Threads of identity: Phoebe Garland on adoption, belonging and bold advocacy

In this moving second episode of A Home and Healing for Every Child, Ambassador and lived experience advocate Emily Hikaiti speaks with Phoebe Garland – Co-founder of a successful brand management and fashion & business consultancy agency, intercountry adoptee from Vietnam and advocate for ethical adoption and permanency. 

Phoebe shares her powerful story of being adopted to Australia in the wake of the Vietnam War, and the lifelong journey of navigating identity, belonging and reconnection. Now at the helm of a thriving fashion business, Phoebe reflects on how her personal history informs her work, resilience and commitment to advocating for systemic change for children growing up without stable families.  

Note: In this episode, Phoebe refers to her “adoptive mother” but meant to say “birth mother”. 

This is a story of courage, creativity and using your platform to speak truth to power. 

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You can find out more about us at www.adoptchange.org.au   

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Show credits:  

Host: Emily Hikaiti, Adopt Change Ambassador  

Guest: Phoebe Garland, Adopt Change Ambassador 

Audio Producer: Fernanda Dedic, Adopt Change  

Sound Engineer: Grant Konemann 

Executive Producer: Ashton Kobler, Adopt Change, Renée Leigh (Carter), Adopt Change & Emily Hikaiti, Adopt Change 

Adopt Change acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded and edited this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and end that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.