NEWS & EVENTS
Exploring the History of Care – Untold Stories
A
s part of Care Experienced History Month this April, we hosted Untold Stories: a free lecture series where we invited the public to learn more about the history of Care Experienced people and communities. Taking place both in person and virtually, we were joined by expert lecturers who shed light on previously untold stories from history. Find out more about what we learned!
1. “Her Affecting Story”: Benomê, a Liberated African child
Our first guest speaker Dr. Christine Whyte shared the story of Benomê, an African child whose slave ship was intercepted by British antislave trade patrols on the coast of Portugal during the 19th century. Benomê’s story represented thousands of children who entered a new type of care, as they were termed ‘wards’ of the British state between 1808 and 1900. Dr Whyte examined Benomê’s life as she travelled across the British Empire, as well as the experiences of those around her.
16
2. ‘Kindertransported’
We were joined by Holocaust survivor Henry Wuga MBE, who came to Scotland as part of an organised rescue effort which took him from Nazi Germany to the UK. One of nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children who travelled via the Kindertransport scheme, Henry was later arrested for attempting to contact his parents – a major crime during wartime. Henry and his story highlight the importance of showing compassion towards refugees, a message particularly relevant in current times.
3. ‘Care, Race and Illegitimacy in Eighteenth Century Britain’
In the late 18th century, thousands of children were born to Indian women and white British men sent to expand the British Empire. Many of these children came to Britain to be raised by white foster families. In this lecture, Dr. Kate Gibson followed the story of the Cust family: a set of siblings born in the 1770s, providing a lens with which to view foster care and trans-racial placements during an early historical period.
