Research Aim:
To Investigate archiving and record keeping practices to support current care leavers and Forgotten Australians (past care leavers), in the construction of their identity.
The Enquiries into the experiences of the Stolen Generation and Forgotten Australians provide testimony to the significance of access to all forms of their records in the construction of identity, health and well-being. This research builds on this testimony.
It will study the historical records managed by each community sector organisation about their institutional history and identify related records held elsewhere. From this study, it will build a web-based gateway to historical resources relating to institutional and out-of-home care in the state of Victoria, from its beginnings in the 1850s through to the present. It will bring together and make accessible information about institutions, organisations, significant figures, policies, practices and legislation to document the historical context of ‘care’. We hope that this gateway will connect people who have experienced institutional and out of home care as children (and their families) to information and resources that help make sense of the past, and to see where their own story fits in to the broader context.
It will also review current record keeping activities to advance the development of practice which recognises the importance of record keeping in the construction (or destruction) of a person’s identity. It pays attention to the significance of the record keeping continuum: from the making of the record through what is written and held for the current young person in care; to the storing the record; and to the processes of using the record.
Understanding the role of digital archiving standards and the documentation of context at each point in the continuum will be an important aspect of the research.
Research Strands
The research has four strands of work:
1) The exploration of the role of digital and networking technologies:
i) supporting the organisation of the historical records of Victorian children’s institutions;
ii) supporting current record keeping practices.
2) The identification of historical records about the institutions, held both by the institutions and elsewhere, and the articulation of the context in which children and young people historically came into care.
3) An audit of current record keeping practices in government and community sector organisations to identify good practice and also to address the links between the archiving of the printed and the electronic records.
4) Consumer perspectives on the process and impact of accessing their files on their sense of themselves