Apology is a Moment. Justice is a Process with Jeannot Farmer

About this episode

Jeannot Farmer shares her journey of losing her son to forced adoption and her advocacy work following Australia's national apology.

Jeannot Farmer is from Glasgow, Scotland, although she is joining us today from Melbourne Australia where she is holidaying with family. In 1978 she lost her son to forced adoption. Thirty-one years later they were reunited. In more recent years, Jeannot has become a powerful advocate in Scotland’s forced adoption space. Jigsaw Qld first connected with Jeannot in 2023 when she reached out while undertaking a Churchill Fellowship. Her research explored what happened in Australia following our 2013 National Apology for Forced Adoptions so that Scotland could learn from our experience after its own national apology, delivered a decade later in the Scottish Parliament on 22 March 2023. Jeannot travelled to Australia in September 2023, meeting with advocates, support organisations and stakeholders across Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, including Jigsaw, and published her findings in 2024. In this episode she shares her personal story of losing her son to forced adoption and their reunion and how it led to her to stepping into the advocacy space, and what she learned about Australia's post national apology response. This episode will resonate with adopted adults, parents…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow

Guest: Jeannot Farmer

Topics covered

• forced adoption
• advocacy
• personal story
• national apology
• reunion
• lifelong impacts of adoption

Keywords

• forced adoption
• advocacy
• national apology
• reunion
• personal story
• Scotland
• Australia

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Jigsaw Queensland

Places: Glasgow, Scotland, Melbourne, Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia

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