Jennifer Kaeshagen - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/the-prime-ministers-apology-to-victims-of-forc...
On Thursday, 21 March, Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a national apology on behalf of the Australian Government to all Australians affected by removal policies and practices from 1932 to 1982 which resulted in forced adoptions. The exact figure of how many children were removed remains unknown but it is estimated that as many as 225,000 babies were removed throughout this time. Many adoptees may still not know this to have been the case.
The forced removals and adoptions were driven largely by religious groups, churches and ultimately conservative social morays during the 1900s post-war period, when it was widely considered in the best interests of children to be raised by well to do, white, married couples.
In a 1973 journal article Dr. Ferry Grunseit, from the Children’s Department at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, wrote:
“In New South Wales most unmarried mothers… are more likely to be poor, undernourished and of low intelligence, if not actually retarded.”
In 1959 Dr Donald Lawson of the Royal Women’s Hospital remarked during an address that:
“The prospect of the unmarried girl or of her family adequately caring for a child and giving it a normal environment and upbringing is so small that I believe for practical purposes it can be ignored. I believe that in all such cases the obstetrician should urge that the child be adopted…The last thing that the obstetrician might concern himself with is the law in regard to adoption.”
The removal policies and practices born from attitudes such as these, according to Prime Minister Julia Gillard “created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering.”
“To you, the Mothers who were betrayed by a system that gave you no choice and subjected you to manipulation, mistreatment and malpractice, we apologise,” said Prime Minister Gillard. “We say sorry to you, the Mothers who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent.”
“You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal.”
The decision to provide an Apology from the Government came after a Senate inquiry into Forced Adoptions which found as many as 225,000 babies were removed. Many anguished Mothers, Fathers and their now grown children gave evidence to the Senate inquiry which focused on the removal of infants between 1951 and 1975.
It was a period in Australia’s history of social stigma for unmarried mothers. Young women who fell pregnant were often sent away to halfway houses run by churches. Many were intimidated into signing away their babies for adoption even before they were born. Others who hadn’t signed had their babies taken regardless.
The Senate inquiry found women were forced to sign and also that in many cases signatures were faked. Mothers who fought back were sometimes institutionalised and others held down while authorities took their newborns away. Some were drugged immediately following the birth of their child only to wake and find their baby gone.
In many cases adopted babies had their birth certificates issued in their adoptive parents’ names.
Many women were reunited with their children but after decades of anguish, the journey to find their children a brutal one.
On February 29, 2012, the Senate Community Affairs References Committee released its report into the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices. The report includes twenty recommendations, several of which related to a national apology that identifies and acknowledges the experiences of those affected by forced adoption practices.
According to this report many adopted people suffered ongoing negative effects due to their adoption, including struggles with identity, self-esteem and intimacy mental and physical health.
One recommendation prescribed that “official apologies should include statements that take responsibility for the past policy choices made by institutions’ leaders and staff, and not be qualified by reference to values or professional practice during the period in question.”
Indeed, today there is no doubt that forced adoption was a Government-endorsed violence which inflicted profound suffering on a great many Australians, hundreds of whom submitted their testimonies to the inquiry.
“As a direct result of adoption I have found difficulties with trust of others, self-esteem, confidence, relationships and being a mother myself. I have sought counselling or therapy at six times though my adult life, roughly once in each decade. However there is no counselling available specifically for adoptees, to assist them with the issues of adoption which involves more than loss.”
“I still to this day struggle with expressing and understanding what adoption means for me. A few years ago I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and I have recently, since doing my submission, had panic attacks and believe that I now have general anxiety disorder.”
“To strip a mother of her baby is a cruel, cruel act. But to leave a baby alone is another. And that’s how I am, alone. Feeling as if I do not have the capacity to love, because it took me a long time to learn it.”
“My life has been a rollercoaster ride of emotional trauma; indescribable fear; uncertainty; anxiety; self-sabotage in so many ways; physical ill-health; alcoholism; depression; anger at a level of rage at many points in certain phases; inability to deal with many aspects of disappointment; a feeling of abandonment within friendships and work relationships (far too often); and a variety of other emotional challenges which never made sense at a conscious level.”
“I believe that being an adoptee has profoundly affected my life in negative ways. I believe that all choices I have made in my life have been directly influenced by my primal wound that I have carried for my life and have only just begun to recognise.”
For many adoptees, developing a sense of personal identity has been extremely difficult. And many have experienced great difficulty connecting emotionally with others due to profound fear of abandonment.
“As for me, being separated from my parents and being brought up by strangers left me with identity confusion, a sense of not fitting, of being a fraud, an inability to maintain relationships and a belief that I was unlovable.”
“Given away at birth, I was stripped of my innate identity, my intrinsic heritage and formally given a new name and family. I grew up with a profound sense of duality—of being part of a family and yet very much separate from them.”
“Being removed from my mother’s body after birth traumatized me. Having my identity removed—my entire story about who I was—shattered my sense of self. Having a partial and meagre false identity attributed to me kept me in a state of traumatic confusion throughout my childhood to the current day.”
One submitter to the senate inquiry described the difficult experience of learning of her adoption as an adult.
“I found out I was adopted when I was 46yrs old. The pain of rejection was strong and so was the pain of finding my mother only to be rejected again. This rejection was caused by the great stress and trauma she had suffered in losing me as an infant. No longer was I the baby she remembered but a fully grown woman whom to her was a complete stranger. All of the memories she had hidden in her subconscious were brought to her mind and she was in great distress. I almost lost her because of this but somehow through great determination we have managed to have a relationship. I cannot stress enough how it is to lose one’s identity at such a late age and then find family most of whom rejected me. If I had not been taken from my family I would have known my grandparents ,my aunts and my uncles and my cousins.”
Many adoptees report having experienced difficulties in their adult lives which they relate to the trauma of their adoption.
“I believe these circumstances have affected me in my life. I have been an anxious person during my life and continue to be troubled by what happens around me personally. My Story will never have closure for me if I cannot meet my birth mother or have a picture or something more than I have now. Who do I look like? What were the influences in my mother’s life? What was she passionate about? What sort of person is she? What sort of family did/does she come from?”
There is no doubt that the experience of being adopted has long-term effects.
There is no doubt that the experience of being the parent of a newborn taken by force has long-term effects.
“I always felt different from everybody else. I thought I was the only one this had ever happened to. I could be in a roomful of people and be so alone and upset. I would leave the room, go to another room where I was in private and bawl my eyes out, and then I would walk back into the room as if nothing happened, because it was my private pain that I was not allowed to speak about. I was silenced, told to go home and forget it ever happened. By jingo, you cannot do that.”
Indeed, according to Ms Charlotte Smith, “A mother whose child has been stolen does not only remember in her mind, she remembers with every fibre of her being.”
Today the following words of the Apology were moved in the Senate and the House of Representatives:
Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced the separation of mothers from their babies, which created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering.
2. We acknowledge the profound effects of these policies and practices on fathers.
3. And we recognise the hurt these actions caused to brothers and sisters, grandparents, partners and extended family members.
4. We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your children. You were not legally or socially acknowledged as their mothers. And you were yourselves deprived of care and support.
5. To you, the mothers who were betrayed by a system that gave you no choice and subjected you to manipulation, mistreatment and malpractice, we apologise.
6. We say sorry to you, the mothers who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent. You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal.
7. We know you have suffered enduring effects from these practices forced upon you by others. For the loss, the grief, the disempowerment, the stigmatisation and the guilt, we say sorry.
8. To each of you who were adopted or removed, who were led to believe your mother had rejected you and who were denied the opportunity to grow up with your family and community of origin and to connect with your culture, we say sorry.
