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Television Shows Water Under the Bridge (tv show) 1980 A miniseries based on Sumner Locke Elliott's book of the same name. The story revolves around a young man who was in foster care as a boy and his journey from Sydney to London. External Website

Behind the Scenes Carl Hancock Rux Carl Hancock Rux is an American poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, actor, director, singer-songwriter. He was born in New York and guardianship was assigned to his maternal grandmother. When she died, four year old Carl entered the foster care system until guardianship was again transferred to relatives. Carl Hancock Rux is the author of several books including the Village Voice Literary Prize-winning "Pagan Operetta," the novel, Asphalt, and the Obie Award-winning play, Talk. Rux is also a singer/songwriter with four CDs to his credit, as well as a frequent collaborator in the fields of dance, theater, film, and contemporary art. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Doris Duke Award for New Works. External Website

Television Shows Death in Holy Orders 2003 PD James’ 2001 book Death in Holy Orders was adapted for television in 2003 with Martin Shaw playing the role of Adam Dalgliesh. There is less attention paid to the care experience of Ronald Treves & Kate Miskin in the adaptation than in the novel. *Spoiler Alert* Raphael Arbutnot (Jesse Spencer) is represented as a ‘troubled’ young man, but he is not a murderer. External Website

Writers Yukio Mishima 1925-1970 Yukio Mishima (1925 – 1970) was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai, an unarmed civilian militia. Yukio Mishima was born Kimitake Hiraoka in Tokyo. His parents, Azusa Hiraoka and Shizue, were living with Azusa’s parents—Natsuko and Sadataro Hiraoka—when Kimitake was born because the family fortunes had been considerably reduced. Embittered and unwell, the once aristocratic but now middle-class Natsuko took control of baby Kimitake. After her one-year-old grandson fell on the stairs on the way to see his mother, Natsuko banned any further contact between Kimitake and his mother. When Azusa and Shizue had more children, Kimitake was kept from his siblings. Shizue was only allowed to take her eldest son for a walk to the park, or to school when he commenced at age six. In 1937 everything changed. Natsuko was too ill to continue caring for Kimitake and allowed the boy to be returned to his parents. Kimitake Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata. External Website

Radio & Podcast Episode 5. Person With Care Experience - BBC Sounds Small Axe Ashley John-Baptiste and Dr Sylvan Baker discuss the experiences of Black children in care in the UK. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir John Callahan John Callahan 1990 At the age of 21, John Callahan became a quadriplepic. Struggling with an alcohol addiction he had acquired as a teenage, he entered a 12 step program, swore off alcohol and became a cartoonist. Callahans cartoons pushed boundaries and poked fun at social norms, which meant he was both a beloved and a polarizing figure. Callahan's memoir incudes many of his cartoons. External Website

Television Shows The Glass Dome 2025 The Glass Dome (2025) is a Swedish drama. When criminologist Lejla (Leonie Vincent) returns to a small Swedish town for her adoptive mother’s funeral she is confronted with the trauma of having once been held captive in a glass dome. The trauma is compounded by the disappearance of a local girl. Lejla and her adoptive father, retired police commissioner Valter (Johan Hedenberg), join in the search for the child. *spoiler alert* we find out at the end of the series that it was Valter who had kidnapped Lejla. After she escaped his glass dome, he and his wife adopted the child. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found: The Costa Book of the Year 2018 Bart van Es 2018 Little Lien wasn't taken from her Jewish parents in the Hague - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in the provinces during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien's foster parents - knew he needed to find out why. External Website

Behind the Scenes Jeffrey Seller An adoptee, Jeffrey Seller grew up in a Jewish family in Detroit. With a long held interest in musical theatre, he moved to New York after graduating from the University of Michigan and worked as a booking agent as well as producer for award winning shows such as Rent (1996), Avenue Q (2003) and In the Heights (2008). After working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on In the Heights, Seller produced Miranda's show, Hamilton (2015), which has received widespread critical acclaim as well as considerable commerical success. External Website

Radio & Podcast The wisdom of deep listening: Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann and Fleur Magick Dennis Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann 2021 Aboriginal Australia artist, activist and educator, Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann (b. 1950), was in kinship care as a child. She was born in the bush near Daly River, a small town in the Northern Territory. When she was 5 years of age, Miriam was given over to relatives to be cared for, her Aunt Nellie and her Uncle Attawoomba Joe. Attawoomba Joe was a police tracker of some note, and Miriam moved between police stations with him and Nellie. Miriam learned much from her uncle about Aboriginal culture, while also being educated formally in government schools. In 1975, Dr Ungunmerr-Baumann because the Northern Territory's first fully qualified Aboriginal teacher. In this podcast, she talks about 'deep listening' the word for which is dadirri in Ngan'gikurunggurra, a Northern Territory language. External Website

