The Clean Break of Adoption | Jennifer McRae | TEDxKinjarling

Adoption is not a fairy tale existence, our lives were wrongfully stolen from us and made into a legal fiction. Decades on we are still controlled by this legal fiction through outdated legislation. Our identity, freedom of movement, right to birth and
health related information and records are denied, simply because we were born to an unwed mother.
We need society to hold a place and space and honour the lived experience of adopted people. Jennifer grew up on a farm in the shadows of the Porongurups where she learnt how to drive at 12 and how to drench sheep. At just three years of age her mother told her she was adopted. Nothing would ever be the same again.
In 1978, Jen started school at brand new Flinders Park primary and later attended Albany Senior High School, where she was then quickly dispatched to the big smoke to become a nurse.
After decades of working in the remote corners of Australia she returned to Albany to raise her young family. After an almost 30-year career as a clinical registered nurse, Jen left the world of caring for others in 2019, to finally care for herself.
Jen is now studying history at university with the aim to document Western Australia’s forced adoption era. In her ‘spare time’ she is lobbying the state government to hold a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the human rights violations of the forced adoption era. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@khg151]

"If adoption is so wonderful then which of your children will you be giving away today, to a stranger, and to never see them again?" "Providing quality reproductive health and education is what we need." Jen, this was truth to power much along the same lines I speak of. Great job communicating our struggle and trauma.

[@shiraxmoon]

Thank you so much for this! I needed to hear this. ❤ Being adopted is so painful.

[@ladyjusticesusan]

I love this lady. She’s put into words what I’ve experienced my whole life.

[@lesleymitchell7607]

Thank you SO much Jen. 🙌 An adoptee telling what it's like being an adoptee. How it should be.

[@shaneblackwell58]

Thank you for your powerful voice

[@fionamenzies-henderson6681]

👏👏 such a powerful voice among survivors x

[@tamalaridge7947]

Your story moved me so deeply. Honouring your journey and your courage and determination to speak up and support so many who have had similar experiences to you xx

[@GirlPower342]

This is a message that needs to be heard far and wide. Thank you! As a “clean break” baby myself I deeply appreciate you speaking up for us. For those who are interested in hearing and supporting adoptees’ voices, check out the book American Baby. Very different adoption experience from “clean break” but equally abusive and exploitative. It’s a hard read, but so important The majority follows one man attempting to reunite with his birth parents before he dies of cancer at age 50 (a cancer his birth mother begged the agency to tell her son about but somehow the information was never passed along). And the final part is an overview of lesser known aspects of being a ward of the state as a newborn, such as medical and psychological experimentation - which I apparently was a part of upon birth in 1968. Thank you, John Hopkins hospital. Not. Keep on speaking truth to power, everyone

[@RWTPW]

ohhh this is too sad. Thank you for illuminating this, Jennifer.

[@bkshipway2151]

Wonderful presentation Jen - Thank you. Eloquent and powerful presentation of the many hard truths for society to look squarely in the face of - will surely bring understanding to many. Those with lived experience are all different people, created by adoption and from adoption and while nothing can right the wrongs there is much that can be done to alleviate the enduring impacts upon survivors - as you went through, your words kept hitting the spot, scratching that itch and making me bawl my eyes out... Bravo Chickadee!

[@CarolAstbury]

Oh Jen, you delivered a powerful and passionate speech, well done.

[@songoftheblackunicorn666]

Also don't ask us to celebrate our adoption day either

[@Neppy1414]

50 year old clean break baby scoop adoptee. i feel seen having watched this.

[@ejb6822]

what a nonsense.

[@j.j.lehmann6377]

what is a nonsense...?

[@savagebunny1440]

​@J. J. Lehmann any comment ej b makes

[@YOYObabyy]

Care to elaborate?

[@ejb6822]

@@YOYObabyy nothing to elaborate here. it's non-scientific nonsense by a quasi-religious zealot.

[@khg151]

@@ejb6822Evidence and source for your accusation? She argues for "quality reproductive health" not forced birth.