The Australian Adoption Podcast

16/11/2024

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Adoption stories are easy to find – in media, among adoptive parents and from adoption agencies/other.

These stories portray adoption as a step in the process of life. In the “good” stories, adoption gives the child safety, financial and material security they need to grow up a SUCCESSFUL part of society.

In the darker stories, the circumstance around the adoption almost breaks the child, but doesn’t, and instead they grow RESILIENT enough to go on and flourish above and beyond.

In both kinds of stories, adoption is a step that ultimately leads to a good result:

Anne of Green Gables
Free W***y
Kung Fu Panda
The Blind Side

Another form of adoption story that is everywhere are the ones told by adoptive parents. A combination of what they have been told by the adoption agency or child welfare, and their own experience throughout the process of adopting. Many adoptees grow up hearing these, memorise them and TAKE THEM ON as their own.

There are also the adoption stories told by the agencies. Too often, these become the stories we are told, and these become the stories we believe to be ours. Because we have no alternative, and because we don’t know we can question them. The amount of power the adoption agencies hold in being able to SHAPE OUR STORY is hard to stomach. 😞

What these stories all have in common is the lack of adoptee perspective. They are ADOPTION stories, but they are not ADOPTEE stories.

believes THIS is what will raise awareness about adoption from our perspective. This is what will help adoptees grow STRONGER & build CONFIDENCE .👊

We do not need outside validation for our experiences to be valid. If you are an adoptee reading this, I hope you will sit with this message. It’s for YOU.🫵

Adoptee stories can offer a first-person narration that is not up for interpretation or argument. They are not factual of adoption as a whole, but of one IMPORTANT PART of adoption.

I ENCOURAGE all adoptees to explore your story, share your experience and speak your TRUTH. 📣

https://thisadopteelife.com/adoption-and-awareness-the-world-needs-more-adoptee-stories/



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05/11/2024

*S3 ep:32.

In this episode I speak with Kura.

Kura Perkins is a Perth-based adoptee. Born in 1975 and was adopted in Western Australia at 6 weeks of age to newly arrived immigrants from New Zealand.

They decided to give her a Māori name and although she wasn’t Māori, her adoptive parents had heard of this incredible name Kura and loved it. Her name would soon have coincidental significance, becoming clear 25 years later.

Growing up, Kura always knew she was adopted., She has met both of her birth parents and most of her siblings on both sides of her natural family. Kura shares details of meeting her birth parents and many anecdotes about their time together over the years, both happy and sad.

With a largely positive lived experience, in her own words she describes her adoption as "the gift that keeps on giving."

As much as she was loved and secure growing up, Kura hit a low during her teen and early adulthood, eventually a run in with police was the silver lining to get help get her back on track and provided a catalyst to find her birth family.

Kura is working on a memoir of her adoption for her three daughters and so has kept a record of all adoption correspondence throughout her whole life. Writing about her adoption experience has always been on her mind to do; so much so, she has recorded interviews with her birth family, talking about how it was for them and their experience when placing her for adoption all those years ago.

Kura is an enthusiastic adoption advocate and feels sad that in Australia, too many at risk children are caught up in a broken system and may miss the opportunity for a safe, permanent and loving home.

Thank you Kura for sharing your story.

31/10/2024

There are still places available at the upcoming Breathwork session on Saturday November 9th 2-4pm AEDT . Breathwork could become an important additional tool in your toolbox of healing strategies and help to soothe your nervous system in times of high stress. Please join us and check it out. Reach out to PARC if you would like to join us either online or in person for this session hosted by Breathwork facilitator and intercountry adoptee Nicky Hammond. The session will be supported by the PARC team.

22/10/2024

Victorians abused in foster care have called a $20,000 compensation payment offered by the state government insufficient and unfair.

15/10/2024

Nicky Hammond, certified Breathwork Practitioner and intercountry adoptee will be hosting an in person and online Breathwork session supported by PARC on Saturday 9th November from 2pm - 4pm. Please let us know if you would like to join us for this event via email [email protected] or Ph: 02 9504 6788. The session is open to anyone with an experience of adoption.