9. We apologise to the sons and daughters who grew up not knowing how much you were wanted and loved.
10. We acknowledge that many of you still experience a constant struggle with identity, uncertainty and loss, and feel a persistent tension between loyalty to one family and yearning for another.
11. To you, the fathers, who were excluded from the lives of your children and deprived of the dignity of recognition on your children’s birth records, we say sorry. We acknowledge your loss and grief.
12. We recognise that the consequences of forced adoption practices continue to resonate through many, many lives. To you, the siblings, grandparents, partners and other family members who have shared in the pain and suffering of your loved ones or who were unable to share their lives, we say sorry.
13. Many are still grieving. Some families will be lost to one another forever. To those of you who face the difficulties of reconnecting with family and establishing on-going relationships, we say sorry.
14. We offer this apology in the hope that it will assist your healing and in order to shine a light on a dark period of our nation’s history.
15. To those who have fought for the truth to be heard, we hear you now. We acknowledge that many of you have suffered in silence for far too long.
16. We are saddened that many others are no longer here to share this moment. In particular, we remember those affected by these practices who took their own lives. Our profound sympathies go to their families.
17. To redress the shameful mistakes of the past, we are committed to ensuring that all those affected get the help they need, including access to specialist counselling services and support, the ability to find the truth in freely available records and assistance in reconnecting with lost family.
18. We resolve, as a nation, to do all in our power to make sure these practices are never repeated. In facing future challenges, we will remember the lessons of family separation. Our focus will be on protecting the fundamental rights of children and on the importance of the child’s right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
19. With profound sadness and remorse, we offer you all our unreserved apology.
Read more on this at http://thestringer.com.au/the-prime-ministers-apology-to-victims-of-forc...
Hansard transcript of what was said in parliament: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/chamber/hansardr/7d2bdc3b-3..., scroll down to page 39.
Transcript of the Prime Minister's speech to 800 people in the Greal Hall of Parliament, as posted on her website: http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/national-apology-forced-adoptions
Click on the three IMG's below for angry comment on the Labor leadership fiasco stealing the media attention from the apology.
Comments
International coverage
http://article.wn.com/view/2013/03/21/Gillard_offers_apology_for_forced_...
Good on the government for doing this
The Apology reinded me of Pamela Bridgefott's Expose at Taylor Square Sydney..
I thought it would have been good to have her sing some of her original adoption songs there and then.
The Apology wss done in a way to cover all parties.
It doesn't dismiss the fact that today there are times when adoptions are very real and needed, when they're not forced.
Good on the Government for doing this.
Taking a stand for these mothers and their offspring who were all affected one way or ano0ther.
I think from what I see today it's a very different attitude even if we still treat single mothers in a fairly unreasonable way.
Best of good fortune to all the survivors of forced adoptions. You're not victim mentalities, or not the ones I know.
Good on You.
Col
Now Salvos, medical and other corporations need to apologise
The video is all I saw, and yes it took me back to when Pamela Bridgefoot first went public with the wrongs of forced adoptions.
That guitar player, like hers, except she wasn't there.
I'm sending her and all her wonderful creative ones all my best wishes.
You were heard before by a lot of progressive and innovative understanding people.
You've been heard now by the Commonwealth government, or so they say.
Now, we want to hear, and I've no doubt so does anyone with s coail conscience, the apologies from the Salvation Army corporation, and all the medical and other corporations involved.
Best to all affected, I understand this injustice from a thoroughly obeserved and evaluated perspective.
Alistiar
Publish
That they apologised to men who threw girls away is beyond me
It's not all about the Prime Minister.
This doesn't mean I think the Apology was so bad, it's a good thing, and reminded me of a lot of other injustices.
The apology was a vindication and a long overdue validation that what was done time ago with forced adoptions was totally barbaric and wrong, and especailly affected the mothers and their babies.
That they apologised to some who were indeed part of the perpetrators, I speak here about the hopefully few men who used young girls and threw them away, is beyond me.
That "profound" bit about the dads, not true for a fair few of them as I know this whole saga.
I'm not sure what Christine Cole is trying to say about the DNA and her piece regarding this? Wish she would be more clear perhaps?
Otherwise this post is good.
It's about Forced adoptions and how they are still happening in a different way.
It's a different time zone.
The discrimination against unmarried mothers continues, I notice from an e-mail just received from a parliamentarian there's only one discrimination they seem concerned about. Shame on them for the tunnel vision.
Single mums are not the result of girls or women freely choosing to be unmarried and raise a child on their own, they too have no choices and few large voices, this is today talking.
We have to go there, and get that right with the Human Rights Bill they are introducing, or already have begun too?
The apology, it's something well done by our Government all the same. Way over due.
Thanks
James
Where to get the specialised trauma therapy needed?
It's a great thing to have this apology, and for this Government to have said "We hear you now".
It's another way of saying "We listened to you" and this is correct.
I commend not only Pamela Bridgefoot, also Rachel Siewert and the Greens, for getting this moving even as both did at a different time.
I'm saddened the apology didn't happen when it could have as I see now how some of the mothers comitted suicide.
This is the worst of the tragedies.
The focus could now be on what the apology suggests rightly so, specialised therapy to enable the disabled to now get on with their lives.
Knowing now, they have human rights, and it's acknowledged that wrongs were committed against the mothers and their babies, as well as the fathers who admitted paternity.
Health needs to restructure so there's appropriate health care for those in need of it via the effects of forced adoptions.
I trust the Department of Health won't fob this off to say P.A.R.C.S. as they are one of the perpetrators, who admitted blame: The Beneveloent Society.
What a thorough Apology this is.
I for one commend the Prime Minister Julia Gillard and all who had input into it for giving it.
Hope it begins a process of healing so very many, even those who aren't victim mentalities yet have been severely victimsed by forced adoptions rippling effects.
I know a couple who are so grieving and need specialised health therapy.
Where do they turn to to get this?
It is a specialised field of "trauma" and even those who've done a lot of work on this are still struggling with anguish and pain that shouldn't be there.
Mia
I want biological dads' names on the original birth certificates
I still can't fathom the biological dads names were never put on the original birth certificates, and want justice with this one. (As if immaculate conceptions).
Christine Cole is onto something with this.
What is it?
How do we make this right?
"How dreadful to cut off single parent benefit at age 8"
“How dreadful, when the federal government is finally apologising for forced adoptions, that
they are cutting off this benefit to single parents when their youngest child reaches eight. More
children will, I fear, be forced from their mothers as a consequence of this cruel false
economy. Part of the case for introducing the benefit in 1973 was that it cost more to keep a child
in an institution than to provide a benefit to enable a mother to keep her child.
‘Also dreadful is the government's excuse that it will help mothers get back into the workforce, not
an easy thing to do with unemployment above 5 per cent and a child to care for on your own.”
From a commentary in The Canberra Times
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/we-owe-it-to-single-mothers-to-w...
How do we rid the tragic prejudices against unmarried mothers?
How do we rid the tragic prejudices against unmarried mothers?
This Apology hasn't done this in Australia. Has it done it anywhere?
For the best part it's as others have said their own way, a vindication and reminder of somethings that affected tragically very many unmarried mothers, fathers and their children.
The Apology acknowledging the extended family is good, yet not all are united there.
Forced adoptions caused massive rifts and this will take a lot of effort from those who didn't "notice", didn't "care" about their sister, daughter, neighbour etc. to heal the survivors I reckon.
Siewert might have started this Senate Inquiry politically, well done to her, however it was the Labor Government who made the Apology, not the Greens.
If the opposition were in power I really doubt there would've been any Apology.
The thing also is what about the unmarried mothers of today.
Do we "ignore" their plights, I think not.
They need support as does every unmarried mother, or father doing it alone. The last comment made me really sad and also aware how much there is to do.
