Responding to ''Forgotten Australians'': Historians and the legacy of out-of-home ''care''

Included in the recommendations of each of the three Australian inquiries into the legacy of out-of-home “care” has been a call for more history, but what would such a history involve? Commissioned histories rarely respond to the need of “care” leavers to have their lived experiences recognised and validated while broader histories of the child welfare sector struggle to move beyond an analysis of policy and practice. This article offers the perspectives of a “care” leaver and two historians on the issues involved in writing a history which is sensitive and responsive to its multiple audiences, and discusses Pathways, the Victorian online contextual archive designed to make history accessible and available to those whose past lives it records.