Two years after promised change, forced adoption survivors are still waiting

Most of us have got secrets. Things we'd rather not share.

But for some communities in Australia, secrets are particularly toxic — a poison that's seeped through generations.

In this case, the people themselves have become the secret, contributing to a lifetime of pain and suffering.

It's something felt deeply by many people in the forced adoption community — thousands of mothers who, at their most vulnerable, were hidden away by their families because of the perceived "shame" of becoming pregnant outside wedlock.

Their babies whisked away at birth before they could hold them; children given false birth certificates and denied their true identities, with some not finding out the shattering truth until later in life.

Now decades removed, some of those living with the lifelong scars say they feel uncomfortable with a perceived "secrecy" surrounding the Western Australia's government's attempt to mend that pain.

Confidential conversations

Since June last year, a group of mothers whose children were removed from them, as well as people who were adopted out as babies, has been meeting behind closed doors to advise the government on how to apply the recommendations made from the Broken Bonds, Fractured Lives report.

The 2023 inquiry made 39 recommendations for reform, ranging from improving mental health supports to financial redress for both mothers and adoptees.

But the 10 "lived experience" members of this group, whose identities have been kept under wraps, have had to sign confidentiality agreements, pledging not to share anything discussed at the meetings.

Briefing notes are published online, but with little detail and often weeks after the meetings take place.

"We don't know what they're doing," said Helen Driesen, a mother who, like many, wasn't allowed to see her baby, never mind hold him, after giving birth in her late teens in 1968.

Minister defends progress

It's been exactly two years since the government tabled its response to the inquiry. It argues steady progress is being made to implement the recommendations.

But frustrated survivors concerned about the pace of reform note it has been 16 years since WA became the first state in Australia to formally apologise for the forced adoption scandal.

Mothers and adoptees gathered on Monday at a memorial in the Perth suburb of Victoria Park to mark the anniversary.

One of them, Kaye Wilkerson, 81, wasn't confident of seeing redress in her lifetime.

Child Protection Minister Jessica Stojkovski wasn't available for an interview but in a statement said the confidentiality arrangements around the working group "helped create a safe environment for those impacted by forced adoptions".

And, on redress, the statement said it was "providing further consideration to the issue" given its "significance and complexity".

"Redress is just one part of the raft of recommendations made," the statement read, while work was underway on further recommendations.

New birth certificates

Earlier this week, the minister pledged to introduce laws allowing "integrated birth certificates", which list both biological and adoptive parents.

Already available in other states, the certificates would give adopted people a legal record of their birth and adoption, 14 years after a Senate inquiry recommended their introduction nationwide.

Speaking in parliament, Ms Stojkovski said the bill represented a fundamental change to the way adopted people would be able to choose to legally identify themselves.

"Seeing their full heritage recognised on an official document is an important step towards healing," she said.

Whilst welcomed, the legislation is well overdue, according to Albany-based adoptee Jen McRae, who led the push for the WA inquiry.

"It's part of an enormous program of legislative change that needs to happen here," she said.

But having read the proposed legislation, Ms McRae said there were key issues that needed to be addressed, including allowing adoptive parents, as well as the adopted people themselves, the right to apply for the certificates.

“No-one, other than ourselves, should have the right to apply for our personal documents from Births, Deaths and Marriages,” she said.

“As adults, we must be treated as such, afforded the same rights as any other citizen."

Call for redress timeline

Ryan Dee, an adoptee who runs a support group in Perth, had hoped to influence change as a member of the behind closed doors reference group.

But the 47-year-old resigned, frustrated and upset, after the group's fourth meeting in February.

Having signed a confidentiality agreement, he cannot discuss the reasons for his departure.

But now, from the outside, he is advocating for a set time-frame for the rest of the recommendations to be implemented, in particular, redress.

He says redress could help pay for the face-to-face psychological counselling and medication many survivors depend on.

"I carry it with me every day, it's like a wound … emptiness," Mr Dee said.