Transitional Justice Workers and Vicarious Trauma

Abstract

Australia’s Find & Connect web resource (http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/australia/) was funded as part of the federal government reparations package offered to Former Child Migrants and Forgotten Australians, people who grew up in out-of-home care in the mid-20th century. It was constructed by historians, working in isolation across the country, whose role was to undertake archival, library-based and digital research, and to liaise with care-leavers, their advocates and support organizations, former care providers, and records holders in order to enrich the information they were compiling. This information included evidence presented before official inquiries into harmful and abusive practices, which all too often characterized past welfare provision. Karen George had worked on several similar projects and in many ways served as a bellwether to other members of the team, alerting us to the consequences of repeated exposure to such research material.