Published on August 6, 2015 – read the full article here.

Gregory Smith was a homeless man sitting on a park bench beside a building site in Tweed Heads when he had an epiphany.

He suddenly saw that his future could be a different landscape from his past.

Last week the Southern Cross University academic, who now lives in Coffs Harbour, completed the final draft of his PhD thesis. Titled Nobody’s Children, his thesis is an exploration into the sense of belonging by children in institutional care. It builds on his honours thesis Forgotten Australians and other work he has published on trauma.

The subject is an intensely personal one for Mr Smith, who spent nine of his first 19 years in care. The topic is now seeing Australia-wide scrutiny.