Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

My parents were continually trying to get us back. Eventually they gave up and starteddrinking. They separated. My father ended up in jail. He died before my mother. Onher death bed she called his name and all us kids. She died with a broken heart.Confidential submission 106, New South Wales: woman removed at 11 months in the late1950s with her three siblings; children fostered in two separate non-Indigenous families.The Inquiry is not aware of any research on the effects of forcible removal of achild or children on the parents and other family members. However there is researchon the effects of the death of a child and some research on the effects of relinquishinga child for adoption. Speaking at the Third Australian Conference on Adoption in1982 Margaret van Keppel and Robin Winkler summarised some of this research.Sanders (1979-80) assessed the intensities of bereavement reactions of people who hadexperienced three different types of death (spouse, parent and child) and found that thosewho had experienced the death of a child revealed more intense grief reactions of somatictypes and greater guilt with accompanying feelings of despair, than did those bereaved whohad experienced the loss of a spouse or parent …There is consistent evidence indicating that bereavement increases mortality and morbidity…There is no evidence contradicting the assumption that relinquishing a child for adoption isan undesirable life event, a life crisis, for the relinquishing mother. [Research evidenceshows]:1 That people respond to crises in specific predictable ways, e.g., shock, anger,depression.2 That people go through a series of stages over time, attempting to come to terms withan aversive life-event.3 That people eventually accept or resolve their crises [although there is] extremevariability in peoples’ responses to life crises [and ] the difficulty following a crisis may beexperienced indefinitely.[Factors affecting recovery are]:1 Perceived social support facilitates adjustment …2 The opportunity for free expression of feelings facilitates adjustment …3 The presence of other life-stressors impedes adjustment …4 The ability to find meaning in the outcome facilitates adjustment … (pages 176-9).These findings about bereaved and relinquishing parents can be extendedapproximately to the experience of Indigenous parents whose children were forciblyremoved. They have the lowest likelihood of recovering from the trauma of thatevent. While social supports would usually have been available within the Indigenouscommunity, beyond that there were none. Indigenous families continued to experience