Secrets We Keep
Each season, Secrets We Keep investigates a different Australian secret. Lone Actor (Season 7): Joey Watson traces the radicalisation trajectory of the Christchurch terrorist, asking the question - did he really act alone? By Any Means (Season 6): An investigation into the modern fertility landscape, confronting complex questions about consent, identity and human rights. Should I Spit? (Season 5): The origin story of the multibillion dollar consumer DNA industry. From police hoping to solve cold murder cases, to one of the most powerful churches in the world, everyone seems to want a piece of what makes you, you. Pray Harder (Season 4): investigative journalist Richard Baker uncovers the unbelievable and compelling true story of Australia’s oldest and most hard line Pentecostal Church, the Geelong Revival Centre. Baghdad Nights (Season 3): Richard Baker takes you inside Australia's biggest corruption scandal, finding out how Australia funded a dictator in the lead up to the Iraq War. Nest of Traitors (Season 2): Joey Watson is pulled into the world of espionage, attempting to track down an Australian spy who turned to work for the enemy during the Cold War. Shame Lies & Family (Season 1): A mystery photo of Amelia Oberhardt’s mum exposes the practice of shotgun marriages, forced adoption, and quiet abortions carried out in Australia until the 1980s.
Episodes
Journalist Amelia Oberhardt thought she knew her mum, until she was confronted by a photo she’d never seen before at her mother’s wake. Seeing this photo sparks a journey into 1950s-1970s Australia, a time when women were forced to keep secrets. Shotgun marriages, hushed abortions and forced adoptions. It’s the story of a generation of women, who now with their children, are fighting for justice today.
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In the aftermath of seeing the photo at the wake, Amelia Oberhardt is on a search to find the man in the photo. Her pursuit leads her down a rabbit hole, into the world of 1960s and 1970s Australia, and the realities of how women were treated in this era.
And then, a new avenue provides new clues in the search for Michael.
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Standing at her mother’s wake, journalist Amelia Oberhardt is confronted with a photo she’s never seen before - her mum Cecelia as a teenager wearing a wedding ring, accompanied by an unknown husband and cradling an unfamiliar baby.
Immediately, Amelia begins to ask questions. Who is this man? Who is this baby? And does this photo explain Ceceila’s untimely death?
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Amelia Oberhardt flies to Cairns to meet the man in the photo, hoping to finally get the answer to a question that has haunted her for over a decade. Who is the baby in the photo?
Knowing what happened to her mum, Amelia feels more resolve than ever to tell the stories of other women from her mother’s generation.
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Young, pregnant, unwed. What happened next is one of the most shameful periods in Australian history. Amelia Oberhardt speaks to two women who experienced a forced adoption – a broad term used to describe the various ways women were coerced into giving up their baby.
Di Sheehan and Lily Arthur explain how stigma and a flawed system altered the course of their lives.
If you would like to share your story, email secretswekeep@sca....
At its peak in the early 1970s, almost 200 babies per week were adopted in Australia. It’s impossible to know how many of these adoptions involved coercion, but we do know that it was a time many believed single women were incapable of looking after their children.
In this episode, Amelia Oberhardt looks at how this system was allowed to operate, and what lead to forced adoption ending.
It’s a decade this year since Julia Gillard’s apology to those affected by forced adoption, but there’s still unfinished business. Now, it’s the adoptees picking up the baton and carrying on the fight for recognition, redress, and justice.
Amelia speaks to two adoptees – Jennifer McRae and Danae Witherow – about how being taken from their mothers has affected their lives, and their push for an inquiry in Western Australia. Shakir...
We’ve been inundated with responses and questions from you, with your stories from the forced adoption era.
Dr Susan Green is a psychologist and adopted person and speaks to Amelia Oberhardt to answer questions about the psychological impacts of forced adoption.
We’ll be back to our normal format next week.
