Categories: uncategorized
Date: 28 July 2005 12:36:17
A fascinating programme on SBS tonight, looking into the effects of adoption for three of the 280 babies and young children sent to Australia as part of an airlift of 3,000 Vietnamese children from orphanages in Saigon.
It was heartbreaking to see Christina head off to Vietnam, with no Vietnamese, to find her birth parents and find out that the DNA test was too expensive and that, although the man and woman who claim to be her parents were happy to have her, Christina could not be sure and therefore could not accept it. Back home she once again longed for Vietnam. Hard to watch. She admits she has trouble coping with the emotions and has "switched off".
It was interesting to see the journey of Martine [who was told by her mother in Vietnam to go shopping with "two aunties" -- and was delivered to an orphanage] back to Vietnam to be reconnected with her birth mother and a sister. Shane (he has more of an Aussie accent than I and is a surfer -- far more typically Aussie than I!) was very content with his life and felt no need to seek out his birth parents.
A wonderful documentary, by Vietnam War refugee Dai Le, that looked not only into family relationships and one's own identity (especially the loss of one's language and culture), but touched on the legacy of war and the impact of those affected in this particular way.