Thanks Indymedia
Less shaming in Europe
“This Apology hasn't rid the tragic prejudices against unmarried mothers. Has it done it anywhere?" – I’ll stick my neck out here with a gut feeling not necessarily based on hard fact but on my observation in many years living in Europe: In most north European countries single parenthood is no longer shamed. Worst still, though probably not as bad as here in Australia, is the attitude in predominantly Catholic European countries.
In some traditional indigenous societies – you know, those we whites have the gall to dismiss as ‘primitive’ – the most desirable brides were the ones who had proven their fertility by having children before marriage. The whole tribe shared in caring for them. Although it’s said we need children, our tribe pinches pennies and punishes.
You're selling The Greens short here. There couldn't have been an apology without Siewert launching the inquiry. As they're not government, the Greens couldn't do the apology. They did the hard yards, the others just made speeches on Apology Day.
They're (Europe) a more mature lot of countries in many ways
Very True Rachel Siewert from the Greens instigated the Senate Inquiry into forced adoptions.
She as has been written was not any person who did this quite some years back, it was fairly recent.
For this and all the work the Greens did and do for forced adoptions, for what followed the apology, they have our respect. They've earned it.
I respect the Greens generally.
The Greens and the Independents.
It's true what's been written the Prime Minister only delivered the apology, well said.
Politically, whose going to follow it through.
Let's not forget an apology wouldn't have happened if over a leangthy period of time that pressure from numerous people came to a Senate Inquiry.
Good on the ones who spoke up time ago.
Good on all the targets who spoke up for the Inquiry and outside of it, recent or past.
The whole social injustice here leaves me numb.
It's good by the way some parts of Europe are not anti unmarried mothers. I really was impressed reading about our Aboriginals here.
They're (Europe) a more mature lot of countries in many ways.
Understanding now the Aboriginals are in certain ways more evolved.
Hope the apology is not just that, a few words spread out to the public to appease the targets and their families.
Gotto rush all the best to the targets you're at very least acknowledged as being brutalised with anguish as a consequence. There does need to be more as the apology says, all I know do.
What a cruel part of Australian history hey Jeremy Sammet.
Peter Reid (and family) friends of mother who lost via this foul means.
Single mums should be given a fair go
I'm feeling empathy for the adoptees stories here, and the mums.
I really had to think about adoption and whether it's what it's made out to be when I read what some adoptees have said.
I don't like this idea of fragmenting families when we can help it not be like this.
I also think single mums should be given a fair go.
What's the issue with the Government and these.
Francis
Apology is something solid to build on
The lies and hatred of Dr. Ferry Gussett from Dept. of Prince of Wales Hospital.
I just read his bit in a journal from 1973.
He thought and possibly still thinks unmarried mothers are close to if not "retarted".
That insult is one of the most flagrant lies of forced adoptions.
I've never met any of them who weren't of (as Dr.Geoff Rickarby rightly states) very high intellect.
To get this kind of tragic stereotyping of unmarried mothers in the 70's makes me wonder about a lot of doctors.
They have the degrees, but no knowledge or ability to care.
The Dr.Gussett's of the world have a great deal to apologise for and to unmarried mothers.
How can you pidgeon hole any individuals, in any collective.
I suppose the likes of Gussett would propose anti-gay rights, and anything that is not as his hateful lack of insights comes up with.
I like what Dr. Geoff Rickarby said, that the girls and women were of high intelligence.
That's how they've all comes across to me.
To have the victory of an Apology is something solid to build on.
We need to step aside from the hateful, the stereotyping nasties in this world.
Gosh they really do a disservice not only to medicine to a whole range of other fields.
Good on you all for gaining a begin to healing, I hope.
I know it individual, nothing is black and white and all the same because of similar experiences.
Christiane
Crean's and Gillard's totally disrespectful and bad timing
The fact Simon Crean caused a leadership spill at the same time as the Apology to the survivors of Forced adoptions was being given was terrible. What a jerk Crean was to do this. I've no doubt he and his knew the politics of this. Who else did?
What I'm trying to say is this Apology would have been given the proper respect and timeliness it deserved if the Prime Minister Julia Gillard didn't give it on the same day as the leadership spill.
That's totally disrespectful and bad timing of those impacted by forced adoptions.
Put another way, it took the edge off of the topic as herewith. A big edge, and sidetracked from the Apology. Shame on Crean.
The Apology was given at a wrong time, and nobody but that idiot Crean are to blame for this. There could be more in his league who did this deliberately, we don't know.
On the positives, a good thing all those who fought for freedom to express and be without prejudice, with justifiable accountability from the "authorities" have found they have an Apology at long last from the Commonwealth Government.
Alex and Cheryl
'Labor games rip apart an Apology'
...was the frontpage headline in the 'National Indigenous Times', which quoted some very angry people.
Read their comments by clicking on the three attachments under the main story. When you click on the pictures they expand to comfortably readable size.
Redneck country wishes the worst for vulnerable mothers & kids
I'm gratedul to every mother who took a stand for this social cause.
It's affected my family in various ways.
I know adoption is different today, but am not entirely sure if it's much better really.
With regards to unmarried mothers. I feel the Australian Stigma of being part of a redneck country that would wish the worst for these vulnerable mothers and their children.
Any woman could become an unmarried mother, due to various sad world realities.
Give them a break Commonwealth Government.
It's a bit hypocritical to Apologise to those impacted by forced adoptions whilst making it really difficult for single mothers, and fathers for that matter.
Sad to know there were so many tears at the Apology.
No doubt tears of sadness, anger at the injustices past and what they all individually face or faced as a cosequence.
Thanks Indy and all the best to those who are now "vindicated" as one person put it.
You were "vindicated" by others with the capacity for love and cvompassion a while ago before all this Senate Inquiry. Just that the Government takes a long time to really hearv anybody's voices except their own. This includes the Greens.
That's sad in itself.
The Government are meant to be for the people, not the people for the Prime Minsiter and Cabinet.
Reg L.
Robyn
What does it take to make the government accountable?
It has to be said.
The voices were organised quite a long time ago against forced adoptions, by an Australian Artist and her entourage.
This went on and on being ignored for whatever reasons, some mothers and adoptees committed suicide in the time frame, disregarding the artist's voice.
What does it take to make the Government accountable now for say single mothers who are being treated in such a punitive manner.
Will the Prime Minister, in ten or twenty years time say "Sorry we treated you and your babies or children so badly" to unmarried mothers of today.
The trouble with speaking the truth to power, is it's often spoken to power, by few individuals with courage and strong personalities despite their anguishes, and "power elite" don't listen.
They consistently don't listen as they think they are right and the people or person, especially possibly "the Artist" is wrong.
That's a big problem with politics in Australia.
They want to be celebrities, have immense influence, but don't have the talent to pursue any meaningful direction as those with social consciences.
I'm sorry but this Apology is far too over due and even as it was given in a well written way, there's something about the fact the Prime Minister was not aware of individuals, even as she wants to be known as one, only the collectives.
This would all not have come to a place of "acknowledgement of wrongs done in forced adoptions" if it weren't for the very few who earlier in time spoke the truth to power.
From there came a lot of power, a lot of gathering of voices, and a lot of encouragement from people like artists all over the world who see what's ahead before most people can even see what they've just passed.
George
Shame doesn't go away the minute a government admits remorse
A long time coming this "Apology".
When do politicians really look in the mirror and act "good" individually. When do they show real courage of their convictions, as they have so many surrounding them and helping them. Some people have less support and are able to say sorry with dignity well before it's too late.
I've yet to meet a one in Australia.
I'm a adoptee with a good life of honesty as a guidepost, accountability goes with this.
