Australian Adoption Podcast - My Unknown Truth
Sharing stories and experiences of Australians who have been through Adoption and Foster Care. The stories are sometimes complex and tackle difficult issues which span over 50 plus years. From children that have been in an under resourced system to Australia's traumatic history of forced adoptions and the stolen generations. But through this darkness comes light - there are also stories of hope, courage resilience and love. My Unknown Truth is hosted by Nadia Levett, born and raised in Australia and is a child of Adoption. It is my wish that by sharing a range of experiences will lead to increased awareness and understanding around Foster Care and Adoption in Australia, facilitate informed discussion and encourage more people to share their story, open listeners hearts, minds and maybe homes to children in need.
Episodes
Hey Everyone, and welcome to this special bonus ep of The Australian Adoption Podcast. This one’s a bit different - I’m flipping the mic and sharing an interview I did with Jo Sparrow on Adopt Perspective. We get into all of it - early care, family, reunion, identity, and what healing really looks like over time.
Jo asks the kind of questions that get under the surface, and I reckon this chat might hit home if you’ve ...
Welcome to Season 4 of The Australian Adoption Podcast, with your host Nadia Levett, where truth is reclaimed, stories are given a voice, and silence is broken.
Today, we are privileged to hear from Shane Bouel, a man whose life was shaped by adoption—not as an act of love, but as a theft of identity. In his own words, he recounts the journey of a life unwoven and stitched together again, through pain, reunion, and ul...
Welcome to Season 3 of the Australian Adoption Podcast, with your host, Nadia Levett.
In today’s episode I’m joined by the inspiring Emily Hikaiti. Emily is an Australian-born Māori woman with a powerful story and a deep commitment to youth advocacy. Drawing from her lived experience in Australia’s out-of-home care system, Emily has become a passionate voice for change, working both nationally and internationally to sh...
"Welcome to the Australian Adoption Podcast, where we explore stories that inspire, challenge, and broaden our perspectives.
In this episode, we're honoured to introduce Peter, an 81-year-old adoptee from New Zealand and brother of Jan Peart, who shared her journey in Episode 16. Peter’s story is one of love, resilience, and the transformative power of family. As both an adoptee and an adoptive parent of two...
Hi listeners, today I am speaking with Barton.
A former Surf Life Saver, Australian barefoot water ski champion and an educator, Barton is also a published writer, an actor in film, tv, and theatre. He is also a Vietnamese war adoptee.
In April 1975, President Ford initiated the largest-ever humanitarian child evacuation. Thousands of babies were "lifted" from war-torn Vietnam to Western countries to begin ...
Hi everyone, today I will be speaking to Renee Carter, CEO of Adopt Change Australia. Adopt Change is a non-profit organisation with its purpose to support children in need, focussing on government care, foster care, orphans, or children without families, and their carers, families and guardians.
They have continued to achieve this by providing resources such as my packs to support at-risk children and also providing ...
Hi everyone, today I speak with Kura.
Kura Perkins is a Perth-based adoptee. Born in 1975 and was adopted in Western Australia at 6 weeks of age to newly arrived immigrants from New Zealand. They decided to give her a Māori, name and although she wasn’t Māori, her adoptive parents had heard of this incredible name Kura and loved it, her name would soon have coincidental significance, becoming clear 25 years later.
Gro...
Hi Listeners,
In this episode I sit down with Jim Moginie. We had an amazing conversation over zoom from his home in Ireland and I was fortunate to meet him for the launch of his new book earlier this year.
For 50 years, Jim was a driving force behind one of Australia’s most iconic bands Midnight Oil.
He grew up in Sydney’s northern suburbs and attended high school in the city, where he befriended drummer Rob Hirst....
Hey guys,
Today I’m speaking with Denna.
Denna is an intercountry adopted person, born in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1979. She grew up in Mclaren Vale, South Australia, and an organisation, formerly known as ASIAC organised her adoption from Yayasan Ibu Sayap. At 4 months of age, Denna took her first international plane trip, and since then has travelled extensively around the globe in both career and personal life.
