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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

Radio & Podcast A Reading Life, A Writing Life A Reading Life, A Writing Life 2022 Sally Bayley is a writer and Lecturer in English at Hertford College, Oxford, England Sally was so neglected at home as a child that she put herself into the care system at the age of 14. She didn't see her family for the next 12 years. Sally now lives on a boat on the River Thames in Oxford. In this podcast she talks about living on the river and amongst nature, and about her reading and writing life. External Website

Writers Kathryn Harrison 1961- 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. As Harrison tells the story, her mother didn’t move far away but she never gave her parents, nor her daughter, her address or her phone number. Harrison interprets her mother’s behaviour as evidence of her needing to be independent but not being able to achieve that while caring daily for her daughter. The young Kathryn saw her mother often, including at church on Sundays. But she never had a room for her daughter at her house until Kathryn went to college. External Website

Radio & Podcast How Stephen sang himself to life Conversations (Stephen Smith) 2023 Australian opera singer Stephen Smith was in foster care as a child. He left school at 15 and was homeless for a time. At age 17, Stephen was working at a department store in Melbourne when a colleague suggested he take singing lessons. He went for an audition to the Victorian College of Arts, got himself a Bachelor of Arts, and toured the world as an opera singer for 20 years. You can hear more of Stephen’s incredible story on this Conversations podcast. External Website

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Films/Videos Lilo & Stitch 2021 Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film's story revolves around two eccentric and mischievous individuals: a six-year-old Hawaiian girl named Lilo Pelekai, who is raised by her older, young adult-aged sister Nani after their parents died in a car accident, and a blue extraterrestrial animal-like creature called Experiment 626, who is adopted by Lilo as her "dog" and renamed "Stitch". Stitch, who is genetically engineered by his mad scientist creator to cause chaos and destruction, initially uses Lilo to avoid being captured by an intergalactic federation, but the two individuals develop a close bond through the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana, or extended family. This bond causes Stitch to reconsider and later defy his intended destructive purpose in order to keep his family together. External Website

Authors S The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat ➝ The Altar Boys ➝ Motherless Child: The Definitive Biography of Eric Clapton: ➝ Women of Power: The Life and Times of Catherine de' Medici ➝ The House on Teacher's Lane ➝ An Uncontrollable Child ➝ Back to Top

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Kazuo Ishiguro Reflects on Never Let Me Go, 20 Years Later Literary Hub 2005 In this LitHub article, Kazuo Ishiguro writes about his motivation and influences for writing the novel Never Let Me Go (2005), including Dolly the Sheep and young writers willing to challenge what it means to write literary fiction. External Website

Authors O Michael Oher ➝ Back to Top

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Alan Turing (1912-1954) - noted Computer Scientist and Mathematician Alan Turing 2018 Alan Turing (1912-1954) was an English computer scientist and mathematician, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2014 historical drama, The Imitation Game. Turing was in foster care for much of his first 10 years. His father, Julius Turing (1873-1947), was a public servant in the Indian Civil Service and insisted that he and his wife, Ethel (1881-1976), return to India without their two sons. Turing was given a posthumous royal pardon on 24 December 2013. In 1952 Turing had been arrested and convicted for having a sexual relationship with a man. Rather than go to prison he accepted a year’s treatment of oestrogen intended to decrease his libido. External Website

Authors F Birdsong ➝ Fool Me Once ➝ Fearless ➝ Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story ➝ Father Brown ➝ First Dates ➝ Freud ➝ For All Mankind ➝ Back to Top

Films/Videos The Song of Names 2019 Song of Names (2019) is a Canadian film and an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Norman Lebrect. The film stars Tim Roth and Clive Owen as childhood friends whose lives are changed by WWII. Clive Owen plays Dovidl Rapoport who, as a 9-year-old, is taken to England and adopted by the Simmonds family. Martin Simmonds (Tim Roth) bonds with Dovidl who is a violin prodigy. Dovidl mysteriously disappears when he is 21 and scheduled to appear at his first concert in London. Martin at 56 learns about a violinist who plays in a way like Dovidl. He sets off, first to Poland and then to New York to find his brother. External Website

Sport Hubert Opperman Hubert Opperman Hubert Ferdinand (Oppy) Opperman (1904-1996) was an award winning cyclist. Oppy was born in Victoria, Australia into a working class family. When his father joined the Australian Imperial Force in WW1, Oppy was sent Melbourne to live with his paternal grandmother. Oppy had been riding a bike since he was 8 and in 1921 he took up racing with the Malvern Cycling Club. He won the prestigious Launceston to Hobart race in 1922 and quickly became a respected sportsman. In 1924, he was the youngest to win the annual Australasian National Road Cycle Championship. In 1931, Oppy raced in the Tour de France (finished 12th). Later that year he won the Paris-Brest-Paris race, breaking all records. For most of the 1930s, Oppy set a number of solo cycle records. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and served until 1945. Oppy became a federal politician for the Victorian seat of Corio in 1949. He was knighted in 1968, became the Higher Commissioner to Malta in 1967, and retired in 1972. External Website

Films/Videos The Silencing 2020 The Silencing is an American-Canada action thriller. The beginning of film sets us up to think its the former foster child - who was badly abused in 'care' - doing the kidnapping and killing of teenage girls. Even his sister, a cop, thinks that. But no, for a change, its a 'respected' professional. External Website

Authors I Innocent ➝ Irreverent ➝ Back to Top

Authors B Michael Bay ➝ Pierce Brosnan ➝ Josephine Baker ➝ Back to Top

Authors J Lennie James ➝ Barry Jenkins ➝ Back to Top

Authors F Find & Connect ➝ Challenging the Over-Representation of Care Experienced Women in Prison ➝ Whatever happened to the little girl who played Annie? ➝ Back to Top

Fiction featuring Care Experience Insidious Intent Val McDermid 2017 Number one bestseller Val McDermid returns with a pulse-pounding, suspenseful novel featuring two of the most distinctive and iconic characters in crime fiction: Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. The story features a 14 year old boy who is living in foster care after the murder of his mother. External Website