Author Marie Adams, who wrote about adoption disruption after she and her husband adopted a Cree boy, is the featured guest at CFUW Aurora/Newmarket's April 23 meeting.
Based in Richmond Hill, Adams wrote the non-fiction book, Our Son, a Stranger: Adoption Breakdown and Its Effects on Parents, detailing the experiences of couples who adopted native children in the late 1960s to early 1970s.
In 1973, she and her husband, Rod Adams, brimming with idealism and keenly aware of the plight of disadvantaged aboriginal children, adopted Tim, a 2-1/2-year-old Cree boy. Tim began displaying severe behavioural problems almost immediately, problems that, despite their efforts to find help, only became worse over the years, according to Adams.
Tim left home at the age of 12, abused alcohol and became "the most popular male prostitute in Boys Town" before his death on the streets in 1992 at 21. 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, Adams describes the experiences of five white couples who adopted indigenous children, all of whom left their adoptive homes before the age of 16. Using her own experiences as background, she casts a critical eye on the "Sixties Scoop", when governments actively encouraged the adoption of aboriginal 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.
The meeting is Tuesday, April 23 at 7 p.m. (speaker starts at 7:30) at the Royal Canadian Legion in Aurora at 105 Industrial Parkway North. For more information, visit cfuwauroranewmarket.com
