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PODCAST

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast

Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow for Jigsaw Queensland

Honest conversations about adoption, identity, trauma and belonging - told by the people who live it. Adopt Perspective is a podcast for anyone affected by adoption, especially adopted adults, parents who lost children to adoption and their families. We explore adoption trauma, adoption loss, identity, belonging and reunion through lived experience. Featuring personal stories and expert conversations, we examine late discovery adoption, forced adoption, intercountry adoption, searching, reunion

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

00:23:31

Bill Esman

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/04/29

One of the voices we hear from least often on Adopt Perspective is that of fathers who lost children to adoption. It’s a perspective that is vital but often left untold, and so we are deeply grateful whenever a father feels ready to step forward and share his experience. In this episode, we are joined by Bill Esman, who is the father of Tracy Shand, a previous guest on our podcast. You may remember Tracy’s story — we first spoke with her in July 2022, and again in the previous episode in April 2025

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00:36:33

Tracy Shand - Sequel

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/04/08

You’ll often hear us at Jigsaw Queensland speaking about the lifelong issues of adoption. How we feel about our experience or where we find ourselves in our lives can vary greatly over the passage of time. Today’s guest, Tracy Shand, is an adopted person who has undergone many transitions in her adoption story and her life since we last spoke to her on 22 June 2022. We welcome her back today to share more of her story and updates. If you haven’t already, we'd recommend listening to her previous

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00:43:50

12th Anniversary of the National Apology - Online...

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/03/20

On March 21, 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a formal apology on behalf of the Australian Government to people affected by forced adoption. At the 10th anniversary commemoration in Canberra in 2023, The Hon. Amanda Rishworth, Minister for Social Services, announced $700,000 in funding to strengthen support services for those impacted by forced adoptions. This additional funding led to the development of the Forced Adoption: Practical Skills and Awareness online training, which launched

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00:28:54

Dorothy (Dot) Peel

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/03/11

Dorothy Peel or Dot as she likes to be known, was just 18 years old when she lost her daughter to adoption in Perth in 1973. At the time, she was sent from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia to an unmarried mother’s home in Perth, just six weeks before giving birth. Since then, Dot has struggled with memory gaps regarding her experience, particularly surrounding her time in the hospital during and after her daughter's birth. These lost memories left her with many unanswered questions, until she applied

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00:59:37

Sharlene Vonhoff

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/02/18

Sharlene Vonhoff was born and adopted in Brisbane in 1977. She was the first of two girls adopted into a farming family in regional Queensland. Today, she continues to farm with her husband, a third-generation farmer on the Darling Downs, where they have raised four children. Growing up adopted in a close-knit farming community has shaped Sharlene’s experience in unique ways. As someone who still lives in regional Queensland, she has faced additional challenges in exploring her adoption experience,

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00:20:21

Overcoming Negative Self-Talk and Learning...

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/02/12

At Jigsaw Queensland, we have some really exciting plans for this year, and we’re kicking things off with something especially designed for people impacted by forced adoption. We’ve teamed up with Axis Clinic to offer an 8-week program called Overcoming Negative Self-Talk and Learning Self-Compassion.To tell us all about it and how you can get involved, we’ve got two very special guests —Helen Angela Taylor, the CEO of Jigsaw Queensland, and Anna Lanyon, a Mental Health Social Worker from Axis

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00:50:04

Dr. Alison Ingram

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2025/01/21

Dr. Alison Ingram is an actor, theatre director, aresearcher of adult adoptees’ lived experience and an adopted person. She recently completed her doctorate in theatre and performance at Monash University in Melbourne, focusing her research on a group of adult adoptees working as a performing ensemble—that is, actors telling their own stories. In 2022, the culmination of Alison’s research premiered as Infans, VOIC’D: A History Play in Five Acts at Monash University’s Clayton campus, presented as

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00:49:14

Helen Angela Taylor - CEO Jigsaw Qld

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/12/04

In the final episode of Season 5, 2024, we have the pleasure of introducing Jigsaw Qld's CEO, Helen Angela Taylor. Helen has been in the CEO seat since July and has been an absolute gift. She is an adoptee who discovered Jigsaw in 1991 following a move to Brisbane from Sydney. A few years later, she reunited with her mother and father and attended her first peer support group at Jigsaw in 2019, realising the power of the adoption community to support her healing.Helen has considerable experience in

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00:30:41

Phil Kenward

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/11/05

We often receive feedback from people who have listened to a particular episode that has deeply resonated with them, changed the trajectory of their experience or helped them stay the course. Today’s guest, Phil Kenward contacted us after listening to Alan Hill’s episode of the 31 August 2022. Phil is a Brisbane father who lost a daughter to adoption in 1970. He shared with us that he reached out after listening to Alan’s episode because he felt that more men needed to talk about their experiences,

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00:28:55

Support people & intergenerational impacts - Baden...

