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News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Freddie Figgers: The millionaire tech inventor who was 'thrown away' as a baby Lucy Wallis 2021 Freddie Figgers was given his first computer at the age of nine. It was old and didn't work but it was the start of a love affair with technology that turned him into an inventor, entrepreneur and telecoms millionaire - a future that few would have predicted after his tough start in life. Freddie had been found abandoned as a newborn baby next to a dumpster (a large rubbish container) in rural Florida. Nathan Figgers was a maintenance worker and handyman and Betty Mae Figgers, a farm worker. They lived in Quincy, a rural community of about 8,000 people in North Florida, and were in their 50s when Freddie was born in 1989. External Website

Television Shows Black Butterflies 2022 Black Butterflies (2022) is a French drama (Netflix) which tells the story of a writer (Nicolas Duvauchell as Adrien Winckler) who is invited to write the memoir of a man in his seventies (Albert Desiderio played by Niels Arestrup). The focus of Albert’s reflections is his now dead lover, Solange (Alyzee Costes). Solange has a difficult childhood, and Albert defends her as a young boy against bullies at school, and later as a young woman when she is raped. During the time Adrien is visiting and listening to Albert, a detective – who was a foundling – is examining a cold case where the suspect looks rather like Solange. External Website

Performing Arts Aboriginal Australian, Singer, songrwriter Kutcha Edwards Aboriginal Australian singer-songwriter, Kutcha Edwards (b. 1965), was in institutions as a child. Kutcha is a Mutti-Mutti man; he was born in Balranald, New South Wales, the 9th of 12 children to Mary and Nugget Edwards. A member of the Stolen Generations, Kutcha was removed from his family when he was 18 months old, along with 5 siblings. When he was later moved to Orana Methodist Children’s Home in Burwood, Victoria, Kutcha was reunited with his siblings. As a young man, Kutcha trained in Melbourne to become a community health worker at Koori Kollij, an Aboriginal health service. During the 1990s, Kutcha began signing professionally, with Melbourne band Watbalimba and later with Blackfire. He became a solo artist in 2000. In 2006 Kutcha joined with other Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal performers to form Black Arm Band, a company which tours communities in remote regions. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Chaplin: His Life & Art David Robinson 1985 Film critic David Robinson’s 1985 book, Chaplin: His Life and Art, was written with access to the Chaplin archives. Robinson talks about the loneliness that Chaplin experienced, and the many famous people who sought access to Chaplin including Picasso & Gandhi. The book also covers the different worlds between which Chaplin moved, from Victorian London to the Hollywood of the McCarthy era. External Website

Poets Maya Angelou (Poet) Maya Angelou This is a fascinating article about the ongoing relevance of Care Experienced Writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), not only as the initiator (many say) of the detective fiction genre. Hannah Murray, University of Melbourne, tells us about Austrian singers Teya and Salena—they will represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Context this year in Liverpool—who say their song writing talent is a result of being possessed by Poe. Murray goes on to say there is a long tradition of such “possession”. She gives the example of a group of “young female spiritualists” who, “in the 1850s and 1860s…wrote and published poetry from the “spirit of Edgar A. Poe”. Hannah Murray concludes with a discussion about Poe’s fascination with human consciousness surviving death, long before the “spiritualist boom” from the late 19th century. External Website

Radio & Podcast My ancestors were both slaves and slave owners Malik Al Nasir 2020 My ancestors were both slaves and slave owners.' "Malik Al Nasir was casually watching a TV documentary when a face jumped out at him – it was a photograph of the black Victorian football star Andrew Watson. He was stunned at the close resemblance between them and he was determined to find out how they were connected. Little did he know that that journey would lead him from Liverpool to Guyana to discover how his family history was inextricably connected with the international slave trade." External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Vivaldi taught Venetian orphan girls – did they help write his music in return? Harriet Constable 2024 Harriet Constable, a journalist with a passion for uncovering stories about remarkable women, discovers a book in Palo Alto about an orphanage in Venice where Antonio Vivaldi taught. Fascinated, she learns that the Ospedale della Pietà, where girls played instruments typically reserved for men, produced some of the 18th century's greatest musicians, including Vivaldi’s favorite student, violin prodigy Anna Maria della Pietà. The author becomes obsessed with the idea that these women may have contributed to Vivaldi’s compositions, despite scholars' skepticism. Inspired by their talent and resilience, she writes a novel, The Instrumentalist, exploring their potential role in shaping Vivaldi’s famous works, including The Four Seasons. 'A chance discovery introduced me to the composer’s work with abandoned children. The more I learned, the more I wondered about the creative role they played in his music.' External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience My Ántonia Willa Cather 2023 The novel first published in 1918 tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, who goes to live with his grandparents, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century. The first year in the very new place leaves strong impressions on both children, affecting them for life. This novel is considered Cather's first masterpiece. Cather was praised for bringing the American West to life and making it personally interesting. External Website

