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 Decades on we are still controlled by this legal fiction through outdated legislation.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 https://www.ted.com/tedx