Why didn't the Government take a stand about this social injustice some years back when it was exposed in NSW in particular???
I thank the Prime Minister for her wording, it's just great.
Is she fair dinkum about getting the specialist health care for all those who may be strong and need help with healing no less.
I'm not one of these, however, I see my mother, not my adoptive mother, is one. I'm angry, but it's in control and I use this anger really well to good use, not destructive use.
I'm not saying it's too late, the Apology, it's just unusual that it came so long after the horrific realities.
Were politicians blind when it was all happening, and when they made those 'barbaric practices and policies'.
I've still got unresolved anger even after hearing the apology, and it'll take a lot of time for me to understand why politicians are so anti-the public they serve.
They are very self serving and want their huge pensions, and this is never mentioned in the media. They work as a herd and can hardly speak up to their peers but belittle the people every time. They did this with forced adoptions. How dare they. No Apology is enough to right that tragic wrong.
Nicola Roxon will be getting $20.000 annually, something like this when she retires, and she was instrumental in large part for starting the Northern Territory Intervention.
Shame doesn't go away the minute a government admits remorse.
Not if that government continues doing wrong, illegal or lacking principles actions.
They're happening.
We the tax payers poay for these polticians pensions so when anybody writes to any of them demand that they be heard.
I've had enough of this 'We are here to serve you" when they serve themselves and themselves only, with sums that overtake any amounts that say a single parent would get on peanuts pensions.
An Apology, there needs to be some more for some more in all this.
There also needs to be real healing acts.
My dad from my real or biological mother ran away from the whole thing, and abandoned my mum, that's real low life.
It's tragic that I happen to look just like him, and even drive the same car.
One thing for sure, I've never cheated on my wife, who was once the woman I made pregnant her at a youngish age.
That low life dad came into my mother's life and my mother has to have a silent number and all sorts of protections aginst him.
He's that low. Took awqay her virginity as well as her money from working after school.
What a disgrace of a biological da, my adoptive dad died.
Thanks so much Indymedia
William
More like $200,000 a year for Roxon
To William.
The figure you state about Nicola Roxon's Pension is really closer to $200.000 annually, not a measly $20.000.
Also, the Apoloogy that I read was very caring and thoughtful.
It apologised to people like yourself, acknowledging your suffering and pains.
There was more than what is shown on this post.
I think Australia being the first country to give a formal Commonwealth Government Apology to the victimised in Forced Adoptions is a very good FIRST in the world.
Internationally this is a first, and I commend the Australian government for their Apology.
We all know it started way back when one or two spoke out, fact is it had to be looked at collectively, was, and then the Apolgy happened.
Bravo Julia Gillard and the Labor Party for this First and really lovely Apology. Bravo to the Greens as well as they took up the challenge of this recent Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions. Bravo to all who want justice with peace and healing for all.
Mother and some more.
This touched too many lives to count
Good to finally have an Apology.
I too thought the timing was way out with regards to political things in the air at the time.
This is a serious subject.
With all the learning I've gained from forced adoptions, I want to thank the artists, those who pioneered the eventual Forced Adoption Apology and especially Pamela Bridgefoot.
I had the good fortune of attending her huge expose in Sydney some years ago and saw and heard what I never knew existed in Australia.
It was multi genre, with narrative, songs Pamela sang, Visual Artworks and musicians backing the amazingly gentle yet graceful voice of Pamela's.
I was in shock at the time, as the lyrics told of a lot of sadness, it reminded me of Joni Mitchell and her loss.
Whatever the governments did and do with Apologies and reparations I'm grateful first and foremost to those who heard me a while ago.
I'm an adoptee. I knew what this was like I had no idea what it was like to be a mother who lost to forced adoptions.
I'm also grateful to the Greens who I support wholeheartedly.
Whatever happens with my private concerns is not to be raised here, however, I'm just extremely grateful to the few who showed me it wasn't just me who was suffering or suffers because of forced adoptions.
This touched a lot of lives, too many to count I'd say.
Mathew
Nowhere in the apology is there any mention of the artist
With this Apology I think along the lines of Mathew that it wasn't politics that initiated this Apology, it was one solo artist, and her colleagues.
Together they left an enduring mark that resonated and form a force which eventuated in the collectroves gaining momentum.
I've noticed nowhere in the Apology is there any mention of the artist in question, that Mathew talks about.
That's how they think. Herd mentality.
As far as I'm concerned it was all raise and not heard because a politician, many politicians didn't want to hear the truth spoken to them by an artist.
I'm sorry but the damage has been done in the meantime.
Now there needs to be back up to the apology.
Good on the initiaters, and all those who were left out of the apology.
I'm with genuine concern about this social injustice.
I think, like some other commentary here, there's a lot more to be done to right these wrongs of the past.
I also think single mums today should be given some decent care and support rather than the punitive policy at present.
Brenda
Why didn't Gillard mention the 'legal wrongs'?
Let's be clear about this so all the leeches don't come out in droves toward those who have or do suffer.
The Mothers and adoptees I know are not 'victims'.
They don't consider themselves victims, and therefore are not.
We all know too well the way governments treat 'victims' or 'victimised' and that's been spelled out by more than myself.
Victims attract leeches.
I think the good people who spoke up about forced adoptions whether they did it yesterday or today are to be given a huge handshake.
I shake the hands of the arist and also the collectives as well as anyone else who did hard work with this no matter how fierce the suffering whilst doing this.
This has been as the apology says a long overdue apology.
Just don't go thinking for any length of time these mothers and their babies are 'victims'.
The few I've met are anything but.
They were in truth 'victimised'.
It's not what happens, it how you react or respond to what happens, and those I know suffered and still do, yet not for a second think 'poor me'.
If the government don't get this right they have missed the point of forced adoptions and what the apology should have meant.
Some of the apology does almost if not insinuate a victim status, this is not truth as I know it.
Good people went forward and spoke the truth to power a long time ago, and then again they did so with the Greens at the forefront.
These 'good' people as we are all flawed somewhat, were and are not so much 'victims' yet were barbarically victimised.
There is a difference.
I found the apology for the most part one of the best speeches from this Prime Minister to date.
I congratulate her and all who worked on the paper for the apology. I understand there were many who made this possible, mainly those who have had to suffer the most terrible prejudices all their lives to date. There is a line drawn now, and hopefully this line will be respected, back off bullies as one commenter said, and back off from these mothers and their children many now adult children and their families.
We are sick and tired of bullies in Australia, those of us who are mindful. There's a petition out at the moment on just this, anti-bullying.
It's by Alex Greenwich and is being filled up by the minute with signatures. People are tired of bullies. All kinds of people, even those who once admit they were bullies.
Forced Adoptions was about bullying at it's most primitive and savage. No more of this from our policies and practices.
Dr. Lawrence and the other Dr. mentioned who thought the mothers were of a lower caste are leeches who prey on the vulnerable. Sad truths about bullies.
These include the church, the charity, the political, the medical, the legal, and all the bully people.
The apology makes no mention about the 'legal wrongs' of the time. I'm here and now asking the Prime Minister why not.
This is a specific question to you Julia Gillard Prime Minister. Think about it and give the people of Australia an answer to this with complete respectful Apology.
There were barbaric laws in place and as it's your area of expertise Julia Gillard why didn't you apologise for these?
There's more than my number asking this very same question.
Best to the survivors of forced adoptions all of you are unique and I understand there were those who did a lot of bloody hard work without merit for that work on this social injustice. That's silly on the government's part not to have recognised you, to have dismissed you. Many didn't by the looks here and other places.
I trust your loved ones will know you a little better, also your colleagues and associates.
Finally to round off here I hope all people have more compassion and support for you the victimised now that this has finally come to a place of 'acknowledgement of wrongs done to you'.
