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A Conversation with Gary Coles about Forgotten Fathers
Gary, you are the father of a son who was relinquished for adoption shortly after his birth in 1967. During your life you have written extensively about the invisibility of fathers in adoption. You are also a campaigner for fathers’ rights. On Tuesday 28 June 2016 SBS ONE TV will go to air with an […]
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Reconnecting Heartlines to Bloodlines
Heartlines – The Year I Met My Other Mother is a new memoir exploring the adoption legacy of Robin and Susannah, mother and daughter separated at birth – at Robin’s choosing – who meet again half a century later – at Susannah’s choosing. Their reunion occurring fairly recently, and rapidly, once locating each other in […]
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The Effects of Adoption – Training for Health Professionals
Anyone who has lived with their adoption experience over the past 60 to 70 years, whether as a mother, father or as an adopted person, will know how difficult it’s been to find a health professional who understood the challenges of living with an adoption legacy or who could offer an appropriate support therapy. After […]
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Reflecting on Adoption – Interview with Sofie Gregory about short film Loss and Connection
I spoke to Sofie Gregory about her adoption experience and the short film, Loss and Connection she was involved with late last year. Readers should watch the nine minute film first as the interview relates to the content of the short film. Sofie you are an adopted person from the closed adoption era. Dealing with loss […]
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In Conversation with Margaret Watson about her book Surviving Secrets
It’s several years since your memoir Surviving Secrets was published and I reviewed it for the Australian Journal of Adoption. How has your life been in the intervening years since the book went to print? Thank you for that review Thomas and your support for my memoir. It is coming up to 7 years since […]
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In Conversation with Maria Haenga-Collins, adopted person and PhD Candidate
I spoke to Maria Haenga-Collins, a PhD candidate in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History (School of History) at the Australian National University, about her studies and her experience of adoption. Maria is a Māori (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Ngāi Tahu) woman who was first fostered, then adopted, into a Pākehā (white) family in the mid […]
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Adoption Revivialists – Recreating a Shameful Past?
Adoption is often seen as the panacea for social ills. For much of the latter half of the 20th Century adoption was used to forcibly remove children from young mothers to shield society from the shame of having children out of wedlock. The mothers, fathers and their children often deserted in their time of greatest […]
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Secrets, Spies and Spotted Dogs
I spoke to Jane Eales about her book Secrets, Spies and Spotted Dogs. Jane I have read your book which gives a detailed account of your late discovery that you were adopted and subsequent search for family, particularly your mother. It’s a great title and absorbing read. Did writing the book come easy to you? […]
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Coming of Age
‘What if abandoning a child was the greatest act of love this world has ever known?’ This statement was made by Victor Alexeyev, one of five young adult adopted people, who spoke at the Coming of Age session at the Redefining Family conference in Auckland. Victor, along with Alex Gilbert, Alexander Kuch, Katya Murray and Voichita […]
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Counselling Experiences of Adult Adopted People
I spoke with Sue Rogers about her Masters thesis and her experience of living with adoption. More about Sue I grew up in Melbourne and have lived there all my life. My parents have a holiday house on the Mornington Peninsula at an area that is not well known. It is quiet, has dirt roads, […]