The Australian orphanage museum: heritage and activism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hundreds of thousands of Australians live with the dire aftermath of having been institutionalised as children in the national ‘Care’ network of orphanages and children’s homes. In 2023 the Australian Orphanage Museum (AOM) was opened, both to memorialise the experiences of children whose early lives were blighted by out-of-home Care (OOHC), and to facilitate activism aimed at gaining justice for those now-adult Care-leavers. The article in part utilises the author’s lived experience as a Care-leaver activist to summarise the rise of Care-leaver activism, placing it in a heritage context as it applies to the institutions themselves. It examines the role of the AOM in collecting and displaying apparently mundane objects that have profound meaning for individual stakeholders, and in preserving archival material documenting the early activist groups. Various forms of past and contemporary Care-leaver activism are discussed, and examples of successful and less successful campaigns are examined. The AOM is shown to perform a vital role in providing affirmation for Care-leavers, advocating on their behalf to the wider community, and working in conjunction with other activist groups and projects to aid researchers in the field.