29/09/2024

In this episode I sit down with Jim Moginie. We had an amazing conversation over zoom from his home in Ireland and I was fortunate to meet him for the launch of his new book earlier this year.
For 50 years, Jim was a driving force behind one of Australia’s most iconic bands Midnight Oil.
Jim is best known as a songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist for the band, and has explored other creative adventures during his career such as playing traditional Irish music and collaborating with prominent artists such as Silverchair, Sarah Blasko, The Warumpi Band, The Living End, Kasey Chambers, Neil Finn and The Australian Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to his musical talents, Jim recently released his book titled- The Silver River; a memoir of family, lost made and found. We learn that Jim found out he was adopted when he was 11. His mum broke the news very matter of factly as the family returned by sea from a holiday in Tasmania. Endless questions quickly began to race through Jim’s mind. Why did people give me away? Was there something wrong with me? Did they give me away without a fight? Wasn’t I good enough for them? I probably deserved to be abandoned. He states “I felt like a fake, a mistake. My aunt wasn’t really my aunt, my cousins weren’t my cousins. My brother wasn’t my brother and my parents weren’t my parents. No questions were asked by me or explanations offered by my parents then, or for many of the years that followed. All I knew was that I had to get onboard with the new paradigm.”

When Midnight oil was juggling chart success, political activism and global tours, the initial wave of stardom and limelight felt different for Jim, difficult even and unexpected and whilst at times he struggled to find meaning behind it all, he realised something fundamental was missing.
At the height of his career Jim began his quest to find his birth family that led him in many different directions, to the quiet suburbs of Canberra and across the rivers and rolling hills of rural Ireland, he talks about his career and being in the band, interweaving his journey of adoption and finding his roots.

12/09/2024

“We don’t meet people by accident, they are meant to cross our paths for a reason, either they change our life or we change theirs”.

I believe, everything and everybody that we come across in our lives, enhances our evolution process, thus fulfilling its purpose to be there. Often times, we don’t realise the reason for their existence or occurrence. What sometimes appears as terrible, may be the divine route leading to something meaningful. Its only when we start trusting the timing and natural unfolding of occurrence of events, appearance/existence of people, situations, and not just that, disappearance/loss of those too, making us feel good or worse, the suffering too naturally evades. In time, some of it makes sense and sometimes not.

“You’ll understand why, when you look back, the answers are rarely given in the middle of the lesson”, Leon Brown.

When I started practicing mindfulness, it made deeper sense to me. I believe in synchronicity and timing of events and that everything happens for a reason. There are no accidents or chance encounters. Every relations and situations we come across in our lives, is meant to happen or take place at the time and in the way it does, for our sake or for the sake of those around us. Each relation/experience is a chance for us to take some learning or a reason to question our beliefs or a moment of gratitude or a chance to work on our own emotions. It is a subtle cue to contemplate how and why it effects us the way it does. This is how we grow, this is how we evolve.

On the physical-emotional level, cultivating gratefulness and acceptance for the divine plan, learning and moving on along with it in faith, without resentment or doubt, trusting the process, helps us to live peacefully; whereas on the spiritual level, it is the evolution of our soul.

04/09/2024

Hey guys,
In season 3 episode 30 I’m sitting down in Rainbow Bay having a great conversation with Denna.

Denna is an inter country adopted person, born in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1979. She grew up in Mclaren Vale, South Australia, and an organisation, formerly known as ASIAC organised her adoption from Yayasan Ibu Sayap. At 4 months of age, Denna took her first international plane trip, and since then has travelled extensively around the globe in both career and personal life.

Denna views her adoption experience as being a positive one, she has dabbled in searching for her birth mother and learning more about her origins over the years. But In hindsight, Denna wishes she started this search earlier. She realised she had been avoiding her feelings. Her curiosity and desire grew when she had 3 children but the experience of mothering also brought unpleasant feelings that was laying dormant. from never feeling enough to rejection and abandonment issues. feelings that are similar to other adoptees she has encountered. Over the years she has faced struggles with her marriage and her relationships.

She is yet to find more about her biological family but remains positive, and looks upon her journey as a lifelong quest.

Denna is a former travel consultant, business development manager, and online business mentor, Denna has "adopted" her life mantras into her business endeavours which are “Make a Difference. Collaborate, Travel. Inspire and Grow."

