Our son, a stranger: adoption breakdown and its effects on parents

Abstract

In 1973 Marie and Rod Adams, brimming with idealism and keenly aware of the plight of disadvantaged aboriginal children, adopted Tim, a young Cree boy, two and one half years old. Tim began displaying severe behavioural problems almost immediately, problems that, despite their efforts to find help, only became worse over the years. He left home at the age of twelve and died on the streets when he was twenty-one. Devastated by their loss, the Adams began to search for answers as to why things had gone so horribly wrong. In Our Son, a Stranger Marie Adams describes five white couples whose adoptions of native children failed to meet their expectations. Using her own experiences as background, she casts a critical eye on the Sixties Scoop when governments actively encouraged the adoption of native children by non-native parents - an estimated 95 per cent of such adoptions failed - and discusses why the special issues raised by all trans-racial adoptions need to be carefully considered.