Authors F From ‘devil’s child’ to star ballerina | Michaela DePrince ➝ Finding Finland ➝ Frederick Douglas ➝ Foundling: Found Episode 7, Mo Jamil ➝ The Foster Friendly Movement ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Shy Max Porter 2024 This is the story of a few strange hours in the life of a troubled teenage boy. You mustn’t do that to yourself Shy. You mustn’t hurt yourself like that. He is wandering into the night listening to the voices in his head: his teachers, his parents, the people he has hurt and the people who are trying to love him. Got your special meds, nutcase? He is escaping Last Chance, a home for “very disturbed young men,” and walking into the haunted space between his night terrors, his past, and the heavy question of his future. The night is huge and it hurts. Max Porter Porter's Shy is a deeply empathetic and experimental story about troubled young men on the brink, a theme common in his work. It’s set in Last Chance House, a rundown mansion-turned-school for 'misbehaving boys', located in the middle of nowhere. The house may be just as haunted as the boys' minds. Porter uses a mix of forms and playful, poetic language to capture the confusing way Shy experiences his fragmented memories. Although the experimentation sometimes overshadows the execution, the overall impact remains strong. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Stolen Generations Testimonies Stolen Generations' Testimonies 2003 The ‘Stolen Generations’ Testimonies’ project is an initiative to record on film the personal testimonies of Australia’s Stolen Generations Survivors and share them online. The Stolen Generations Testimonies Project was initiated by filmmaker Melanie Hogan (www.melaniehogan.com ) soon after the release of her acclaimed documentary film Kanyini (www.kanyini.com ), featuring Stolen Generation Survivor Uncle Bob Randall. In 2009 more than thirty Stolen Generations’ Survivors shared their stories, their memories and themselves in the first round of interviews for the ‘Stolen Generations’ Testimonies Foundation’. External Website

Films/Videos The Book of Esther 2013 The Book of Esther tells the story of an orphan. The Book of Esther is included in the Hebrew Bible following Lamentations & is read on the Festival of Purim. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Book of Esther is between Nehemiah & Hob. In the Protestant canon, Esther is between Nehemiah & Job. Esther is an orphan & has been raised by her cousin Mordecai. When she becomes the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, she doesn’t initially tell him that she is Jewish and an orphan. Later, when Ahasuerus’ chief minister, Haman, orders the death of Jews in Persia, Esther persuades Ahasuerus to rescind the order. Instead of being killed on the day planned for their annihilation, the Jews kill their enemies. The Book of Esther has been adapted for stage & film several times, including the 2013 film starring Jen Lilley as Queen Esther. External Website

Authors O Barack Obama ➝ James O'Brien ➝ Derek Owusu ➝ Dawn O'Porter ➝ Back to Top

Writers Somerset Maugham 1874-1965 William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was born at the British embassy in Paris where his father, Robert Ormond Maugham, worked as a lawyer. William became an orphan when he was ten years old. First, his mother, Edith Mary, died of tuberculosis in 1882 and then his father died two years later of cancer. Young William was then sent to live in England with his paternal Uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham (1828-1897), and his Aunt Sophia, an unhappy experience for him. As soon as he could, William left home. He was six when he went to Germany to study literature at Heidelberg University. On his return to London, he tried out accountancy and then medicine. During his training to become a medical doctor, Maugham published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897). Maughan went on to become among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. His first novel Liza of Lambeth (1897) sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service. He worked for the service in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917 in the Russian Empire. During and after the war, he travelled in India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He drew from those experiences in his later short stories and novels. External Website

Poetry Morning Breaks In The Elevator Lemn Sissay 2016 Published in 2003, Morning Breaks in the Elevator Lemn Sissay establishes his reputation as a foremost UK poet with a collection that moves from protest to reflection. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles John’s story – one of the first foundlings Janette Bright 2021 Read the story of John, who was a pupil at the Foundling Hospital, England's first dedicated children's charity. In the 18th Century, 25 March 1741, the Foundling Hospital welcomed its first group of children to its temporary location in Hatton Garden. Among the 30 admitted was an infant later known as John Bowles, identified only as child number five at the time. No note or personal item was left with him, so nothing is known about his original name or his mother’s circumstances. Approximately one month old, he wore a brown cloak and a piece of cloth marked with the initials ‘I’ and ‘A’—the only clues that would have been used to identify him if his mother had ever returned to claim him. External Website

Radio & Podcast Who does Australia lock up? Seriously Social 2023 In this podcast, Professor Eileen Baldry makes the point that some member of the Australian community are more likely to be incarcerated than others: "Aboriginal people form 3% of the population. So, what we are talking about here is that all of these steps, being in out-of-home care, being removed from your family, experiencing violence in your family, ... and in many instances, continuing to experience violence in out-of-home care… All of these things add up to making a person highly vulnerable to being managed by the police." Also on the podcast is Justen Thomas who was institutionalised as a small child, homeless and in jail for not paying fines as a teenager, and now is an advocate for those with similar experiences. External Website

Television Shows Dexter 2006 Dexter Morgan is a fictional character created by American writer Jeff Lindsay and portrayed by Michael C. Hall in the tv series, Dexter. In both the novels and the Dexter series, Dexter works as a forensic analyst for Miami-Metro Police Dept. When he’s not working, he’s a vigilante serial killer. Dexter has a code of ethics he follows which was taught to him by his adoptive father: only kill those who are guilty of murder and don’t get caught. Dexter Morgan was adopted about the age of 3. When he was 2 he saw his mother being murdered and he & his older brother, Brian, were left sitting in a crate surrounded by body parts & blood for 2 days. External Website