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Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants Oral History Project

As the Prime Minister announced in his Apology on 16 November 2009, the National Library is conducting an oral history project to record the lives and experiences of Forgotten Australians and former Child Migrants. Interviews will be conducted across Australia, will be preserved in the National Library and made publicly available, subject to any access conditions imposed by interviewees.

An oral history project was recommended in two Senate Community Affairs References Committee reports Lost Innocents: Righting the Record - Report on Child Migration (August 2001) and Forgotten Australians - A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children (August 2004). This project has received funding from the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

This oral history project will run for three years and aims to document a rounded history of the experiences of children in institutional and out of home care and the lifelong impact of these experiences on their lives and their families. The project will also interview a selection of advocates, and allied professionals including welfare officers, employees of institutions and administrators.

The Library is working closely with the National Museum of Australia which is developing an exhibition entitled 'Inside' about the history of institutionalised care of children, and there is a joint website for these two National History Projects. The Library is also working with the Australian National Maritime Museum which is developing the travelling exhibition On their own - Britain's child Migrants. This exhibition is a collaboration between the Australian National Maritime Museum and National Museums Liverpool.

Can I be interviewed?

Since the Apology, there has been widespread interest in being interviewed for the project. The Library will be selecting people to interview so as to build a collection which will contain stories telling the diversity and complexity of the experiences. If you would like to express an interest in being interviewed, then you can complete an Expression of Interest by completing these series of questions.

Is the Library collecting other materials?

The Library is seeking to collect other materials about the experiences of Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants including ephemera, self-published autobiographies, websites and manuscripts. The Library has made a list of a significant number of publications which it does not hold and would like to collect, catalogue and make available. If you have published a book about your experiences you can check here to see if the National Library holds a copy. There is information about the Legal Deposit scheme and where to send a copy of your book.

Further information

For further information on the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project, please feel free to contact:

Project Team
Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants Oral History project
Phone: 1800 204 290
Email: fafcm@nla.gov.au

To make an enquiry about this project.