I as well wish you specialist counselling and compensations for your lives torn apart by these past now admitted very grave injustices.
Warwick
I was told Pamela Bridgefoot burnt out from doing far too much
Rumour has it Pamela Bridgefoot suffered a form of nervous breakdown just prior to and after the work she did for forced adoptions.
I was told she got burnt out from doing far too much.
Working full time and doing all the artistic things to create what she did, which was tremendous, as well as being a family person. She put her whole self in this social cause for many years.
Whatever, I send her gratitide as she was the first person to make me feel 'vindicated' from my loss in forced adoptions.
Before she came along I was drowning, literally.
She's a giver.
I hope she's now recovered and on with more of what she excels at her creativity.
What a mum too.
On you all in the name of justice
Mum of three now wife and science teacher
What a lot of political spin in a socially exclusive apology
The Apology wasn't written by the Prime Minister.
The apology wasn't personal enough in that the Prime Minister wasn't as warm as she could have been.
The apology was socially exclusive.
In that its focus was on one generation only, that of Holdens and Beachgoers.
Truth is forced adoptions affected more than those of that era, far more from later era.
What a lot of political spin in there.
I don't think this cause was given the right time. Neither was it given from the Prime Minister.
It was very government speak rather than personal and healing.
Another thing rumours are not something I'm into when we're discussing a senseive social issue like forced adoptions. I'm realistic about the apology. It makes out like all those affected are of one kind of person. There's something so denigating about that.
I congartulate all the individual voices that are separate from politics for this apology.
I don't congratulate the government when they are hypocrites, breaking up families all over the place.
Let's not bring in the Liberals they're not worth the time of day.
I'm closer now to my mum than I was before this apology. One good thing I'm thankful for.
Takeski
This is a whitewash apology, not a sincere one
Has to be said the government did 'rip the apology apart'.
They have to get it right.
These mothers are not all the same, they're not all clones and none of them deserve the political childishness that tore the apology apart.
The government have to account to the adoptees and all the others about this.
Skanks.
This whole forced adoptions is a highly sensitive matter and the government have to always be infants.
One thing for sure the ones who suffered are not old and out the door they're to be congratulated for doing what they individually and collectively did. That lead to at least getting acknowledgement.
A lot of us are frankly fed up with governments ignoring a lot of things.
This is a whitewash apology, not a sincere one.
I'm not able to 'accept' childish games Prime Minister and neither is anyone I know.
Get it right, don't make out everyone is beneath you, and definitely don't talk about being a 'good' country when you Julia stabbed Rudd in the back.
Sadly Julia it's all about being a 'principled' country, not a 'good' country.
While I'm here I definitely don't want a Liberal government yet somehow can't read what this government is not able to see or understand.
What gives with them?
Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong seem O.K. the rest I'm scratching my head.
This was about 'forced adoptions' over a long period of time.
Another thing, what about taking up the skanks that were and still are the 'social workers' of our history and even today.
So many of them want, like the government, power over, rather than power with their clients.
No mention in the apology about that profession that was so bleeding hateful, power abusive and often still are.
Becky
Apology seemed sincere but refugee families being torn apart
I feel vindicated by some of these comments.
The apology seemed sincere in one way but we've got other families like refugees being torn apart.
I'm with my original mum and we're working on our relationship.
That's something we're doing and in a way the apology did help this a bit.
It says something about humility in the whole transcript and for this I'm saying the apology was an acknowledgement and a start. We all have our dignity, and all need to show our humility when any of us tear families apart. That's a no no.
I'm sure the adoptive parents all over the world are now realising a lot of things they never thought of before this.
Thanks Indymedia
Not just refugees.....
Indigenous kids removed from families 'in record numbers'
By Geremy Geia, NITV News
Video at http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1750984/Housing-the-solution-to-child...
27 Mar 13: "The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care says says Australia is at risk of creating another stolen generation. Muriel Bamblett from the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency says Indigenous Australia is over-represented in child protection and under-represented in family services. She called for the "failed government policies" dealing with child abuse to be replaced by community controlled solutions. "All the evidence suggests that most Aboriginal children come into care because of neglect and not abuse... " Ms Bamblett said.
Government timed apology wrong and does other awful things
Forced adoptions shouldn't have happened.
The refugee crises shouldn't be happening.
Our original peoples shouldn't be consistently in the throws or middle of being torn apart.
With Forced adoptions I thought the Johnny O'Keefe bit was a bit much as I am an adoptee and my mother's not old enough to know about that long ago.
What gives with this government.
They made an apology and timed it wrong as well as do all these other aweful things.
Mel
Sure to be legal actions against the perpetrators
Forced adoptions was over a fairly long period of time.
My understanding is the mothers usually very young and vulnerable as the apology says, were given Stilboestral, a known carcinogenic.
This to me seems like agent orange in Vietnam War. They were given this to dry up their milk. It's use was a delactate.
None of the women I know knew what the drug was and why it was being given to them.
I think this is serious enough to be investigated and righted.
How many of these biological mothers have any cancers today, or how many of their children, as Stilboestral stays in the blood stream a long time I'm told.
There is something I don't understand about the apology. I think it was targeted at only one group of women even as it states Forced Adoptions affected all walks of life. It's as though the Prime Minister had to find a specific "time" and stick with this. What about those before that time, and those after?
For all the good in it I accept the apology as a beginning only. There's more to come.
There's no mention of compensations and I ask why not?
These mothers all suffered what the Prime Minister would have no idea of. Neither would most politicians.
If they'd been victimised as the mothers were I'm sure they'd have sued the pants of the perpetrators and found a "voice" in parliament for this to be raised a long time ago.
There's no way there wont be legal actions against the perpetrators.
I know this very well.
They're all again very "secretive" because the perpetrators don't want adverse publicity.
For whats it's worth this forced adoptions has made me rethink about Governments and Bureaucrats, even my own doctor.
I wont follow any leader who leads us all in tragic directions.
At least Crean didn't want us to go to war in Irag.
If they've done it once they can do it again.
This caused too much devastation for too many.
An apology alone will not heal the many affected.
It's a good beginning no matter how it was written and who it left out.
Regarding artists and individuals. Governments never listen to individuals.
One thing for sure no government or society should ever rob an individual (or his/her earned merit) of the product of his/her efforts.
But the government has done this time after time with many amazing people.
If that's what you're talking about with the artist who went public some time ago I agree with you.
Why did they ignore this "mother" and her work?
I see they are going to have what I'm told the artist had in '92, an "exhibition" worth 1.5 million.
I'd like to know about this and when it's happening, where and what "artists" will be showing their work.
This hasn't been advertised as yet. Gues the bureaucrats are busy or not finding those who will contribute to that.
That the artists in Australia are struggling is a known fact, they hardly ever get the recognition they've earned.
Too few do.
I think more should go into the Arts rather than so much into Sports.
But I'm not an ocker and I like justice and balance.
I'm in touch with several biological mothers & they're all going through some unusual things after this apology.
To finish here, I don't think we can compare the tragedies of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders with forced adoptions as the latter was and still is all about "racial discrimination". I do having said this have every empathy for their tragedies.
What a lot of terrible stories there, I do know. I think they have a lot to give and the government doesn't realise just how valuable they are.
The mothers and adoptees in forced adoptions are valuable too. They are worth more than patronising tokenisms.
Is this apology as the 72 year old ex journalist said here on Indy "they will apologise and then forget"?
I'm not following the lead of any government that takes tragic advantage of mothers and their families vulnerabilities.
I'm not following the lead of any government that takes tragic advantage of any vulnerable peoples.
That's the essential shame they faced with this apology.
