Indigo Willing met her new family at the Sydney Airport in 1972, hours after being whisked away from a Vietnamese orphanage.
She was the one of the first orphans to be adopted by Australians during the Vietnam War which ended 30 years ago next month.
When her adopted mum visited this orphanage (pictured far left) Indigo was the only baby who didn’t hysterically scream at the sight of her mum’s white skin and blonde hair.
Mrs Willing (nee Williams) said she had a happy childhood growing up in Sydney’s northern beaches.
It wasn’t a big deal that she looked different to her two brothers but there was pressure to assimilate to an Australian Anglo Saxon culture.
A friendship with Rani Kamahl, the daughter of Malaysian born crooner Kamahl, helped her get through life at a private girl’s school.
“It seemed like we were the only non-whites. I escaped in my high school years to attend a Performing Arts School at Strathfield in Sydney’s west, which was more multicultural,” Mrs Willing said.
The UQ Social Science student is now drawing on her own experiences for her PhD on intercountry adoptions.
Mrs Willing has already researched adoptees but plans to interview the parents of about 30 Queensland families with adopted children from as far apart as Ethiopia to Brazil.
She said she would ask parents about the challenges and triumphs in their ‘global families’ such as the cultural and social changes they make and which support services are useful and in what areas they need help.
“We know very little about what ways adoptive parents equip themselves to look after children who are often from very different cultural backgrounds.
“We also lack substantial knowledge on how these adoptive families might be given appropriate support and assistance.
“I grew up in a predominately white area. And there would be times when I’d be the only Asian in the classroom.
“My family didn’t know any Vietnamese people or multicultural networks and back then, they didn’t have manuals of support for people that adopt children from overseas.”
Mrs Willing, now 33 and living in Southbank, is awaiting news to see if she can try and find her biological mother in Ho Chi Minh City.
Her study comes after an influx of interest in global adoptions following the Boxing Day Tsunami and a review of Queensland’s Adoption of Children Act 1964.
Media or parents of adopted children from outside Australia who could contribute to the study should contact: Mrs Willing (phone: 07 3346 1436, 0403 168 490, email: i.willing@uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications on (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)