Her latest emerging passion project: a podcast called 'My Adoptive Heart' is for the inter country adoptee and adoption community. She wants to help build a supportive community for others so hearts can heal and to help guide her through her own self discovery.

If you would like to connect with Denna her You can contact at: www.denna.com.au/my-links

18/08/2024

Adoptee: Worthiness, Vulnerability, Shame and Courage — Where The Light Shines

I came across this gorgeously written article when reading about authenticity among adoptees. It's a short 5 minute piece that fits in nicely with Alyson's interview I did in April in Rainbow Bay this year. If you haven't listened to her interview please do. We speak about her experience coming out of the fog in her 50's to reignite her inner spark she has set out on a mission to help connect with other adoptees and heal trauma. She talks about ways to regain self worth and I listened to her courage on how she has followed her intuition and new path to reach those who have been struggling in the adoption space. Hats Off!!!

Here is a small piece on courage and worthiness drawing on Brene Brown's research and ideas from her two TED talks.

WORTHINESS
According to Brown’s research, there’s only one variable that separated the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging as opposed to those who really struggle. Those who have a strong or deep sense of love and belonging believe they are worthy.

Many adopted people, including myself, have started life being relinquished, abandoned or taken from our mother and kin. This is a shaking foundation on which to build a sense of worthiness and belonging. It can be difficult to feel worthy or forge a sense of belonging when faced with such traumatic beginnings.

COURAGE
According to Brown some of the following attributes, which we can aspire to achieve, were found amongst people who felt worthy. They had:

· The courage to be imperfect.

· The compassion to be kind to themselves first.

· The courage to be authentic to themselves.

· To believe that they’re enough.

·Alongside this, is the courage to be vulnerable.

Brown notes, it takes courage to be ‘SEEN.’



https://angelambarra.medium.com/adoptee-worthiness-vulnerability-shame-and-courage-where-the-light-shines-c8aad2e26b3e

26/07/2024

Mamamia Article February 25 2024, for full article click here:

https://www.mamamia.com.au/my-mum-abandoned-me/amp/

Head to The Australian Adoption Podcast - My Unknown Truth for adoption and foster care stories spanning 50+years.
.. "Doctors, psychiatrists and behaviour support workers would contact me to discuss her condition but would never give me much to go on.
Transparency of information became an issue. I turned myself inward and felt frustrated and helpless.
I stuck it out though, and two years later, she finally got well enough to maintain a two-way conversation. Not long after that, I visited her with my brother and spent a couple of lovely hours, where she was over the moon to see us and proud to show us her room, having general chit chat in the side garden.
We got a family photo and I felt relieved that she was off the streets for a while.

It took a long time but we gained NDIS funding that needed the approval of the nurses and medical team to recieve.
She now lives in a newly built home in a nice quiet suburb and receives round the clock care and a lot of support. She calls me nearly every day"...

26/07/2024

Season 3 Episode #29 Alyson's story.

Welcome to today's podcast. My guest is Alyson, an Australian adoptee from the Baby Scoop Era of the 1970s. Alyson holds a Bachelor's degree in Naturopathy and is certified in a wide array of modalities through her business, “Your Authentic Self.” Her expertise includes Homeopathy, Sanum Therapy, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition, Nutrigenomics, Applied Kinesiology, Touch for Health, Brain Gym, the Biology of Trauma, Somatic Healing and Creatrix transformology.

Alyson's journey of healing is deeply personal. She considered herself a lucky adoptee until she turned 50 as life began to unravel. This period of self-discovery and self-healing led her to completely transform her approach. At one point, a lack of self-worth and self-value caused her to leave her beloved profession and become a Domino’s franchisee. However, she eventually found her way back to her true passions.

Now, Alyson focuses on healing the heart before healing the body, using the Creatrix Method designed specifically for the female brain to release generational trauma.

She describes herself as a "woo-woo pathology-loving Naturopath," and shares her experiences as an adoptee through epigenetic predispositions. Alyson uses her experiences and knowledge to support healing ranging from self-esteem issues to complex inflammatory health conditions. She is dedicated to uncovering root causes of our ailments and designs individualized healing plans as a specialised adoptee health consultant.

Alyson's unique journey has enriched her approach to health and healing. Our conversation shows the powerful intersection of personal and professional transformation.

