Aboriginal people and family history

A guide to resources that will help you to research Aboriginal Australian family history.

Stolen Generations

Link-Up is an Australia-wide organisation with offices in every state (except Tasmania) that focuses on reunion with family and country for members of the Stolen Generations. Link-Up assists all Aboriginal people who have been fostered, adopted or raised in institutions to find their way home. Information about the Link-Up services for each state and territory, including contact details can be found below and through the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Family History Kit.

Victoria

Link-Up Victoria assists all Aboriginal people who have been fostered, adopted or raised in institutions and provides family tracing and reunion services and ongoing support for members of the Stolen Generations.

Finding your story: a resource manual to the records of the Stolen Generations in Victoria is an important and very useful resource and is available online through the Public Record Office's website. The manual is a comprehensive resource of government and non-government records and archival collections in Victoria relevant to members of the Stolen Generations and their families and is highly recommended as a starting point in this area of research.

Connecting Home is a state-wide organisation committed to providing a broad range of services to members of the Stolen Generations. They provide information and education programmes to the wider community regarding Stolen Generations history and issues.

The Koorie Heritage Trust has a family history service that can assist members of the Stolen Generations and their families to access family history records and cultural information. The Koorie Family History Service's first priority is to help Stolen Generations clients and their families.

When family history information is known, the Koorie Records Unit (KRU) at the Public Record Office Victoria can provide assistance in accessing Aboriginal records within the Public Record Office Victoria and National Archives of Australia collections. 

walata tyamateetj: a guide to government records about Aboriginal people in Victoria is a detailed listing of Aboriginal public records held in Victoria and can be read online.

Other states

New South Wales

Link-Up NSW assists all Aboriginal people who have been fostered, adopted or raised in institutions to find their way home.

South Australia

The South Australian Link-Up service provides family tracing and reunion services to Indigenous people who have been affected by past Government policies and practices of removal, i.e. the Stolen Generations and assists all Aboriginal people who have been fostered, adopted or raised in institutions to find their way home. The Link-Up service in South Australia provides an online self help guide to tracing Aboriginal families and individual histories. The guide contains details of the institutions in South Australia that have been custodians of Aboriginal children, including information about how to find and access their records.

Queensland

Link-Up Queensland can assist with uniting members of the Stolen Generations with their families, culture and communities and assists all Aboriginal people who have been fostered, adopted or raised in institutions to find their way home.

Western Australia

The Kimberley Stolen Generation website provides important information.

Northern Territory

The Link-Up office in the Northern Territory, assists all Aboriginal people who have been fostered, adopted or raised in institutions to find their way home.

Tasmania

There is no Link-Up service in Tasmania.