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Acknowledgement

This web resource would not exist at all were it not for the hundreds of people who have had the courage to tell their stories. The childhood experiences of Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants were until recently a hidden and unknown part of Australia’s history. Because of the bravery and the commitment of many individuals and organisations to get this chapter of the past onto the historical record, today, we can hear the stories of hundreds of people – they have been captured in the submissions made to public inquiries, in oral history interviews, in memoirs, in museum exhibitions, in academic literature.

In the ‘Forgotten Australians’ report (2004), the Senate stressed how important it was for these voices to be heard, even though what they have to say is often very painful:

[these stories] must be acknowledged and addressed in a decisive and resolute fashion; that these events happened, that the care leavers were not to blame, that theirs is not a background of shame, that they should be recognised and understood as having had a childhood full of emotional and social deprivation.

We acknowledge the experiences of all Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants, and we thank those who have told their stories so that this chapter of Australia’s history can be better understood.

Key Resources

The Find & Connect web resource team acknowledges the groundbreaking past work of people and organisations to research and compile vital information about the history of child welfare in Australia and the whereabouts of archival records. This website would not have been possible without the following key resources, which were integral to the development of Find & Connect.