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

Performing Arts Australian, opera singer Stephen Smith Australian opera singer, Stephen Smith (b. 1977), was in foster care until he was ten. Stephen then when to live with his father. At 15 he left home and dropped out of school. He discovered he loved singing when he was living on the streets as a homeless teenager. When he was 17, Stephen was working at David Jones when a colleague suggested he take music lessons. Continuing to support himself at the Footscray markets, Stephen went to the Victorian College of Arts and got himself a Bachelor of Music. Stephen toured the world as an opera singer for 20 years. He now works as a real estate agent. External Website

Sport Robyn Smith Robyn Smith American jockey, Robyn Smith (b. circa 1942), was in foster care as a child. She was born Melody Dawn Miller to Constance Miller who was only 17. When Constance became ill, Robyn was put up for adoption by the Oregon Protective Society. She was in the home of prospective adoptive parents Orville L. Smith for a while and renamed Caroline Smith. Constance objected to the adoptive parents and the adoption failed. Robyn was subsequently in and out of foster homes, and because of ill health, she did not graduate high school until she was 19. She then reconnected with the Orville Smith family and changed her name to Smith. But before long, she had moved to Hollywood and enrolled in an acting workshop. She also began training horses for Bruce Headley in Santa Anita. Inspired by Kathy Kusner, Smith decided to become a professional jockey and in 1969 she rode in her first race, finishing second. In 1973, two years before she retired, Smith became “the first woman jockey to win a stakes race.” Robyn Smith married legendary actor Fred Astaire (1899-1987) in 1980. When he died in 1987, Robyn began flying planes and helicopters. External Website

Authors N We Are Wolves ➝ The Sound of Everything ➝ The Cat Who Saved Books ➝ Runaways ➝ Close Your Pretty Eyes (11-13 years) ➝ Fablehouse ➝ Back to Top

Writers Rosie Waterland Rosie Waterland is a writer based in Sydney. She was born in 1986 and her parents struggled with addictions. Rosie's mother often left her three girls on their own, until eventually welfare authorities stepped in and put them into foster care. After the girls were returned to their mother twelve months later, their mother decided she did not want them living with her. Rosie went into kinship care and boarding school and then went on to university. After struggling with PTSD for a while and wondering what to do with her life, she submitted a piece of writing for Mamamia, an Australian website for women. From there, Rosie Waterland has gone on to become a successful writer and comedian. She published The Anti Cool Girl (2015) to critical acclaim and her second book, Every Lie I’ve Ever Told (2017) was a national bestseller. She has written for television and performed live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (2016). Her national tour in 2017 was sold out. External Website

Films/Videos Kids 2023 Channel 4 in the UK commissioned a documentary about the care system. The 3 part documentary series, KIDS, was directed by Paddy Wivell and was enabled by the Coventry Children's Service. "Hearing from foster carers, social workers, service managers and children's home staff Kids lays bare the high-stakes decision making in trying to protect young people, and meets the parents who've had their children forcibly removed." External Website