This page brings together a range of helpful information, videos and links.
** Please note: the resources below contain powerful stories and historical accounts that may be distressing. We have included them because it’s important that they are known. These stories are also a testament to the resilience and courage of survivors, and the ongoing fight for recognition and healing. However, if anything in this information causes you distress, please talk to someone or seek support through the crisis numbers at the bottom of the page.**
Wattle Place Publications
History
We invite everyone to learn more about the stories of Forgotten Australians, Stolen Generations and Former Child Migrants, and Forced Adoptions. These are significant, yet often overlooked, aspects of Australia’s history.
- Forgotten Australians/Care Leavers
- National Museum of Australia – Inside: Life in Children’s Homes and Institutions Exhibition
- Who are the Forgotten Australians? | Alliance for Forgotten Australians
This video acknowledges the experiences of Forgotten Australians, sharing personal stories and historical footage to explain the experiences of children who grew up in institutional care in Australia.
- The Forgotten Australians | Adele Chynoweth at TEDxCanberra
Adele Chynoweth is a theatre director and museum curator working on narratives of Forgotten Australians: more than 500,000 Australians who spent their childhood in orphanages and other institutions.
- Background information about Forced Adoptions
Personal Stories
These videos and talks share real stories of courage, recovery, and community. They can help you understand different lived experiences and how people have rebuilt their lives.
Mavis’s Story | Finding long-lost family in her 80s
Mavis and her twin brother, John had been adopted as babies and spent their lives looking for their family. After reaching out to our Forced Adoptions Support Service, offered through Wattle Place, Mavis was able to achieve her dream after decades spent searching.
Sheila Humphries, a member of the Stolen Generations, shares how being taken from her parents and placed in an orphanage left lasting scars and shaped her life.
Three women share deeply personal accounts of being coerced into giving up their babies, revealing decades of trauma, silence, and eventual reunion.
View on ABC
Forgotten Fathers: Voices Lost in Adoption | SBS
This SBS Insight episode explores the overlooked experiences of biological fathers who were excluded from adoption decisions and left to grieve in silence.
Watch on SBS
Angela’s Story | ABC
Follow Angela Barra on her journey to understand her adoption, uncovering the impact of forced separation on her sense of self, and her experience reuniting with her birth family.
Part 1 on Vimeo
Part 2 on Vimeo
Part 3 on Vimeo
Explore More Online
Here are some online resources that share stories, history and information.
Ongoing Impacts
Complex trauma develops from repeated exposure in childhood, to physical, sexual or emotional abuse, humiliation, violations of trust and breaches of care, particularly by those who should have provided safety. People exposed to this kind of treatment continue to be impacted into adulthood and throughout their lives. So too, the trauma and grief of forced separation of a parent and child can have severe life-long impacts.
Research and Reports
For those who want to learn more, these studies and official reports explore the impacts of the experiences in more detail, an how those experiences continue to shape lives today.
- Bringing Them Home Report (1997)
- Lost Innocents: Righting the Record Report on Child Migration (2001)
- Forgotten Australians: A Report on Australians who Experienced Institutional or Out-of-home Care as Children (2004)
- Caring for Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and Stolen Generations Information Package (2016)
- Long term Outcomes for Forgotten Australians Study (2017)
- Final Report: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2017)
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Stolen Generations aged 50 and over Report (2018)
- Impact of Past Adoption Practices: Summary of Key Issues from Australian Research (2010)
- Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices (2012)
Practical Tools and Tips
These guides offer simple, useful advice for individuals, families, and care providers. They focus on understanding trauma, reconnecting with heritage, and creating safe, supportive spaces.