Five million dollars a drop in the ocean for mothers & adoptees
I'm a mother of three.
two of my children are now young adults, one at uni and the other overseas working.
I didn't submit to the Senate Inquiry because I was advised it would bring up a lot of things I didn't need to surface.
Well, the Senate Inquiry and this apology has brought up lots of things even though I didn't write about my own time with this.
My first infant was taken from me by force. This was at a hospital I have returned to to see where this all began.
Well, it began before that hospital, the persecution.
I didn't have a wedding ring, that was all that mattered so you didn't lose your baby when I lost mine.
The apology is too little too late and I think anybody who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.
Our whole lives before and after the forced adoptions were shrouded in this prejudice and insulting others who put us down. I never accept poor treatment so didn't accept it when I finally went to therapy.
I was and am a mother of three even though I only raised two children.
Any bullies in any profession take note there's a growing concern about bullying which wont stop until bullies look in the mirror and apologise with compensations for all the damage they've done, and stop doing these.
I went to therapy and was told no I'm not a bully, but have been badly hurt by that kind of persons.
I wish all who suffer what I suffer more than an apology, good therapy and long at that. I'm still going have to.
I notices they've given five million dollars to "specialist Counselling", what a sham, that's a drop in the ocean of what's needed for the vast numbers of mothers let alone adoptees as well who need
"specialist counselling." This I guess belongs in the area of health, and everybody that's anybody knows we need more moneys in health care.
Being pragmatic, the apology is acknowledgement of past wrongs and I'm happy it was finally given despite how some groups thought it was not enough.
I think it's not enough.
My whole family have suffered one way or another because of my first borns forced adoption.
Mills
Many will never know "family" as most of us take for granted
Bullies are everywhere and Forced adoptions is all about bullies.
Bullies try to impose their abusive power over anyone and everyone.
The supreme court barristers have bullies in their midst. It is as said everywhere.
They veer toward certain vocations like social work and yes you know it bureaucracy and politics.
They want to be boss over in the most punitive ways, even when these ways are illegal and unethical.
Trouble is we are all gaining a lot of insights into their ways and tragic wrongs.
Forced adoptions were tragic for millions.
I think forced adoptions was all about ethical and physical thugs = bullies, who ALL need to apologise.
Good on the Federal Government for apologising. It's way too late for a lot of the mothers and adoptees.
Many of these will never be able to know "family" as most of us take for granted.
Amanda
Envy made adopters take the babies which were forced adoptions
Too true Amanda,and bullies try to undermine others.
They do this because they are envious of the ones they bully.
This envy is what made adopters take the babies which were forced adoptions in the first place.
They envied the mothers and wanted what was theirs.
Tragic all of this.
Malcolm
There is a need for financial compensations
The government here had a prime time to show real leadership, to show real responsibility.
It failed by not understanding that somebody, many have to compensate the targets of forced adoptions.
With that kind of sufering ongoing over lengths of time there is a need for financial compensations to the mothers especially.
Secondly, and related to first paragraph, the government seems to refuse to understand that their power brings with it enormous responsibility.
They are paid handsomely to be as one comment said 'principled'.
Thirdly, there is mention about the rights and responsibilities of being a mother or father.
I here and now suggest if this Prime Minister or any other want all the rights they are given they now have to take up their full gamut of responsibilities.
Nothing less.
Roger
Now we all need reparations and restitutions
Hear hear Roger,
This is a Government who made the Apology when the party in power were playing games, that very day.
This Government wants all the rights and privileges of being leaders without taking up the dynamic responsibilities these impose.
It's imperative all affected by forced adoptions, the mothers, receive some form of financial compansations for the losses.
Government policies and practices in this case lowered the utiliazation rates of human capital of these mothers and promoted very steep depreciation.
I know of only one mother from forced adoptions who isn't ravaged with anguish from this kind of foreful loss.
Even the one I know has struggled ever since that time.
To the Prime Minister I say you have given
1) Recognition of wrongs
now we all need
2)Reparations and
3) Restitutions.
Brad
Australia has so many government sanctioned phobias
I'm gay, I love it and I'm out of the closet a long time.
Julia Gillard, the biological mum I know is anything but old.
One thing for sure, because of Commonwealth government legislations she is very, very wise to all the deceit of your government and all the others.
Start looking at your own policies and practices in the here and now and upgrade them so they are civil and socially inclusive.
Get off the notoriously ageist platform of putting these mums into the "old" bracket.
Australia has so many government sanctioned phobias.
The apology doesn't make anywhere near a closure
I just don't know what to do with forced adoptions.
I know they caused a great deal of pain in two families I know of.
One thing about the apology I have to go with the comment about ageism, and other prejudices.
It's like Australia hasn't grown up as a country and still wants to covertly or overtly put even harmed peoples down.
Who does this, except a government with a superiority complex.
We're a young country with a lot to learn.
The apology showed how single unmarried girls and women were treated grossly, and now need compensations for all the wrongs.
If I were ever given a "known carcinogenic" as one writer said, I'd be a nervous wreck, wandering all the time if I had cancer or my kids did.
That's just one of the unethical or illegal things done to these mothers.
There's a lot more to forced adoptions getting recognition and acknowledgement than a mere apology.
I see how women unable to give birth are envious of those who have babies.
I've seen this played out time and again.
As if a fertile woman is worth a fortune. And this tragically seems to be true.
There is envy in the eyes of the childless mothers.
They also I've found have a kind of envy of women unmarried, or is it fear, as if the unmarried girls or women will steal their husbands.
Most of these I've seen played out, who'd want the husband, but wifey adores the dear sod.
I don't think anyone with any ethics can think buying a baby is all alright.
There are repercussions to this. There are big questions unanswered regarding forced adoptions. The apology doesn't make anywhere near a closure for those who had to go through the tragic loss of their bables.
I've known about this too, in another country.
Best of good health to the mothers and your children.
What is born to you is your own flesh and blood, no one can discount that.
They certainly tried and under the direction of our very own Australian Commonwealth Government, with the States and Territory Governments going along with all this to a tee. Shame
The apology is too late.
Terri
They have offered too little counselling and reunion support
The phrasing of the Apology is for most part good.
What's important and what the government have not shown with this apology is it's spirit of genuine concern for the ongoing wellbeing of those affected by forced adoptions.
The figures stated tell it all.
They don;t want to spend much, and think those affected will accept minimal.
Factually, people overcome the forces of very negative extreme trauma such as forced adoptions when the counter forces of love and support are in full effect.
I don;t believe for a minute this government gives much care for those adversely affected.
They have offered too little in the way of financial support in counselling and reunion costs.
These people have their dignity.
It's not just the biological dads who deserve dignity, the mothers and their children do too.
Thanks and best of good fortune to those affected.
This has moved a lot of Australians, and alerted us to what governments are capable of doing in the name of 'care' and 'support' to mothers and their children.
Fathers as well.
Deborah
Very mean and stingy for allocating such a small amount
After reading a lot of the submissions for the Senate Inquiry I kept wandering about those women out there wjo couldn't for the life of them offer a submission. The pains these women were feeling. This applying to the adoptees also. I don't like what I've read in the apology because it promotes the Government of the day at the forefront. That's not what this is all about. There would be a multitude of reasons why many mothers in particular didn't submit, to those mothers my heart goes out. This all must be too much and I empathise with you. I lost my child in a very different way, to a car accident, and the grief of this has left me with lifelong anguish no amount of counselling seems to soothe or take away. My child was just 10. I have to say the government is a very mean and stingy one for allocating such a small amount to this horrific history of ours. It's just as well the Prime Minister mentions how terrible it is, as when she was first told about it all she said in her words "that was yesterday". My child died "yesterday" Prime Minister, and I have my dignity. I would never accept the pittance this government is offering the mothers for all they've been through and all they're going through. I think it's time the government raised it's standards, as these ethical standards it has right now are very low. Who says this isn't repeating right now. We don't know what the Salvation Army or the Benevolent Society are doing. We don;t know what is happening out there because the mainstream media is still too secretive about real truths. This real truth is all the mums harmed by forced adoptions need compensations to rebuild their lives. What this government spends on things of lesser importance is gigantic. I also think the likes of the rich should start sharing their good fortune for those who may have fallen on harsh times because of these kinds of losses. They're not trivial. The apology was given by a woman I admire for standing up in parliament without a husband. We needed this country to see women can lead without being married. We all need to see women can raise children, and very well, without being married. Barbara IT
Is that all there is for something so terrifyingly horrible?