Radio & Podcast Brian Cox on The Book Shelf with Ryan Tubridy The Bookshelf 2024 In this episode of Ryan Tubridy's podcast, The Booshelf, Ryan talks with esteemed Scottish actor Brian Cox (b. 1946). During the conversation, Brian Cox speaks of being effectively an orphan after his father died when he was 8 and his mother was hospitialised for a time. His older sisters then cared for him. After a difficult childhood, Brian worked at the Dundee Repertory Theatre before beginning his training at the London Academmy of Music and Dramatic Art when he was 17. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Alternatives Caoilinn Hughes 2024 The Alternatives (2024) is the most recent novel by Irish writer, Caoilinn Hughes. Five sisters were orphaned 30 years ago, after which they effectively raised themselves. The oldest, Olwen Flattery, is a geology professor. Her 4 younger sisters all have PhD degrees. When Olwen disappears from her home, her sisters find her living in a remote house in rural Ireland. The unexpected reunion gives the 5 women an opportunity to review their lives, including examining old wounds. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Orphan Rock Dominque Wilson 2022 Orphan Rock (2022) is another of her books with a displaced child as protagonist. Orphan Rock is a historical novel with 2 women at the centre who first meet as small girls in the Protestant Orphan School (Paramatta NSW 1850-1886). Bessie is a toddler when she arrives at the Orphan School but she's removed by her new step-father when she's about 9 years old. Lottie is older than Bessie and looks after the younger girl. We don't know why Lottie is in the Orphanage, ie, whether she's been abandoned, removed by the state or orphaned. Bessie is the protaganist for 2/3s of the novel, followed by Kathleen, Bessie's daughter. Lottie is more in the background, but playing a crucial role. The women experience financial hardship, loss and grief, much of which is caused by what is happening in Sydney at the time. They also have times of respectability and financial success. Dominque Wilson demonstrates a commitment in her story to the characters most marginalised in colonial Sydney (and even now), characters who are capable and resilient but whose lives are precarious. External Website

Radio & Podcast ‎John Lennon - Part 1: Composer of Longing on Apple Podcasts Personology ‎Show Personology, Ep John Lennon - Part 1: Composer of Longing - Apr 20, 2020 External Website

Films/Videos Fathers and Daughters 2015 The 2015 film, Fathers & Daughters, tells the story of a family struggling for the custody of a child. After his wife dies in a car accident while he is driving, writer Jake Davis (Russel Crowe) goes into a psychiatric facility for 7 months to recover. His 5 year old daughter stays with her maternal aunt and family. When Jake returns to collect his daughter, the aunt wants to adopt Kate. Jake refuses and the aunt and her husband begin court proceedings. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Separate Tracks Jane Rogers 2012 The first novel from the acclaimed author of Mr. Wroe's Virgins and The Voyage Home. Orph is a strange, silent, friendless young man. Emma meets him when she comes to work at the children’s home where he lives. She offers him a room in her student flat. But there, amid the love affairs and politics of university life, Orph’s alienation only grows deeper, and his lonely course has the most desperate of consequences. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Mr Splitfoot Samantha Hunt 2015 Nat and Ruth are young orphans, living in a crowded foster home run by an eccentric religious fanatic. When a traveling con-man comes knocking, they see their chance to escape and join him on the road, proclaiming they can channel the dead – for a price, of course. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Round House Louise Erdrich 2016 A mother is brutally raped by a man on their North Dakota reservation where she lives with her husband and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. Traumatized and afraid, she takes to her bed and refuses to talk to anyone - including the police. While her husband, a tribal judge, endeavours to wrest justice from a situation that defies his keenest efforts, young Joe's world shifts on its child's axis. Confused, and nursing a complicated fury, Joe sets out to find answers that might put his mother's attacker behind bars - and make everything right again. Or so he hopes. An important aspect of The Round House is an adoption story, the story of a white woman who grows up in Native America after she is rejected at birth by her mother. External Website

Authors W Charlie, the ratbag orphan: an orphan survivor in Australia ➝ Tell No One ➝ Survivor: The Shocking and Inspiring Story of a True Champion ➝ Dingo! my life on the run ➝ Offla's Children: A Family Memoir ➝ Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? ➝ Soar ➝ My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions ➝ Stumbling Forwards - Understand Backwards ➝ The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory: A Memoir ➝ Forced Adoption: A Memoir ➝ Gaining a Sense of Self ➝ My Turn: An Autobiography ➝ Black Boy ➝ The anti cool girl ➝ Bath Times & Nursery Rhymes ➝ Damaged: Heartbreaking Stories of the Kids Trapped in Britain's Broken Care System ➝ Navigating My Way to a Bachelor of Arts Degree in the 1960s: A Care Leaver's Journey ➝ Gaining a Sense of Self ➝ Just A Child ➝ Back to Top

Actors Candi Marie Candi Marie was in foster care for much of her childhood. She graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and one of her first jobs was working on the Steve Harvey Morning Show, interviewing some of the "biggest names" in the industry, such as Ophrah. After Candi moved to Los Angeles she launched her own digital platform to create opportunities for young people. External Website

Films/Videos National Care Leavers' Week 2020 | A Portrait Of Care 2020 ‘A Portrait of Care’ - available on Instagram - came from Rosie Canning, a writer and Doctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Southampton together with Dr Aoife O’Higgins from What Works for Children's Social Care and the University of Southampton’s Outreach team. The ‘living’ exhibition, which coincided with National Care Leavers Week 2020 (26 October – 1 November) featured people of many age groups, from young to middle-aged and older contributors. Instagram was selected as the platform in order to improve accessibility of the exhibition which was originally scheduled for a physical gallery space but moved online because of the pandemic. Rosie, whose PhD is focused on the representation of orphans and care leavers in literature, hopes that the exhibition will tackle the negative connotations associated with being ‘look after’ head-on in a creative way. She appealed to people who work with children in care as well as those who are care-experienced or care leavers themselves to use the exhibition as an opportunity to define themselves through their photos and brief messages. “Almost every care-experienced person comes into contact with discrimination at one point in their lives because of their background,” Rosie explains. “By using portraits, we would hope to de-stigmatise the experience of care as a way to improve perceptions and general public awareness. You cannot tell a person’s care experience from a photograph.” “What I’m hoping is that the inner pre-conceived stereotypes people may have about children in care and care leavers will come to the fore and when looking at the portraits and reading about the variety of people who take part, possibly help others to re-evaluate their own thoughts as well as get pleasure from seeing such an array of care experiences.” External Website

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