Academic Books & Book Chapters Silent System: Forgotten Australians the Institutionalisation of Women and Children Paul Ashton & Jacqueline Z Wilson (Editors 2014 Silent System: Forgotten Australians and the Institutionalisation of Women and Children (2014) is a scholarly book edited by Paul Ashton & Jacqueline Z Wilson. Silent System was in response to a public history conference convened 26-27 September 2013. It was co-run by the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct Memory Project & the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS. Themes are: Colonial Pasts; Memory & Place; Sites of Injustice; & Creative Responses Contributors include: Shurlee Swain, Nell Musgrove, Tracy Ireland, Lily Hibberd, Bonney Djuric, Jacqueline Z Wilson, Naomi Parry, Dolly MacKinnon & Dee Michell External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Better Off in a Home Bill Smith 1982 In this book, Bill Smith tells about his early life in Melbourne and then in Kildonan, a children's home also in Melbourne. Bill's father took him to the home when he was 6. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Pulling the Chariot of the Sun Shane McCrae 2023 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. In his memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun, 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

Television Shows The Gone 2023 The Gone (2023) is an Irish-New Zealand coproduction. When an Irish couple go missing in Mt Affinity, New Zealand, Irish detective Theo Richter (Richard Flood) collaborates with local detective Diana Huia (Acushla-Tara Kupe) to solve the mystery. DS Diana Huia grew up in Mt Affinity, a small rural town, but has been living in Auckland for some years. One reason for leaving Mt Affinity is that staying was a painful reminder of the disappearance of her mother who is presumed dead. After her mother disappeared Diana lived in kinship care with Māori elders Wiki and Buster Huia. This couple continue to take in youngsters who are homeless and/or struggling with addictions. We learn in Season 2 of a conflict between 2 Maori tribes because of an historical event, the murder 160 years ago of all members of 1 tribe (by the English & with the help of another tribe) apart from a 10 year old girl. External Website

Fiction Featuring Care Experience The Ghost Writer Philip Roth 1979 The Ghost Writer (1979) by American writer Philip Roth is the first in a number of novels narrated by fictional character Nathan Zukerman. In The Ghost Writer – set in 1956 - Nathan Zuckerman is a young aspirational writer who is invited to spend the night at the home of older & established writer E. I. Lonoff. E.I. Lonoff is a central character in the novel. He lives a secluded life in his New England farmhouse and he serves as a mentor for the young Nathan, and as a cautionary tale. Lonox, we find out, lived in Russia until his was 5. His parents then migrated to “primitive Palestine” (32) where they died of typhus and the boy was left with “family friends in a Jewish farming settlement” (32). At 7, Lonox was sent to live with “wealthy relatives” in Brookline, Massachusetts. The interactions between the young Nathan & the older Lonoff allows Roth to discuss other Jewish writers & literature more broadly, External Website

Academic Articles Social Workers’ Involvement in Policy Practice in Portugal Francisco Branco 2023 “A highly demanding measure”: practitioner contributions to improving practice and policy for foster families (2023) by Francisco Branco is a report on a study into foster care in Portugal. The study is part of a larger research project for a Social Work PhD and is focused on the needs and experiences of foster families. Francisco Branco argues that there are very few foster care families in Portugal; instead residential care is favoured. However, foster care demands more work from social workers, eg, in matching a children to the most suitable foster famil. Therefore, there is a need to increase investment in foster care, because, as he says “Growing up in a family environment is a child’s international and legal right.” External Website

Non Fiction The Boys of the Dark Robin Gaby Fisher 2010 The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption in the Deep South (2010) by Robin Gaby Fisher in collaboration Michael O’McCarthy & Robert W. Straley tells the harrowing story of the Florida School for Boys. In 2008, activist Michael O’McCarthy received an email from Robert Straley asking for his help in exposing the horrors of “the White House”, a building at the Florida School for Boys where “boys were rapped, flogged and perhaps even murdered”. By the end of that year, the men now calling themselves “the White House Boys”, held a press conference demanding a formal investigation “of the unnamed graves at the Florida School for Boys”. The then Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, agreed. External Website

Radio & Podcast Voices in Action Voices in Action 2020 Voices in Action is the initiative of CREATE Foundation, an advocacy organisation for children and young people in the care of the Australian state. In response to ongoing stigma and disadvantage experienced by many in the care system, CREATE's Snap That Stigma Campaign highlights achievements and diversity of the young people. In this podcast, young people interview each other about their experiences in the care system, with stigma, and with challenging that stigma. External Website