Should you wish to find out more about Alyson’s approach to healing adoptee health, programmes, retreat for consultation (can be international via zoom) Alyson is based on the Gold Coast, working at Integrative Medical Health clinic Robina or Chinchilla Health Food shop.
Please go to www.yashealing.com.au

Here we go!

26/07/2024

Take 5 Magazine - June 2024

In 2020 I started this podcast called The Australian Adoption Podcast - My Unknown Truth, to help others in Australia who have been fostered or adopted. After initially sharing my story, other individuals from the adoption triad and foster care community reached out to share theirs. Thank you so much for sharing your powerful stories with me and have loved connecting with you all.

So far, I have
15k downloads
24 Countries/Territories
193 Cities and this wonderful audience is growing. I hope it will encourage people to share their experiences for their own healing and to heal others, create awareness for any necessary changes, normalising talking about foster care and adoption in Australia, maybe consider adopting or fostering or becoming a volunteer or motivational speaker as an option and help pave the way for healing hearts and homes the next generation.

Currently there are 46,000 children are at risk in Australia, they need a loving and permanent home so that they can feel safe, have time to heal, learn and thrive, to be seen, heard and valued.
Even more alarming is 10% of these children (around 5000) are living in hotels and motels with round the clock shift workers. Children as young as 2 years old living in this environment for extended periods of time with no urgency from government to provide enough funding for foster carers, training, healing programs and permanent homes to care for kids properly with complex traumas.

These children need a loving home and a second chance at living a healthy happy life.

I am making this issue a priority in my life and I want to see where my passion for this takes me and to see if I can truly make a difference. Thank you for all your support so far by listening to this podcast.

21/06/2024

Everyone has secrets. Keeping them can feel lonely and isolating, but discovering them can be devastating.

21/06/2024

17/06/2024

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In a recent interview with fellow adoptee Nadia for her podcast, My Unknown Truth – The Australian Adoption Podcast (it airs in June), she asked an important question that, believe it or not, I do not field very often.

First she read from the back cover of my book, Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family & Kinship, (Muse Literary):

This book challenges the reader to embrace all of who we come to be, and to discern with whom and where we belong. Because belonging defines the human experience, and it is what nourishes our spirit, fuels us with purpose, and compels us to soar beyond the limitations of our lived experience.

And then, she asked, “So, Julie, why does belonging matter?”

Link in bio to hear more of her answer.

https://juliemcgueauthor.com/what-is-it-about-belonging/

07/06/2024

Today I will be speaking to an international adoptee from Chicago, Julie who is also an author–memoirist, essayist, and columnist– who writes about finding out who you are, where you come from, and making sense of it. 

At 48, Julie was sent for a breast biopsy. This incident highlighted what closed adoption prevented her from knowing: her birth circumstances, family medical history, and genealogy. The subsequent search for her “personal story” that consumed five years. She chronicles this journey in her debut, award-winning memoir 'Twice a Daughter: A Search for Family, Identity, and Belonging.'

We talk on Her newly released book 'Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family & Kinship', serves as a companion piece to Twice a Daughter. It is meant to support the adoption community and to create a conversation with those not touched by adoption.

Besides being a writer, Julie is a mother, grandmother, and an identical twin. Life has provided her many roles to play and experiences to share. For as long as she can remember, she has been filling up journals and binders with stories and reminiscences. 

Her wish is that you stay here, linger, and find a section from this podcast that resonates. Upon leaving, Julie hopes you take with you a fresh new idea, perspective, or topic to share with others.

27/04/2024

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Season 3 #27

Today’s guest, Lisa, was born in England in 1970 and was adopted at six weeks of age into a family who had already adopted a son.

Lisa’s family moved to Australia when she was two years old and the family grew to include a biological daughter.

Lisa’s story of reunion spans decades, two continents and is a testament to her determination, resilience and courage.

And having the belief and hope that a NO would not always stay a no.

29/03/2024

We are pleased to share with you the Autumn Edition of Post Adoption News.

This issue focuses on the theme: Surviving Secondary Rejection.
It includes readers stories, a documentary review and more.
You can read it here: https://www.benevolent.org.au/ArticleDocuments/199/PA%20Newsletter%20Autumn%202024.pdf.aspx