Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast

Suz Bednarz is an American mother who lost her daughter to adoption in 1986 and began the process of searching for and attempting to reconnect with her then 18-year old daughter in 2005. Suz began a blog to document her journey and that is how she and Jane became friends. In this episode, Suz speaks to Jane about her story and experience. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion...

Today's guest is a well known figure in the Queensland adoption community. At age 17, Vivienne Timmermans was an Australian Champion figure skater with big plans for her future. Around the same time, she discovered she was pregnant and her daughter was placed for adoption in 1980. In this episode, Jo Sparrow speaks to Vivienne about her experience and the book she wrote about it. They also discuss...

Jo Sparrow speaks with a mother and an adoptee who wrote a book about their reunion experience. Susannah McFarlane is an adoptee and author, creator and publisher of some of Australia's most successful children's book series and Susannah's mother, Robin Leuba taught English and English literature for many years. 'Heartlines: The Year I Met My Other Mother' the memoir they wrote together is a fast-...

Jane speaks to Professor Daryl Higgins about the study titled, "Past Adoption Experiences: National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices" he contributed to and co-authored in his role of Deputy Director (Research) at the Australian Institute of Family Studies. Prof Higgins is a registered psychologist who has researched in the area of child abuse, family violence and f...

In part two of our discussion about discharging an adoption, Jo talks to Jigsaw Qld's Forced Adoption Support Service (FASS)Team Leader, Andrea Lynch more generally about the process and things to consider. The FASS role is not to provide legal advice, but rather to support people to think through their decisions and deal with the emotional responses that may be experienced during the process. Thi...

Michael Costello was born in Brisbane in 1970, at the height of the closed and forced adoption eras. He was initially placed in an orphanage, and then extended foster care, despite his mother making several attempts to regain custody. Michael went on to be adopted by his foster carers at the age of five where he was physically, sexually and emotional abused. Five years ago, he began the process of...

In this episode Jane speaks to Cath Mundy and Jay Turner, a singer-song writing duo who worked with Jigsaw Qld and our client and stakeholder groups to write a song to represent the Forced Adoption experience. They then performed the song with some of the group participants at the 2020 7th Anniversary of the National Apology for Past Forced Adoption Practices in Australia. This episode discusses a...

In the first episode of 2021 we talk to adoptee, Psychotherapist, cancer survivor and author, Pam Cordano about her book, "10 Foundations for a Meaningful Life (No Matter What's Happened)". Most of Pam's work over 30 years has been focused on clients who experience serious illness or tragedy, where life was one way and suddenly changed in a moment. Pam's greatest passion is helping people awaken t...

As the 8th anniversary of Queensland's historic apology in parliament for past forced adoption policies and practices nears, Jigsaw Qld's Forced Adoption Support Service (FASS) Team Leader, Andrea Lynch talks to Jo about two Queensland projects aimed at educating the public about the State's dark adoption history and memorialising it in hope that these policies and practices are never forgotten or...

In this episode, Jo speaks to Jigsaw Qld's President, Dr Trevor Jordan about the emotions that can arise when doing advocacy work, how far we've come in Queensland and Australia and what is possible in the future. Trevor is a long-term advocate of responsible adoption reform and education. For 20 years he taught Public and Professional Ethics at the Queensland University of Technology. As a person...

In today's episode, Jo speaks to Kerri Saint - an adopted person and advocate who was a founding member of the Association for Adoptees. They discuss Kerri's personal experience of adoption and her efforts to seek legislative change, acknowledgement of past wrongs and redress for anyone affected by adoption. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more informati...

In this episode, Jane speaks to Deputy CEO of International Social Service (ISS), Damon Martin. ISS Australia provides social work, legal and mediation services to families and children across international borders. This includes assistance for families experiencing international parental child abduction, facilitating international kinship care and other international child welfare matters. This i...

In part one of our intercountry series, Jo speaks to Barton Williams about his experience of being airlifted from war torn Saigon, Vietnam in 1975 as part of the controversial humanitarian mission, Operation Babylift. Barton was raised in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, by his new Australian adoptive family and went on to represent Australia in water sports, graduated as a school teacher, created...

In time for Father's Day, Jane spoke to Gary Coles, who lost his son to adoption in 1967 and who has written extensively about the experience of fathers who were separated from their sons and daughters by adoption. Gary also worked as a manager for VANISH, a Victorian service supporting all those affected by adoption and donor conception. In 2019 Gary travelled to Queensland and ran a Fathers' wor...

Jo talks to former Family Court Judge, Professor Nahum Mushin about his experience chairing the Forced Adoption Apology Reference Group; the dramatic day the Federal apology was delivered, why forced adoption doesn't appear to have as much community recognition as other prominent issues and the unfinished business still remaining seven years after the apology was delivered. And as Queensland debat...

Hilary shares her story of the lifelong impacts of being separated from her daughter by adoption in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1962 and their subsequent reunion. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. Visit www.jigsawqueensland.com for more information about adoption issues and forced adoption.

In the second episode of our late discovery series, we speak to Dr Helen Riley about her personal story and her research into late discovery adoption. Imagine discovering that you're adopted as an adult. This disclosure might come following the death of an adoptive parent, by accident, when approached by a biological family member, while applying for a passport, finding adoption papers or during a...

Imagine discovering that you're adopted as an adult. This disclosure might come following the death of an adoptive parent, by accident, when approached by a biological family member, while applying for a passport, finding adoption papers or during a family argument. These are just some of the ways late discoverers have found out the truth. Over two episodes, we'll be unpacking late discovery adopt...

In Part Two, we talk more about the various forms of grief and loss we may encounter and how the adoption experience adds an additional layer of complexity when tackling these experiences. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. Visit www.jigsawqueensland.com for more information about adoption issues or for notes about this episode.

As a community we have apologised for past forced adoption practices and promised to never do it again. So, why is adoption still so blithely offered as a child safety solution? In our latest bonus podcast episode, Jo Sparrow talks to Dr Trevor Jordan, President of Jigsaw Queensland, about why we need to rethink permanency options in meeting the needs of kids who need out of home care so we do not...

Jo speaks with Lois about a loss they have recently shared...the death of adoptive parents. In part one of a two-part series about grief and loss, we explore how loss and grief are experienced by people affected by adoption. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. Visit www.jigsawqueensland.com for more information about adoption issues or for notes about this episo...

In this episode we discuss how using an intermediary service works. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more information go to http://www.jigsawqueensland.com/episode-notes Your host is Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow - President of Jigsaw Queensland ( www.jigsawqueensland.com ) Connect with us Instagram - adopt_perspective_podcast Facebook - Jigsaw Post-Adoption Centre Q...

You can't talk about adoption in Australia without discussing past Forced Adoption policies and practices. In this episode we explore the history of Forced Adoption in Australia and its ongoing impact. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. Visit www.jigsawqueensland.com for more information about adoption issues and Forced Adoption. For more information go to http...

Heather shares her story of the lifelong impacts of being separated from her daughter through adoption in 1975, at the pinnacle of the forced adoption era and their subsequent reunion with Jo Sparrow. They discuss her work within the post adoption support community and how helping others has aided in her own healing. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. Visit www...

The first episode of season one discusses how episodes will explore the adoption experience from the perspectives of mothers, fathers, adopted people and their loved ones. We introduce upcoming interviews featuring the personal stories of people affected by adoption and exploring adoption topics including adoption loss, psychological impacts of adoption, forced adoption, intercountry adoption, sea...