Let's Talk
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NAAW volunteers respectfully refer to the adoptive community using common terms.
We acknowledge that individuals prefer certain terms over others. We apologise if the terms we use are inappropriate to some individuals. They are used simply to differentiate the various parties involved in adoption.
We understand that every party to adoption has a unique journey. We respect all opinions. The purpose of NAAW is to engage in discussion and listen to other's perspectives. With open minds and hearts we can better understand and support each other.
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This website actively seeks input and content from all parties, groups, and Australians touched by adoption.
The NAAW web team consists of volunteers. If you would like to contribute
and aid in improving adoption awareness in Australia we welcome your input.
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During NAAW we wish to acknowledge all birth/natural parents and learn from past practice; moving towards ethical and transparent adoption.
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Click here to read the the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) June
2009 apology to the Adoption Loss Adult Support (ALAS) group. RBWH made
history in being the first hospital to acknowledge poor past practices in relation to adoption in Australia.
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Birth/natural mothers involved with NAAW have identified areas that need to be addressed to assist and better support birth parents. They include:
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- talking about it - breaking the silence
- searching/reunions
- better understanding the damage done to birth parents from past practices
- linking up with other birth/natural parents
- undertaking rituals/ceremonies for birth/natural parents
- sourcing apologies from the institutions that coerced woman into giving up their children
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Open adoption practices that include birth family members as an extended part of an adopted child's family may help validate and support all parties involved.
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Click here to access more resources.
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The Forgotten Australians
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During NAAW we acknowledge the people who identify themselves as the
'Forgotten Australians'. This group of approximately 500 000 individuals, are
the adult survivors of orphanages and institutions from between 1930
and 1970. The apology to this group was a timely event during NAAW 2009.
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All these children suffered from deep and lasting feelings of abandonment. The loss of family - usually including separation from siblings - caused enormous grief, guilt, self-blame, feelings of isolation, and confusion about their identity. These children would have loved to have found a permanent family through adoption. Unfortunately they were denied that opportunity.
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Apologise to "Forgotten Australians" from the Sydney Morning Herald Click here
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Click here for more information about Forgotten Australians.
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Children without permanent care or in orphanages
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Today there are over 140 million children living without parents (latest UNICEF report: 145 million orphans worldwide).
In 2008, approximately 17,500 children found families in the USA through intercountry adoption. In that same year, only 270 children found families in Australia via intercountry adoption, whilst a further 70 Australian-born children found families through domestic adoption.
The reality is that, at most, only 0.02% of the world's children without families will have a chance of finding a family through international adoption. It is imperative that we don't forget those children still living in institutions.
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The ORPHANED Project is a global awareness campaign that aims to bring visibility and a voice to the 143 million orphaned and marginalized children in the world. Follow photographer Don Mirra in his travels to photograph these most vulnerable children.
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Adopting a child who has faced real trauma, loss and grief, been institutionalised, and been without a permanent carer can be very daunting. However many Australians are prepared to step forward and provide families for these children.
Rising from the unprecedented groundswell of support for children, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC) recognised that:
‘the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.'
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This was the promise that Australia – along with the greater international community – crystallised in treaty almost 20 years ago.
Australian adoptive parents fully embrace adoption as a way to form non-traditional families - but families nonetheless.
They continue to strive to learn about bonding, attachment and transracial adoption issues, and how to embrace an open and positive adoption story with their family and friends.
Australian adoptive parents can be adoption advocates in their community for their children, making the road they travel easier.
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Click here to access more resources.
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RESOURCES FOR ADOPTEES
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Community Support Organisations
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Inter-Country Adoptee Support Network (ICASN) has been set up to provide support to Adoptees who have been adopted cross-culturally.
The purpose of the Inter-Country Adoptee Support Network (ICASN) is to provide support emotionally and culturally to ICAs, as an avenue for exploring the issues of trans-racial adoption in as positive a manner as possible.
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Click here for more information on ICASN.
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Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI) was launched in April 2000 on the 25th anniversary of end the Viet Nam War. It is a volunteer network that is dedicated to all individuals who were adopted during the Viet Nam War period, from the final years of French colonial rule in the 1950s to the final days of the American War in April 1975 (which saw a mass-evacation of orphans in a project known as Operation Babylift).
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Click here for more information on AVI.
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Negative stereotypes, inaccurate information and lingering stigmas continue to hurt adopted children and, sometimes, to undermine their families. But today’s positive trends in adoption – toward more openness and honesty – are leading to greater understanding of adoption’s realities and, consequently, to improved attitudes.
(source: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute)
Help young adoptees by utilising our Tools for Schools and becoming an advocate for your child. Click here for Tools for Schools.
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Many Australian adult adoptees are not open and proud about being adopted because of past practices/attitudes of secrecy and shame.
'Coming out' to family and friends about being adopted can be a difficult first step. It can also be very daunting to embark on tracing one's birth family.
It's time to better support our adult adoptees in their journeys.
Find My Family - Channel 7's Australian reality TV show helping to reunite long-lost loved ones - has provided a list of resources and post-adoption professional services for adoptees. Click here for the Find My Family article.
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There are many Australians who are keen to be adoptive parents, who are currently going through the process, or who simply want the choice available to them at some stage.
The current Australian system presents many challenges to prospective parents. Some of these obstacles, such as due diligence and education, are necessary to ensure we are acting in the best interests of the children.
However, some criteria appear discriminatory and are not relevant to the parenting skills nor ability of prospective parents. Such barriers are NOT in the best interest of children who need families.
We look forward to a time when these prequisites are removed from the adoption process in Australia.
National Adoption Awareness Week provides an ideal opportunity to write to your State and/or Federal MP to advocate for change to the criteria to parent a child through adoption.
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Click here to contact your State politician.
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Adoption legislation sets out criteria and suitability of adoptive parents in each state. Each state has different legislation and criteria.
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Click here to contact your Federal politician.
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Click here to access more resources.
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We very much welcome, encourage and appreciate input and insight from all parties to adoption. Please contact us at adoptionawarenessweek@gmail.com.
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