Thursday 4 August 2011

Where To Now For Adoptees

If one was to believe the media coverage and the comments about babies emanating from Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee , one could be forgiven if they thought that the adoption policies of the past had nothing to do with the adoptees, of whom about 300,000 possibly inhabit this country today. There is a misconception out that that the vast majority of adoptees had been saved from the clutches of a deprived childhood and, if some where abused by their adopters, well it happened where their was natural parents. Nothing could be further from the truth. These views have been perpetuated by organisations like the National Adoption Awareness Week.  In addition a particular mothers support group that also believes it can support adoptees, have quite naturally put the interest of their constituents, the mothers, first thus ensuring that any comments in relation to adoptees will be as the baby, not adult adoptees.

Adoptees around Australia must now metaphorically take to the barricades and yell from the highest point that they, have also been deeply affected by the primal wound relating to their forced removal from their mother in what could only be called barbaric practices which unfortunately are still carried on today in third world countries. What happened to us has been exported to other countries.  The country has be advised of the economic costs to the community of the results of what happened to us, the adoptees who were forcibly removed from their mothers.  Whilst the vast majority of mothers may have been coerced, all adoptees were forcibly removed from their life line, the mother, and yes many survived and prospered and some were not so lucky.  but all have to some degree suffered the emotional and traumatic effects of this forced removal and our public health cost are souring because of it.

Whilst appreciating the efforts mothers groups have made in the past, it is now time for all adoptees to adopt an independent stance and stand up for themselves, thus ensuring you have a voice in the provision of support services in this great country and also the manner in which an acknowledgement of the effects adoption has had on all us as individuals

The Australian Adoptees Network is such an organisation and I invite all Australian person having an adoption like experience to contact us at  http://australianadopteesnetwork.webs.com/ and we will get back in contact with you

2 comments:

  1. i agree. its time for adoptees to stand up and talk about the harm we suffered due to being separated from our families of origin. as i've stated elsewhere, i believe its much easier for non-adoptees to understand the pain of the mother whose baby was taken from her than it is to understand the pain of we who were those babies.

    even those of us who had a "good" adoption, if any can be called that, are scarred by separation from our families. its time our pain and hurt and damage was recognised and support services offered for adoptees. no money can compensate us for what we lost, but a telephone counselling service, assisted searching for lost relatives, and education of GPs, psychiatrists and psychologists in the significance of adoption in mental distress would be a great leap forward. finally, i encourage all adoptees to join the network which is a place to find support and understanding.

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  2. Great post Murray!

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