Den...
Welcome to today's podcast.
My guest is Alyson, an Australian adoptee from the Baby Scoop Era of the 1970s. Alyson holds a Bachelor's degree in Naturopathy and is certified in a wide array of modalities through her business, “Your Authentic Self.” Her expertise includes Homeopathy, Sanum Therapy, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition, Nutrigenomics, Applied Kinesiology, Touch for Health, Brain Gym, the Biolog...
Today I will be speaking to an international adoptee from Chicago, Julie who is also a author–memoirist, essayist, and columnist– who writes about finding out who you are, where you come from, and making sense of it.
At 48, julie was sent for a breast biopsy. This incident highlighted what closed adoption prevented her from knowing: her birth circumstances, family medical history, and genealogy. The subsequent search ...
Today’s guest, Lisa was born in England in 1970 and was adopted at six weeks of age into a family who had already adopted a son.
Lisa’s family moved to Australia when she was two years old and the family grew to include a biological daughter.
Lisa’s story of reunion spans decades, two continents and is a testament to her determination, resilience and courage.
And having the belief and hope that a NO would not always st...
Jo is a late discovery adoptee who discovered at the age of 46 that everything that she had known to be true about her identity and family was no longer, it was like a sudden and tragic death. The information that blew her world apart was a diary kept by her recently deceased maternal grandmother “Nanny” that spanned the years 1960-1965. Jo immediately filed for her paperwork with DoCS to obtain her original birth cer...
When Brendan was eight years old, his parents told him he was adopted. In his late twenties, he found out the identity of his birth mother – but she wanted nothing to do with him.
For thirty years there was only limited communication with his birth mother, and he knew nothing about his birth father. It wasn’t until 2018, a DNA test led him to the truth:
'After decades of searching, Brendan discovered that his bir...
Jo is an adopted person, born in Adelaide in 1969. She lives with her family in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Creativity has been a constant in her life and she worked in advertising, marketing and design for many years, but is now quietly forging a new path as a yoga teacher after feeling its transformative effects in her own life. I first met Jo at a yoga training retreat in Bali earlier this year.
Jo was forcibly remo...
Today I am interviewing a gentleman by the name of Rowan Dent in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Rowan is a father of one who has been impacted by adoption and has seen first hand, the joy and love adoption has played in his life.
Rowan attributes his successes in business and sport to the fundamental values that were given to him by his adopted mother and uncle.
This is a story of love, sacrifice, and loyalty that has imp...
Hi everyone,
Today I will be speaking with Toni Moon.
Toni Moon is a bird nerd, word nerd and adopted person breaking out of the fog.
She is a journalist who writes about her own adoption journey amongst other things.
Her personal writing reflects a desire for self determination as she uncovers her own past and builds the road ahead for her and her family’s future.
Here is her story.
Hi everyone, today I am talking with Layne Beachley. Layne is regarded as one of the world’s most successful athletes. She spent 19 years on the surfing pro tour. Won 7 world titles and is the only surfer in history, to win 6 consecutive world titles. 5 however were won in a state of fear. The other 2 that bookends her career were in a state of love.
How did she get there?
Well first of all, Layne’s mother died when sh...
Hey everyone, today I sit down and talk with another podcaster Jonah.
Jonah was Born in Cairns and immediately placed in foster care, Jonah grew up with his adoptive family in Brisbane and Growing up in a Caucasian Australian family, Jonah felt disconnected from his Papua New Guinea heritage and culture.
In 2020, at the age of 22, Jonah embarked on a journey to reunite with his birth family, to reconnect with his herit...
Tammy Richie is an extraordinary woman who has overcome numerous obstacles in her life. Her journey began with a challenging start, as she was abandoned as a baby, losing everything she knew, including an identical twin. This early experience of grief built up her strength and resilience, which she has carried with her throughout her life.
Tammy learned to be resourceful and curious from a young age, and these qualitie...
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