Roger's writing is what I want to say here, and some more.
The mothers have been bullied out of raising their own babies.
The Governments work like this I gather.
The Commonwealth Government tells the State and Territory Governments what to do and they in turn tell the local governments what to do.
This means the one ond only grouping of government that wasn't in any way involved in Forced Adoptions was the Local Governments.
I think we should get rid of the middle tier of government.
They are consistently corrupt and doing the wrong things, and as for the Commonwealth, well, you've apologised.
Is that all there is for something as terrifyingly horrible as forced adoptions were?
It's too easy to say a few words and on a day when you are bullying each other in parliament, hell, what was that about?
I don't like how the apology makes out like the mothers are all the same, and I don't like how the apology makes out like the fathers are all the same and I don't like how the apology makes out like the small by comparison to other budgets amount of funding will heal anybody who went through these tragedies.
Does the government think those who are suffering or have suffered will accept peanuts?
Don't ever take these peoples dignity and integrity away from then again.
They all have human rights.
If the government thinks they alone have rights without real responsibilities they've another think coming.
I stand up for the biological mothers and their infants.
Hate and prejudice can follow from one generation to another
There's no place for Hate in the form of PREJUDICES in any policy or practice resulting from government directives.
Saying this forced adoptions was and is all about hate for these vulnerable mothers and their babies, and a very tragic prejudice that still exists today.
It happens that hate and prejudice can follow from one generation to another, even in bureaucracy and government.
I'm very tired of hearing about all that is done under the directives of governments who are so "secretive" and manipulative always targeting those who need the most help.
It has to be said.
Hate and Prejudice are not things any of us should be promoting or condoning.
The apology doesn't mention prejudice.
I'm mentioning it because it's at the core of forced adoptions horrors.
Here's a helpful websiite which might enable some understanding of how to beat prejudice and the hate that is with it.
I've fought all my life against prejudice, the fight continues.
"No Place for Hate: 101 Ways you can beat Prejudice"
www.adl.org/prejudice/print.asp
Of course, too many people assume, and wrongly, prejudice is only to do with race. This is a wrong assumption as we see here with forced adoptions.
An apology has been given and I as one who has known about this horror all my life cannot say to the Prime Minister with truth on my tongue "I accept your apology".
There are others who you know about Prime Minister, who have not apologised, and you have the power to influence them to do so, yet choose not that way.
This is terribly sad.
My active motto in life is out of synct with that which governs a lot of areas of Australian social causes.
We're a collectively rich nation, why are any of these mothers living in fairly harsh environments today?
This has to be remedied. They all deserve much better than that.
If I find out any of them are living on the streets there will be action and from a great many people.
The apology is just that, words that should have been said when this was first brought to the governments attention.
How many of the targets died in the time inbetween. I know of a few. This is horrendous.
Discount the people, their voices and you discount your own all who are in ANY government.
My deep depression is rooted in how others treated me shoddily
As an adult I understand "It's not what happens to you it's how you respond to what hapopened or happens to you".
As an adolescent I wanted to be liked. I also did not understand that it's how one reacts or responds, then.
Every redeaming feature, which was so often pointed out to me prior to my becoming an unmarried young mother, was obliterated I now understand by Government sanctioned policies and practices.
I'm finding the pain I feel more than I can bear.
I take this pain to those who are there to help me "get over it". These last words were what everyone said to me, including my first family, again and again.
Ny childhood vivacity had gone in one swift move. That of the loss of my first born.
There was never any acknowledgement that I was suffering.
Whoever reads this don't misinterpret, I am not "poor me", I am not a "victim". I am an adult with a child and adloescent within who is lost for words regarding a past that hurt so severely it has haunted all my life.
When there has been joy in my life and there has been and is, I feel the pull of an anguish.
You see, I can accept an apology, however, I'm finding it hard to forgive myself, for buying the low self image all you bureaucrats, politicains, relgious groups etc. had of me.
How could you be so cruel and cold.
That child part of me still exists, and the adolescent part is there very anguished.
What has been raised to date may make a lot of people feel healed and well. I wish this.
What I feel (thinking aside) is a depth of depression.
That depression has it's roots in how others treated me so shoddily and thought that was all I was worth.
That I bought this and lived with this is the thing that causes the most pain.
I will never again buy anyone's view of me as a second class citizen who deserves to be treated basely and via the most treacherous means, take my infant from me and leave me to face an adult world where I was hardly able to know what I felt.
I don't think the apology in it's entirety is spending enough to help those of us who have had to live with this kind of anguish for so long.
The reason I couldn't make a submission was because I value my self and my privacy today, and think my experience of forced adoptions was something I had to express a different way.
That privacy was taken away from me, as an adolescent.
I had no rights whatsoever.
That sense of self was taken away from me by bullies who just always have to have power over others, and who are now exposed, and will continue to be exposed so long as people as those I know take a stand against bullying.
I'm all for what others have written here about bullies.
We have to tackle this social issue, as they are in every sphere of life and cause the most flagrant and horrific abuses. The apology was a good one.
I like the way it is written that Australia has to grow up.
There are too many Australians who contend with what most dignified, self respecting, and adult people would never.
It's good this government showed some humility.
I don't believe the Liberals are that generous of spirit to be able to say such words let alone show them.
Not that I'm not as an adult very aware there seems to be so much attention paid to "economic rationalism' it's not funny, from both parties.
Good on the Greens and all who worked for this social cause.
Last of all: people are not property.
That's one of the greatest mistakes every government makes when it puts in place policies and practices that treat people as numbers/cattle/generics.
We are all unique and individual and do not deserve to be pidgeon-holed into any "species" as a government may find "convenient", and as with Forced Adoptions "expedient".
How dare any government official treat anyone as "expedient", that is the lowest form of contempt of humanity. This is what the policies and practices did to the biological mothers as they did with very many others and my self included.
A country grows up when it alleviates bullies from the ranks for starters.
Thanks Indymedia
Again they are insane, no apology will right this horrible wrong
Property in Australia was once of a less value in monetary terms.
Now it is enornous, thus in part why we have housing crises.
Babies were sold in adoptions. Less yesterday than today with surrogacy etc.
This crises with forced adotpions was also because of governments policies and practices that were insane.
Again they are insane, and expect people who've been damaged to accept the unacceptable.
No apology will right this horrible wrong.
It's a national disgrace forced
adoptions.
Brit
Don't hold onto the guilt that never belonged to you
To the person who is writing about her deep depression.
My advice and I know unasked, is to not hold onto the guilt that never belonged to you in the first place.
That guilt belongs to the doctors, the medical people, the churchs, the governments and their policies and practices.
It's not yours, let it go out of your orbit.
I know a lot of women who were the original mothers who felt that same way for years.
What helped them was those who stood up and spoke the truth to power, long before any Senate had any inquiry.
I suggest counselling also.
The right fit therapist can help you get through and beyond blue depression.
Psychologist.
Private
Politicians glorified pimps or sycophants for the mega rich?