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Leonie Pope was taken from her mother as a baby in 1972, after her mother was coerced into signing forms that gave away her rights. Leonie and her siblings were all taken from their family, and are part of the Stolen Generations.
Leonie was fostered and adopted to a Welsh family, and spent her childhood on the other side of the world, growing up in Wales. This is Leonie’s story of coming home.
You’ll also hear from Dr Mary Grah...
In researching the series, Amelia Oberhardt heard a shocking story about a Queensland abortion raid that showed another side of how women were treated in Australia’s not too distant past.
Amelia finds out more about the options women had when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, the road to legalising abortion, and what happened one Monday morning in May 1985.
Featured:
- Caroline de Costa – Professor of Obstetrics and G...
In the final episode of the season, Amelia Oberhardt reflects on what she's learnt in the series, and confronts one last stigma - her mother's alcohol dependency.
Support services:
National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline: 1800 250 015
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Forced Adoption Support Service: 1800 21 03 13
Featured:
- Jennifer McRae
- Danae Witherow
- Professor Dan Lubman - Turning Point
See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...
If you or your family have been affected by forced adoption, it can be daunting to start your journey to find information about your history.
However support is available, and host Amelia Oberhardt speaks to two post adoption support services about how someone can navigate this journey.
Forced Adoption Support Service: 1800 21 03 13
List of organisations that can help
Featured:
Closed adoptions have affected many Australian families, and no one experience is the same.
In this episode, you'll hear how forced adoptions have affected people from a new perspective - two adoptees, and one father.
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Forced Adoption Support Service: 1800 21 03 13
List of organisations that can help
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Three years ago, journalist Joey Watson was pulled into the ultimate spy mystery. During the Cold War, the Australian spy agency ASIO was infiltrated by a Soviet mole. For decades the mole's identity was buried and the damage they caused unknown. To uncover the truth, Joey sets out to find the mole. It’s a story about power, national secrets and how countries behave when they think no-one is watching.
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Amelia Oberhardt introduces Season 2 of Secrets We Keep - Nest of Traitors. Hosted by Joey Watson, the season investigates another big Australian secret. Launching January 23.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Three years ago, journalist Joey Watson learnt about the ultimate spy story. During the Cold War, the Australian spy agency ASIO was infiltrated by the enemy - one of their spies turned and began working for the KGB, the Soviet Union’s feared spy agency. They became a mole.
For decades, the mole's identity remained a mystery and the damage they caused unknown. To uncover the truth, Joey sets out to find them.
Joey starts by meet...
Who were the KGB? What was ASIO up against? To help his mole hunt, a former spy takes Joey inside ASIO during the Cold War.
He points Joey to a KGB spy called Gerontiy Lazovik who may have recruited a mole in Australia. As Joey dives deeper into this story, he begins to suspect there was more than one mole.
If you have any feedback or information about this story you can email secretswekeep@sca.com.au or you could send Joey ...
Joey drives into the middle of the desert to find out why Australia became a target for the KGB. He learns that Australia was a bigger player in the Cold War than he’d ever imagined, and how the mole could’ve had access to secrets from its powerful Western allies.
If you have any feedback or information about this story you can email secretswekeep@sca.com.au or you could send Joey a letter GPO Box 22, Sydney NSW 2000.
See omny...
Joey meets a man who investigated ASIO in the 1970s, to find out what made the spy agency vulnerable to being infiltrated by the KGB. ASIO was directed to search for traitors, but the internal investigations were inconclusive.
If you have any feedback or information about this story you can email secretswekeep@sca.com.au or you could send Joey a letter GPO Box 22, Sydney NSW 2000.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...
A rendezvous leads Joey to an apartment where a source tells him that more information about the suspected moles might lie in a top secret government report. When he realises only the Prime Minister’s office can authorise the report to be released, Joey takes his questions all the way to the top.
If you have any feedback or information about this story you can email secretswekeep@sca.com.au or you could send Joey a letter GPO...
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