'A long time coming'

An Albany woman forced to put her newborn up for adoption in 1973 said she was “thrilled” by a Senate recommendation for the Commonwealth Government to apologise to families affected by the practice.

The Senate Community Affairs References Committee released a report on former forced adoptions last month, the result of an 18-month inquiry and more than 400 submissions from women and families who were affected.

Report recommendations include a formal apology on behalf of the nation and for States and Territories to consider the funding of a financial reparation scheme.

Albany’s Judith Hendriksen was one of tens of thousands of Australian women who had their infants taken from them between the 1940s and 1970s.

“For years people didn’t believe us, then more and more women started speaking out and we’ve finally not only been believed but also have been recognised and, in a way, given back our dignity,” she said.

“It’s long overdue, I never thought we would get it to be honest, I just thought they would flog us off forever, so it is very pleasing for me. It’s sort of given me a new lease on life.”

Ms Hendriksen was sent to the Sisters of Mercy in Perth after a Catholic doctor in her home town of Katanning told her adoption was the only option.

She gave birth on her 17th birthday at St Anne’s Hospital in Mt Lawley and immediately was made to give up her baby.

“Defeated, vulnerable, lost and alone, I really felt I had no rights … a nun told me that I was a minor and the decision was not mine,” Ms Hendriksen wrote her in Senate submission.

The mother received an apology from Sisters of Mercy two years ago and said the Commonwealth apology was like “the icing on the cake”.

“I’m definitely going to go to the apology in Canberra, I’m really thrilled about it,” she said.

Ms Hendriksen said any compensation received from the Government would not make up for the loss of her “priceless” daughter.

“For me, above all else, it was to have the truth revealed and that meant more to me than money,” she said.

“Even if they gave me all the money in the world, it wouldn’t make up for it.

“However, in my submission to the Senate hearing, I said that I would like to be compensated for my loss of wages and my slave labour, basically, while I was in the unmarried mothers’ home.”

toyah.shakespeare@albanyadvertiser.com