Experience solr
'I don't see myself as an Adoptee.'
Adopted people
I was born in Crown Street Womens Hospital. Adoption has affected me hugely throughout my life. It's a difficult journey. To travel through it takes immense courage.
Continue reading'What does it mean to be adopted?' I was asked (Part 2)
Adopted people
Being adopted means you look into and choke and look and choke in the eyes of your first born child, your first known flesh and blood. It is a myth of motherhood.
Continue readingA Better Life Part 2
Mothers
We laid the foundations for our reunion by writing and phoning each other frequently over several months and answering each other’s questions candidly. At last, there was a huge relief for both of us that there was nothing to hide any more.
Continue readingA Home in Waiting in Sydney
Mothers
I wrote this account of my experience because these practices of forced adoption were secret for a long time and many people still cannot imagine what happened and what it was like to experience forced adoption.
Continue readingA Well-Worn Face
Mothers
This poem was written for the National Apology in Canberra on March 21, 2013, to go into the National Archives of Australia. The image of the booties is a lasting memento of my son for the Memorial Garden at Parliament House in Canberra.
Continue readingA child of sin.
Adopted people
My adoption has positive and negative elements. A stable home was a positive thing, my difference from the rest of the family, and their highlighting this was a most negative experience, and impacted on the rest of my life.
Continue reading'What does it mean to be adopted?' I was asked (Part 1)
Adopted people
Sofie draws on her own experiences as an adopted child to try to give an insight into what it feels like to be adopted.
Continue reading2013 Official opening of the Origins Office at Fairfield NSW
Advocacy groups
23 March 2013 Official opening Origins SPSA Inc was pleased to announce the opening of its new office at 2-113/115 The Crescent Fairfield NSW
Continue readingA Better Life Part 1
Mothers
What I have learned from life is that there is a timeliness that cannot be grasped before it’s opportunity is presented. That time was fast approaching.
Continue readingA Better Life Part 3
Mothers
Reunion has given me a new life – one without guilt and sorrow and the secret I endured for over fifty years. The sadness diminishes but never disappears.
Continue readingA Licence to Lie
Adopted people
My abuse started with the lie that my mother didn’t want me
Continue readingA brother found us
Family
My older sister rang me out of the blue to say someone had contacted her, that our Dad had another son, younger than me. What a bombshell. I am the youngest of 6 and my died 18 months later. She had met him. Do you reckon it's true? I asked. He's one of 'us' she said, and he's the dead spit of Dad. Wow.
Continue readingA fathers perspective
Fathers
Nothing further until last year, when I learned that I was blessed with a 53 year old daughter. I had been married for 50 years and had two sons and five grandchildren. However, the news and the subsequent meeting with my daughter - and grand-daughter - brought me happiness and pride which still resounds
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