Are politicians who make these outrageous policies only really glorified pimps for the mega rich, or sycophants for them?
How on earth did they get away with this form of kidnapping?
What kind of government do we have today that it apologises on the one hand yet wants to have a divided nation ever after, ever worse it seems.
The policies and practices of forced adoptions are being played out with other areas of social well being.
Not on then with forced adoptions, not on today with anybody's social issues.
Anon
There now needs to be compensation by the people who did this
It's proven, in black and white, with more than the mere submissions to stand this up for immediate consideration and action.
The inordinately emotionally expensive loss of their infants to strangers has caused these mothers great hardships. Both the private patients who paid for "care" and received the opposite, and the public who "paid with their services such as laundry duty etc".
For these there now needs to be compensations by the people who carried out the policies and practices so destructively.
I add, none of the mothers I know from forced adoptions are "old" and none are to now be spoken down to or depreciated in human worth and value as they once were.
Friend of biological mother, I'm a father, husband and lawyer
You can't abolish the past to create a new or quick future
I'm a mother who lost to forced adoptions.
This I know with a great deal of understanding and pain:
YOU CAN'T ABOLISH THE PAST TO CREATE A NEW OR QUICK FUTURE.
There's no way people who have suffered this form of loss can ever forget.
Having said this we can all individually look for resolutions.
I am.
It's a very hard ask, as I am continuously thrown back into that past especially due to the emergence of this last round of public exposure The Senate Inquiry and the following Apology.
An Apology cannot take away the tragedy I suffered from a past that was haunted by that forced adoption.
I can never forget.
I can with my vast support network today try with all my might to transcend as much as is humanly possible.
I feel so very in tune with the person who wrote about depression, it's possibly reactive depression, or that's what I'm told I have.
Reactive depression is the direct result of accumulative experiences of being bullied.
The first experience of this in my past was the forced adoption. It would be several later whereby I learnt to be fearless and not tolerate any bully ever.
YOU CANNOT ABOLISH THE PAST TO CREATE A QUICK OR NEW FUTURE. (Yet so many are trying to do just this.
It is happening in various ways and under various names, "reviews" "Reforms" etc.)
I live in hope those with the IQ or understanding to comprehend this will do so.
I understand it is all individual.
I know the forced adoption is the darkest traumatic part of my past, yet it is part of my history of life.
It is part of every single biological mothers lives.
The Apology cannot ever ABOLISH THAT TERRIBLE PAST.
As I leave here I want to suggest some reading about a separate social injustice, which is also ongoing and may aid those who suffer from loss of history, which can never be found again. These would be the adoptees, not wanting to name you as such as it seems so generic and wrong, you're all individual.
This can be read from a book called "A Secret Country" by John Pilger.
I notice Indymedia have an event regarding this really inspiring, tragic in it's honesty book about Australia.
What a country, and the movie just didn't get it quite right did it.
Oh well, there are those who are terribly shallow and will accept absolutely anything that's offered them.
Mother, Wife, Sister, Aunt, Etc...........
For me it's a challenge to rid my demons from that time
I'm a mother who lost my first infant to forced adoptions.
I understand the following to be truth.
YOU CANNOT ABOLISH THE PAST TO CREATE A NEW OR QUICK FUTURE.
As I write this I realise I will never be able to forget what happaned to me when I was just a young girl really.
It is part of my history, and is therefore part of the collective history of Australia.
An apology may appease very many, here's to those it does.
to find a resolution, and to rid the demons that haunt me from that time.
It wasn't so long ago at all.
YOU CANNOT ABOLISH THE PAST TO CREATE A QUICK OR NEW FUTURE, yet everywhere I see financial "authorities" trying this on, one way or another. They do this with "reviews" with "reforms" with "new policies" etc. it goes on and on.
They've lost the plot.
To finalise my bit I recommend John Pilger's book "A Secret Country" not because it will heal anyone, yet it may? because it is an honest portaryal of Australia, unlike the movie which so many shallower mortals might have just adored.
I notice there's a function about this on this site Indymedia.
Good on you.
YOU CANT ABOLISH THE PAST TO CREATE A NEW OR QUICK FUTURE!
I doubt I'm the only one who will never forget what was done to me by bullies, ethical as well as physical thugs.
They wouldn't want to try that on again with anyone whose been through forced adoptions. I've learnt to be fearless, that is with a lot of amazing support and love in the present.
Mother, Wife, Sister, Aunt, etc........
They took away more than they have apologised for
Any Government policies or practices that objectify girls and women most definitely including mothers is not on.
They took away more than they have apologised for.
No apology alone with a pittance of counselling will right this widespread social destructiveness, already past and done.
Recognising Switzerland’s “slave children”
In a practice that lasted in Switzerland until 1981, tens of thousands of children and teenagers were forcibly removed from their families, who for one reason or another were deemed by the authorities to be incapable of caring for them.
It is a chapter in Swiss history that has left painful scars. Now victims of these measures have been invited to a “ceremony of commemoration” in Bern on Thursday 11 April.
The whole story at http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Recognising_Switzerland_s_slave_c...
Mothers should have compensation for these excessive injuries
There' very little to commemorate with Forced Adoptions.
There's a great deal to compensate for all the treacherous damage done to the mothers.
Their babies, for a large part, are now adult children, many unable to form any bond with the mothers they also lost at birth.
This is about personal injury and all the mothers of forced adoptions should have compensation for these very excessive personal injuries.
If anybody lost a baby by malpractice that wasn't forced adoptions, compensation would be in order. It's in order here.
No amount of counseling will take back the years of what is well noted by many.
The great anguish which the mothers have carried for too long.
The apology I think it's an acknowledgement and that alone.
Randell
I'll never be able to forget, and can't instantly forgive
I've thought a lot about the apology.
It was so lovely in one way.
This is my truth.
To accept an apology or forgive the offenders of my forced adoption experience as a mother is going to be a long process.
Knowing a government policy and it's practices and what they did to me has made me see how other policies and practices have also been damaging.
These too will have to be assimilated in my process of forgiveness, if that's possible.
These quotes seem applicable:
"Forgiveness does not require you to open yourself up to the offender/s to be hurt again. Forgiveness is a gift you give the offenders. Trust, on the other hand, must be earned. You must have [very strong] boundaries with the persons."
"Intellectual and spiritual forgiveness are important, but you must work through all the stages to achieve emotional forgiveness. You must feel the pain, feel the anger, weep the losses; then you can forgive with your mind, spirit and heart"
Sharon Sneed.
I'll never be able to forget, and can't instantly forgive because of this apology.
I don't want to be a bitter person, and prefer bitter sweet, so I am working on forgiveness, and the apology applies here.
This also is a truth:
"Spend as little time as possible with unsafe people. Unsafe people are those who continue to hurt you without regard for the damage it does in your life".
The latter applies to someone in my first family, and people like Kew Briggs who wrote a comment for a Women's Weekly article on forced adoptions apology:
"I'm tired of paying for no-hopers who breed no-hopers"
I can only imagine this man or woman thinks so lowly of single mothers he or she wants to continue to hurt us all.
How terrible. He or she also thinks the mothers are no-hopers, when I for one have much hope and a lot of intelligence and wisdom as a mother and all else I am.
The apology didn't take away truth that there are still and always will be people like Kew Briggs who have hate and negative stereotypes of young unmarried vulnerable mothers and their babies. It shocked me to read his or her comment.
There are still many like one of my relatives, and Kew Briggs, and nothing can make me see how they can continue to hurt the already hurting. It's hatred and ignorance which I shouldn't dignify here with writing about it I suppose.
"Gentleness is the antidote for cruelty" Phaedrus.
My desire is for a more gentle and humane Australia and the World.