Radio & Podcast Child removal, women & class Surviving Society 2023 In this podcast, Kate Haddow & Amy Van Zyl talk about the UK child protection system. Of particular concern is that women who have their children removed are over-represented in suicide figures; that women are often blamed and punished for being ‘nonprotective’ yet police & social workers have not prevented the violent actions of men; that more often not, help and support could prevent children being removed from their (usually) mothers; that the system does not necessarily provide any better for the children when they are removed and placed in the ‘care’ system. The system, they argue, is plagued by both misogyny and classism. In response, an organisation called REFORM has been set up to support (rather than punish) women who are at risk of losing their children. External Website

Authors A I left care at 15 and soon went to borstal. Young people can’t just be abandoned | David Akinsanya ➝ Searching for my slave roots ➝ FosterWiki ➝ Orphan Stories | Encyclopedia.com ➝ An open letter to Long Lost Family from an adoptee ➝ What is it really like being a Care Experienced Person? ➝ Constance Couronne: From Enslaved Child in Mauritius to Emancipated Convict Grandmother in New South Wales ➝ Children in care need long-term support, not punishment | David Akinsanya ➝ Gil Scott-Heron saved my life ➝ Films about orphans ➝ Category:Fictional orphans ➝ Ronnie Archer-Morgan shares his fostering story ➝ Orphans in Literature ➝ Adoption Research: Owatonna State Public School ➝ I was a child in care. We needed love, not chemicals | David Akinsanya ➝ Ploughshares at Emerson College ➝ Lockdown Poetry ➝ The Best Movies About Orphans ➝ CELCIS blog on superheroes from the care system ➝ A Conversation about Tracy Beaker... ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Motherless Children 2019 Motherless Children performed by Eric Clapton. Producer: Tom Dowd Arranger, Work Arranger: Carl Radle Arranger, Work Arranger: Eric Clapton Composer Lyricist: Blind Willie Johnson. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Silent Stars Go By Sally Nicholls 2021 Teen novel about Margot, a vicar's daughter. who in 1916 finds herself pregnant with the man she loves missing presumed killed. The novel starts three years later with Margot coming home for Christmas, still not reconciled to the decision made where her son is being raised as her parents' child External Website

Authors L Little Orphan Annie ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos Dear Daughter 1996 In this drama documentary by Louis Lentin, Christine Buckley tells about the atrocities she experienced as a child in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage. Born in Dublin, Buckley was the daughter of a married Irish woman and a Nigerian medical student. At the age of three time at the orphanage and her determination to find her parents. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Seeking Raputre Kathryn Harrison 2003 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. Seeking Rapture (2003) includes numerous meditations on her childhood including that her grandparents raised her to be different to her mother, ie “responsible and studious and steady” (10). External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Boy Swallows Universe (Novel) Trent Dalton 2019 Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It's not as if 13 year old Eli Bell's life isn't complicated enough already. The 'notorious crim' in the story, Slim Halliday, grew up in children's homes. He spent time in prison as an adult, including 27 years for murder. Slim babysits Eli and his brother every Saturday and becomes Eli's best friend. External Website

Children's Fiction The Cherub Series Robert Muchamore 2005 The Cherub Series by English writer Robert Muchamore, is 17 books (15 million copies sold in 26 languages) about the fictional division of the British Security Service called CHERUB and employing mostly orphans. James Adams is the protagonist at the beginning of the series, and he's living in a children's home. He's recruited by CHERUB just as he's turning 12 and, after basic training, discovers his sister has been too. According to children's fiction specialist, Sarah Mokrzycki https://sarahjayne.net.au/, the Cherub Series is recommended reading for teenagers who have seen more of life than your average child. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Care leaver Kerry Littleford: 'I want to give opportunities to people who haven’t had them' The Guardian 2017 Kerry Littleford was the eldest of nine siblings, and the last to be taken into care. She recalls how social services failed her mother and explains how she’s helping others avoid a similar fate External Website

Authors C Cigarette Girl ➝ Critical Incident ➝ Clark ➝ Colin in Black & White ➝ Cardinal ➝ Carlo & Malik ➝ Clean Sweep ➝ Call the Midwife ➝ Code of Silence ➝ Cross ➝ China's Abandoned Daughters ➝ Coroner ➝ City of Shadows ➝ Criminal Record ➝ Cracker ➝ Clickbait ➝ Counterpart ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir Our Voice of Fire Brandi Morin 2022 In her book, award-winning journalist, Brandi Morin, interweaves stories from her career (such as visiting relatives of murdered First Nations grils) with her story of growing up in foster care, witnessing intergenerational trauma, and her career as a journalist. "She chose to reveal her past as a survivor to inspire others and show that they're not alone" says Kelly Boutsalis in her review for Canadian magazine Quill & Quire. External Website