Faulconbridge resident and Origins NSW committee member Elizabeth Brew attended the handing down of the Senate Inquiry into the Commonwealth contribution to former forced adoption policies and practices on February 29.
The mother, who lost a son to forced adoption in 1975, was one of 130 women who watched on as the inquiry handed down its final report, outlining 20 recommendations for governments and institutions involved in former forced adoption policies and practices.
The Federal, State and Territory Governments as well as non-government institutions involved in past adoption practices were told to apologise to mothers who were separated from their infants between the 1940s and 1980s, and were warned not to whitewash any official apologies.
“The committee recommends that official apologies should include statements that take responsibility for the past — and not be qualified by reference to values or professional practice,” read the final report.
Ms Brew, who wrote several inquiry submissions on behalf of forced adoption support group Origins NSW, said it meant a lot to have past adoption wrongs finally acknowledged.
“The final report is an unprecedented document and represents the beginning of healing of the mothers because it unreservedly acknowledges the illegal and inhumane nature of former forced adoption practices,” she said.
Ms Brew said for many mothers the most significant recommendations were for redress in the form of counselling, funding of forced adoption groups, better access to records, and the adoption of integrated birth certificates that name and identify natural parents and children.
“These practical measures will go a long way in helping mothers like me heal from the past,” she said.
Ms Brew was placed in St Anthony’s Home for Unmarried Mothers shortly after her parents discovered she was pregnant.
After the birth of a son at St Margaret’s Women’s Hospital, Ms Brew was denied a cuddle and only permitted to see her son for an hour a day until he was removed for adoption seven days later.
“After delivering my son, I requested that the midwife bring him to my bedside but he was only held up momentarily before being taken from the labour ward, and I did not see him again until 36 hours later,” she said.
During her hospital stay, Ms Brew was subjected to many of the illegal and dehumanising practices mentioned in the forced adoption inquiry’s final report. She said she never consented to any of this and was “tricked out of her baby”.
“I have no memory of signing the adoption consent form, no doubt due to the shock of what I was being told I had to do,” she said.
Ms Brew said single mothers continue to be harshly judged and marginalised because until now Australia has not acknowledged its past mistreatment of vulnerable mothers.
“As an outcome of the inquiry I would like to see the status of single mothers raised in family, community and nation,” she said.
