Heritage
Andrew Maurray Speech Sept. 2008 : 'The Forgotten Australians: Identity, records and their search for the past'. Why forgotten? Because they were; and in significant respects, still are.
Historically there has been more academic and serious attention to the history of institutionalised indigenous Australians than to others who were institutionalised, but even so it has been limited.
Until relatively recently the written social history of Australia was remarkably sparse concerning the huge category of people that will be the subject of this address. This history is still hardly ever taught.
The lack of past serious and academic analysis of this social history reflected a wider prevailing attitude; an official and community view that children in care were not of much significance or interest overall.
This attitude was reinforced by Forgotten Australians themselves, many of whom were ashamed of having been in care and kept their childhood to themselves. ...more
Censorship and the Forgotten Australians
We still struggle today to gain any part of our heritage, the beaureucrats, edit our files and tell us as adults what we are allowed to see, apologies we get yet still they give us no respect.
The Forgotten Australians in the 21st century our files still being "censored".