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/10/15

When people affected by adoption embark on an exploration of their experience and perhaps find their biological relatives, the support network around them plays a crucial role in navigating this deeply emotional process. Family members, including partners, children, siblings, extended relatives and even friends often experience a complex mix of emotions themselves. They may feel pride, anxiety, and sometimes insecurity as their loved one searches for their biological roots or begins to figure out

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01:05:45

Kathryn Blake

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/09/24

Today’s guest is an adopted person and photographer from Newcastle in New South Wales. Kathryn Blake was born and adopted in Bathurst in 1970 as the eldest of two adopted girls. She has since gone on to connect with her brother, who was also placed for adoption, and more recently with her father. Her reunion stories are filled with incredible near misses and moments of serendipity. Kathryn has experienced many of the joys and heartbreaks that can come along with reunions, and that we can all relate

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00:48:23

Rosemary Brooks - A Mother's Story

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/09/02

Today’s guest is a mother who lost her son to adoption in Melbourne in 1967. Rosemary Brooks is also an artist who walks to her own beat and at 51 was able to finish the university qualification that was interrupted when she was a teenager navigating the forced adoption era. Rosemary has reunited with her son and from experience understands that reunions don’t always follow a straightforward path. She also recently submitted forms for the Victorian Historical Forced Adoptions Redress Scheme which

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00:58:07

Alison Willoughby

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/08/06

Alison Willoughby was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton, Melbourne in 1965. She was the first of four children adopted by her adoptive parents, who were unable to conceive naturally. Alison has since connected with her mother, father and biological siblings and has written a book about her experience called Forced Adoption, A Memoir. You can purchase Alison's book here: www.alisonwilloughbyadoption.comThis episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more

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00:30:32

Arie Baker - Finding Mary Jane

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/07/02

Arie Baker was born in Brisbane in 1974 at the Corinda Private Hospital where she was adopted at 3 weeks of age. In this episode of Jigsaw Queensland's Adopt Perspective Podcast, Arie will share with us her experience of adoption and searching for her biological family and how her desire to make sense of that experience led her to write a book that is a mix of fiction and non-fiction. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more information go

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00:11:54

Gemma Chudzinski - Researcher in intercountry adoptee...

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/06/04

Today’s guest, Gemma Chudzinski is an Australian Intercountry adoptee and PhD candidate from the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University, who is undertaking important research in the area of the mental health of intercountry adoptees and is calling for participants. To find out more about the research, email gemma.chudzinski@griffithuni.edu.au This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more information go

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01:00:40

Brendan Watkins - 'Tell No One'

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/05/14

Brendan Watkins was eight years old when his parents told him he was adopted. When he was in his late twenties, he started searching for his biological parents and eventually discovered the identity of his mother: he was later told that following his birth, she’d become a Catholic nun, and she wanted nothing to do with him. For the next thirty years, Brendan had no clues as to the identity of his father. In 2018, a DNA test provided the answer: he was the son of a priest. His father had studied in a

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00:47:37

Jo Fraser - ARMS & MALA

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/04/23

Jo Fraser is a mother who lost her son to adoption in 1971 and connected with him again almost two decades later. She is also the Convenor of the Victorian branch of the Association Representing Mothers Separated by adoption (better known as ARMS) - a not-for-profit organisation formed in 1982 out of a common need to support women who are living with difficulties of having lost a child or children to adoption. She is also, through ARMS, part of the national alliance called the Mothers Adoption Loss

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00:28:20

Dr Giselle Newton

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/04/02

Dr Giselle Newton, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. She’s a digital health sociologist whose research is focussed on understanding how reproductive and genetic technologies (re)shape personal and familial relationships and considers how people with lived experience participate and position themselves in research, policy reform and development of support and services. As a donor-conceived person herself, Giselle’s research is grounded in advocacy regarding access to

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00:54:27

Lisa Preston

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/03/12

Today’s guest was born in England in 1970 and was adopted at six weeks of age into a family who had already adopted a son. Lisa Preston’s family moved to Australia when she was two years old, and then grew to include a biological daughter. Lisa’s story of reunion spans decades, two continents, and is testament to courage, tenacity, and understanding that a no doesn’t always stay a no. This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more information go

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00:49:58

James Vasilic

Adopt Perspective Adoption Podcast ·

2024/02/20

James Vasilic was born and adopted in Brisbane in 1985 and has an incredible story about his experience of being adopted and reunion to share with us.This episode discusses adult themes and listener discretion is advised. For more information go to http://www.jigsawqueensland.com/episode-notes Your host is Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow - President of Jigsaw Queensland (www.jigsawqueensland.com) Connect with us Instagram - adopt_perspective_podcast Facebook - Jigsaw Post-Adoption Centre Queensland We

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114 results

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