The Family Information Records Bureau (FIRB) provides a service to trace personal and family histories for those people and families associated with children who were taken into the care of the child welfare authorities, both Aboriginal or wards of the state. They can provide information from Departmental files and records, and help people to find more about their past and their identity.
Information about families
The FRIB has information about what happened to many Aboriginal families in Western Australia in the past; some records go back to before 1920.
The files kept by the old Native Welfare Department, other government departments and non government organisations responsible for Aboriginal people are limited in the amount and type of information they contain about yourself and your family.
This is because the recorded information was affected by the amount of contact with Aboriginal people, and the records may be incomplete or destroyed.
The FIRB can also search records held by other departments and organisations for information about you or your family. You don’t need to contact these yourself unless you want to.
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Finding out about your family
To find out about your family, we will look through the various files and records to see if there is information such as:
- the names of some of your early relatives
- where they came from
- when they got married and to whom
- when and where they were born
- any children they had
- when they died.
There is no guarantee that all the information is correct or complete; your family may know things which are not recorded.
It may be possible to tell you who your nearest relatives are, but if you want to contact them we need to get their permission first.
We can’t always give you detailed information about family members who are still alive unless they agree; they might want to forget about their past or keep their history to themselves.
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Getting information
Information about your past can sometimes be upsetting. You will probably have questions you want to ask. You may want to talk about it to someone or get some further help.
For these reasons, we prefer to release the information about your family history to you personally.
If you live around Perth you can meet with the officer who did the research and get the information at a personal interview.
If you live in the country, an officer in your local Department for Child Protection or Department of Indigenous Affairs office can give you the information if you wish.
If you would prefer not to talk about your family background with a Department for Child Protection or Department of Indigenous Affairs officer, information can be sent to you by post or you can collect it in person.
If you want someone else to get the information for you, we must have your signed permission.
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How you can use our service
Personal information may be held in various places. To find out about your family, phone us or send an application to:
Family Information Records Bureau
Department for Child Protection
189 Royal Street, East Perth WA 6004
Tel (08) 9222 2777
Fax (08) 9222 2767
If you want help to fill in the form, ask someone from your local Department for Child Protection or Department of Indigenous Affairs office to give you a hand.
It makes it easier for us to find the right files if we have as much information as possible about your family to start with. If you know anything about your family already—like any names, birthdays or places people lived—we will use that information to help us with our search.
We will provide you with information about your family as soon as possible. It does, however, take some time to work through all the files to find out what happened to different families.
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