Care leavers in Manchester and war survivors in Uganda turn their lived experiences into art through the Woven Worlds project. Their work will feature in a sustainable fashion collection this September. https://bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62zqnqqp7qo External Website

Authors P Samuel Powell-Pepper ➝ Lauren Price ➝ Wilfred Thomas Prince ➝ Back to Top

Authors O One Another (Podcast) ➝ BBC Radio 4 - Books and Authors, Joyce Carol Oates, Wind in the Willows and Orphans in literature ➝ Why my birth parents tried to keep me a secret ➝ The Horror Writer: Edgar Allan Poe ➝ How Superman Defeated the KKK (in Real Life): Hear the World Changing 1946 Radio Drama ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Mister Pip Lloyd Jones 2006 Mister Pip by NZ writer, Lloyd Jones, tells the story of a group of children on the Island of Bourganville being read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The initiative is that of the only white man left on the Island, Mr Watts, who says that he was orphan as a child in New Zealand. Bourganville is in the middle of a civil war and the story helps the children to 'escape' their difficult circumstances, at least for a while every day. 13-year-old Matilda is the protagonist and she describes her night time reflections on the day's readings and how her mother, a devout Christian, becomes disturbed by Matilda's fondness for the book. As a young adult, Matilda decides to investigate Dickens further for her PhD thesis, an investigation that, necessarily, involves a trip to England. Read this delightful review by Dr Dee Michell, link below. External Website

Authors T Founder of the Adoptee Mentoring Society ➝ Back to Top

Performing Arts Chinese Australian ballet dancer Li Cunxin Li Cunxin was taken from his family in rural China at the age of 11. For 7 years he lived away from his family in Beijing and trained for 16 hours a day at a dance academy. As a young man, he was offered an opportunity as an exchange student and performed for the Houston Ballet in Texas, United States and decided not to return to China. In 1995, Li Cunxin moved with his Australian born wife, Mary McKendry, to Australia and was the principal ballet dancer for the Australian Ballet. External Website

Films/Videos Care Experienced Video on Vimeo 2020 SPEAK OUT is the very first video made of the diverse views of young people in care ever. It led to the National Assn Young People In Care policies that went before parliament and impacted heavily on the Children's Act 1989. External Website

Authors Y Young Sherlock ➝ Young Wallander ➝ You ➝ Back to Top

Authors C Chad Coleman ➝ Jack Charles ➝ Gary Coleman ➝ Harry H. Corbett ➝ Michael Caine ➝ Kristin Chenoweth ➝ Brian Cox ➝ Billy Connolly ➝ Charlie Chaplin (Actor) ➝ Gary Coleman ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Mommie Deariest (film) 1981 An adaptation of Christina Crawford's 1978 memoir, this film depicts American film star, Joan Crawford, as Christina's abusive adoptive mother. External Website