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In conversation with … Heather Kinang … Himalayan Climber, Trekker, Yoga Teacher and Late Discoverer
Heather whenever I see a post of yours in social media it usually shows you climbing a mountain, running alongside the Brisbane river or in a complex yoga pose. You do seem to love the outdoors and enjoy physical activity. If we can start with your trekking adventures in the Nepal and Kathmandu mountains what […]
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In conversation with … Angela Barra
Angela thank you for offering your time to have a discussion about your adoption experience. Thank you for inviting me to participate in this interview Thomas and to share some thoughts. Approaching your fiftieth year, giving you much time to both live and reflect on your adoption, what has been the most enduring impact of […]
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Living with Adoption: A Quest for Hope, Healing and Happiness
I acknowledge the mothers, fathers, adopted persons and their family members who are directly affected by adoption. I acknowledge your loss, separation, pain, and the associated uncertainty you may live with. We all carry and have to deal with our emotional wounds. I offer you strength and patience in doing so. My focus today is […]
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Writing as Therapy
I was one of three guest authors invited to talk at a recent Speakers Forum hosted by Counsellors Tricia Dearden and Brooke Bengston at the Post Adoption Resource Centre, Sydney. Alongside Margaret Watson who spoke about her book Surviving Secrets, and Gwen Wilson who reflected on her memoir I Belong to No One, I talked […]
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The Space Between
Spits of rain pierce dappled sun under the tall pines. A white marquee, a podium, three huge black rocks wrapped with a very long yellow ribbon, a pack of media, a crowd of mostly women, milling, meeting old friends being introduced to others. A day that had been waited for… Grundy Gardens is behind Adelaide’s […]
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Taking Adoption to the Big Screen
Based in South Australia, Waters Productions started by Heather Waters, creates films which stir the soul and provoke the senses. Primarily they focus on adoption issues including the short film, The Lost Souls, set in the 1960s about the closed adoption era that was released in 2013. Current projects include a developing feature film, Primal […]
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Intercountry and Transracial Adoptee Experiences of Search and Reunion
Australia, like several other western countries, is home to many intercountry and transracial adopted people taken into local families over the past fifty years. Similar to other adopted people, these intercountry adoptees are likely, at some point in their adult lives, to seek their personal information, want to explore their origins and, where possible, find […]
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Men Living With Their Adoption
Michael it is three years since we first met at the adoption retreat organised by the Benevolent Society at the Brahma Kumaris Spiritual Centre in Wilton. I recall we were a group of seventeen adopted people who came together, over three days, to engage more deeply with our adoption experience and explore pathways to healing. […]
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Removing Anonymity Does Not Reduce Donor Numbers
Sperm donation in Australia was once shrouded in secrecy and donors were forced to be anonymous, even if they did not want to. After learning some of the lessons from adoption, as well as listening to the voices of the donor conceived, practice and policy regarding donor conception began to change. No longer would donors […]
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Begin Again – A Workshop for Adult Adoptees
I spoke with Sherry Hearn about her counselling / coaching business and the one day workshop she is offering to adopted people at Relationships Australia on 17 September 2016, in Adelaide. Sherry, you are an adopted person, born in New Zealand, in the 1970s. You grew up in Christchurch and Hawaii before studying at […]