‘Why didn’t you tell me?’: the Australian push to have all adopted people told their full history and identity

‘I was absolutely shell-shocked’: Merrilees Ritchie discovered late in life that she had been adopted. Photograph: Claire Moodie

Merrilees Ritchie describes it as an “out of body experience”. It felt as if she was watching from above her kitchen table in Albany, Western Australia, as her brother explained to her that the pair of them had been adopted as babies, nearly 40 years before.

Over a cup of tea he revealed they also had different biological mothers. They were not biologically related.