Danielle Wood’s new fiction book, as Minnie Darke, tells of women having their babies stolen
Loved and lauded author Dr Danielle Wood, writing as Minnie Darke, reveals details of her latest book which will be launched on Tuesday by a former Labor Premier.
Tasmania
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For award-winning Tasmanian author Danielle Wood the effects of forced adoption have been “profound”.
In Three Juliets – her latest fiction written as Minnie Darke – she looks at the trauma of forced adoption felt by countless families and the intense bond between mothers and daughters.
It will be launched on Tuesday at Fullers Bookshop by former Premier Lara Giddings, who made an apology in 2012 to those affected by forced adoption.
Dr Wood says her extended family has both lost and gained people through adoption.
“I was born in 1972, which was the peak year for adoption in Australia, with nearly 10,000 babies adopted. Given the year I was born, it’s probably not surprising that I know a lot of adoptees.
“In some ways, I’ve been researching this book my whole life, but I also spoke to people outside my circle of friends and family and read quite widely.”
Many people, she said, now want to talk about their experiences and for people to understand the situations they found themselves in and the losses they suffered.
“The ripple-on effects of forced adoption practices have been profound, and they run right through our society,” Dr Wood said.
“I think we need to look with clear eyes at what happened in the past, and to understand that many women were coerced, overpowered, abused and stolen from.
“Just as I am the same age as many Australian adoptees, my mother is the same age as many women who lost their babies, and so each of us has borne witness to the impacts of forced adoption on our contemporaries.
“Mothers just like my mother, children just like me, were denied the bond we’re fortunate enough to share.
“In 1973, when the Whitlam Government introduced the Supporting Mother’s Benefit, adoption numbers immediately went into decline, proving that when single mothers had the financial possibility of raising and caring for their own children, overwhelmingly, they did so.”
Three Juliets is a heart-rending story of designer Claudie Miller who was forced to give up her baby for adoption, and the novel has a strong theme of dressmaking.
“I love to sew myself, and while some people would say cooking is their love language, that’s certainly not mine.
“My love language has much more to do with fabric and yarn.”
Dr Wood says she is “excited and honoured” that Ms Giddings will launch the book.
“A powerful part of Lara’s legacy was the apology she made in 2012 to those affected by forced adoption.
“The speech she gave at that time was very nuanced and sincere, and I foresee that she and I will have an interesting conversation about this multifaceted issue.”
Three Juliets, she says, is an “emotional rollercoaster” but she hopes readers will find the end satisfying.
Former Premier behind push for forced adoption compensation
Former Labor Premier Lara Giddings says compensation should be paid to women and their children subject to forced adoptions.
On the eve of the launch of Dr Danielle Wood’s latest book, Three Juliets, using the pen name Minnie Darke, Ms Giddings said the apology she made in 2012 was “an important first step in recognising what had happened to these women and children”. “But just as others have received compensation in acknowledgment of the state failing to protect them, these women and their children deserve some level of compensation from the state government for the pain and suffering they have endured,” Ms Giddings said.
“While money alone does not make up for the loss of being a parent to your child, it does help people to feel heard and understood.”
Ms Giddings said the book brought to life “a story of a mother who never got to lay eyes on her baby”, but in some instances, women did get to see their baby before they were taken away.
“The book is a beautiful, sensitive portrayal of a horrendous part of our modern history that literally saw children taken from their mothers, and in some instances also young fathers, but generally mothers in really awful circumstances,” she said.
“At the time that I delivered the apology to these women and children and families, I did my best to walk in their shoes.
“It was probably one of the most emotional things I ever did through my political career and holding it together was really hard, especially with the women there in the parliament with us, having sat with those women and some children as well and heard their stories.
“Now having been a mother, having been pregnant, having felt that baby move in my stomach, having bonded with that baby before the baby was even born, it’s an even more poignant story for me as a mother to read it and feel that pain that is expressed so well by Danielle in her book, a pain that would never leave you.” Ms Giddings said it was one of Dr Wood’s best books.
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