Grief and Youth Remembered: Accessing Experiences of Historical Youth Justice through Memoir

Abstract

This article will explore the theme of disenfranchised grief in the memoirs of two former inmates of the Westbrook Farm Home for Boys, an institution in Queensland, Australia, which primarily housed boys convicted of criminal offences. Both Stokes and Fletcher were incarcerated in the institution during a pivotal moment in its history, one which has come to be known, through later government inquiries, as a period during which abuse was rife. In analyzing these memoirs, this article demonstrates the significance of published memoir as a means to access the historical experiences of marginalized young people. It also argues for the recognition of grief as an important, but often neglected, aspect of marginalized youth experiences.