- ADOPTED Adoption as a social and legal construct is an uncomfortable wedge that splits and secures the tenuous identities of adopted people. Split from their original kin they are shifted to stranger families to become stuck on the threshold of never really being let in or truly left out. Familial doors are left ajar, leaving ongoing […]
- Adoption In Crisis Or Time To Accept Other Options First We are led to believe that adoption in Australia is in crisis. Nationally, adoption rates are at an all time low, the process to finalise an adoption allegedly takes too long, slowed by red tape and driven by an anti-adoption culture and lack of resources. Simply, the adoption system is broken. Adoption, it is said, […]
- In conversation with … Catherine Lynch … adoptee activist, mother, lawyer Catherine I have been looking forward to our interview. Let’s get straight into it. Adopted people, after decades of invisibility and being relegated to the silent party in adoption, are finding their voice and speaking out about what it is like to live with the legacy of adoption and even to question the practice of […]
- 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 […]
- 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 […]
- National Apology for Forced Adoption National Apology for Forced Adoptions The third anniversary of the National Apology for Forced Adoption is fast approaching. It was delivered by former Prime Minister Julia Gilliard in the Great Hall of the Australian Parliament on 21 March 2013. The ornate parchment in guilded, coloured and black calligraphy sits inside Parliament House alongside the National Apologies for […]
- Without Consent: Without Consent, an exhibition about Australia’s past adoption practices, has began its nine venue, two-year tour of the regions, beginning in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The exhibition, developed by the National Archives of Australia, examines past adoption policies and practice drawn from the contributions of those directly impacted; the mothers, fathers and children – now adults […]