This paper discusses the development of the "Stolen Generation Survivors Style Guide for Descriptive Practice: Find & Connect web resource" as an outcome of a collaborative project between the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research, (University of Technology Sydney), the Find & Connect web resource (University of Melbourne) and an Expert First Nations Advisory Group. The project had two key aims of increasing and strengthening content on Find & Connect relating to Stolen Generations survivors and their descendants, and to develop frameworks to support the content development into the future.
The Find & Connect web resource brings together historical resources relating to institutional 'care' in Australia and was developed to assist people who grew up in institutions in understanding more about their past and about the historical context of child welfare. While Stolen Generations institutions and records had always been a part of Find & Connect, they had never received dedicated and Survivor-led discussion before now. This paper will discuss the methodology used to undertake collaborative and Stolen Generations Survivor-led research through the engagement of a First Nations Reference Group and the utilisation of Yarning methodology. It will highlight the "Stolen Generation Survivors Style Guide for Descriptive Practice", an outcome of the project which seeks to address these areas of descriptive practice to support better access for Stolen Generation Survivors to Find & Connect.
This paper also considers current gaps in reparative description by asserting the importance of Survivor-led descriptive practices. Broadly, it also contributes to scholarship on enacting the Right of Reply (Indigenous Archives Collective 2021; Thorpe, 2025) in archives, specifically within the context of archival descriptive practices that centre the voices of Stolen Generations Survivors represented in collections.

Dr Kirsten Thorpe, Jumbunna Institute, University of Technology Sydney
Dr Lauren Booker, Jumbunna Institute, University of Technology Sydney

Informal removals of Aboriginal children made up a significant proportion of removals in Victoria. Working with applicants to the Stolen Generations Reparations Package in Victoria, the staff of the Stolen Generations Reparations Unit have found records to support experiences of removal not previously thought to be accessible in government archives.
This presentation will provide an overview of the Unit's research methodology and the resulting discovery of material in a wide variety of government and non-government depositories. Using a deidentified case study, the presentation will demonstrate the bespoke nature of the Unit's research method, including the Unit's trauma informed and applicant-centred approach to historical research. The presentation will discuss its wider application to the history of the Stolen Generations in Victoria, including the activities of the Save The Children Fund and the Harold Blair Holiday Project and the impact of finding documentary evidence of these organisations' activities for applicants. The Unit seeks to share their knowledge with the archival community to better understand how we can support archivists to make their discoveries accessible to the Stolen Generations.

Jayne Rantall, Department of Justice and Community Safety

Jacinta advocates for self-love, justice, and reconciliation, emphasising First Nations family rights in their archives. She calls for greater investment in culturally informed and critically examined ancestry research. In her presentation, Jacinta will propose recognising critical and trauma-informed genealogy research as a therapeutic, empowering practice and a crucial element for truth-telling and reconciliation. She contends that we are all interconnected and must collectively bring meaningful change for not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families but for all our health and wellbeing. Genealogy is one of humanity's oldest sciences, driving historical inquiry by tracing familial origins. Critical family history research can shift individual and collective consciousness and drive meaningful change by promoting self-awareness, awakened historical understandings, and compassion for others. This is especially important in a world now seemingly filled with violence and indifference. Connection with and access to Country, kinship, and cultural knowledge are essential for the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Since the colonisation of Australia, these connections have been the target of intrusive research and violent attack through government policy and settler activity and recorded extensively within textual records. Ironically, these violent records now serve as crucial sources of information for all Australians. They have become powerful tools for healing, empowerment, and truth-telling as was recently asserted by the Victorian Yoorrook Justice Commission. In this presentation, Jacinta will discuss her PhD thesis, which narrates seven generations of spirit and colonisation from her family's perspective in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Through her storytelling, she will highlight the role of the archives and the support of archivists in enabling her family’s remembrance of self. Jacinta will call for more leadership and cooperation by archive-holding institutions to improve access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. She will emphasise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family narratives are integral to our whole nation's identity, and our nation's ability to locate, name, and reconcile our Indigenous and non-Indigenous family relations as central to our understanding of our past and ability to heal and prosper together in the future.