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Aboriginal Child Placement Principle

The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle (ACPP) was developed in the early 1980s and was incorporated into adoption and child protection legislation from 1983 onwards. In 2009 it was renamed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle. The Principle is intended to guide child protection services to strengthen Aboriginal children’s connections with their family,…

Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Federal Government

The Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs was formed in 1972. As a result of the creation of this department, the Federal Government took over responsibility for all issues related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. Policy and planning functions which had previously been the responsibility of the States were transferred to the…

The Lutheran Church of Australia

The Lutheran Church is a branch of the Protestant church, and was founded in Germany in the 16th Century by Reformationist Martin Luther. The Lutheran Church was first established in Australia by German Lutherans arriving in South Australia in 1838. Separate Lutheran churches were founded in Victoria from the 1840s, and Queensland from the 1850s….

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) – Contact Details

Please contact Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS): Postal address: GPO Box 553, Canberra ACT 2601 Phone: (02) 6246 1111 Email: CollectionEnquiry@aiatsis.gov.au Website: https://aiatsis.gov.au/about/connect-us/contact-us

Commonwealth Child and Youth Migration Records

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) holds many records which provide information of interest to former child migrants. The records relating to individual child and youth migrants are essentially those concerned with their entry into Australia rather than the day-to-day care once they had arrived. The NAA also holds a number of policy and administrative…

Eugenics

Eugenics was an influential doctrine popular from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Eugenics refers to the philosophy and practice of selective breeding of humans with desirable (or “superior”) hereditary traits. While not discounting the role of environmental factors, it placed considerable emphasis on heredity in shaping an individual’s characteristics. The ideas within eugenics…

Closed Adoption

Closed adoption refers to the practice of sealing an adopted child’s original birth certificate and issuing a new birth certificate when the child was adopted. This new certificate included the name of the child and their adoptive parents. The identity of the adopted child’s original parents was hidden. This practice meant that many people didn’t…

Franciscan Missionaries of Mary

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary were first established in Australia in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1941, and worked primarily with Aboriginal people. In Queensland they took over the care of the Leprosarium on Fantome Island and the primary school on Palm Island, both Aboriginal settlements under Government control. They also ran the Xavier Home for Crippled…

Junior Red Cross Society

The Junior Red Cross Society was formally established in Australia in 1918, as part of the Australian Red Cross. It was a children’s and youth division, which had regional committees. Various branches of the Junior Red Cross Society set up and ran Homes in various locations around Australia, as part of its peacetime programs. These…

National Library of Australia – Contact Details

Please contact a Librarian at Reader Services, National Library of Australia: Postal address: National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600 Phone: (02) 6262 1266 Website: http://www.nla.gov.au/askalibrarian/