Episode 32 - "The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Kura Perkins on Love, Loss & Legacy"

Hi everyone, today I speak with Kura. 

Kura Perkins is a Perth-based adoptee. Born in 1975 and was adopted in Western Australia at 6 weeks of age to newly arrived immigrants from New Zealand. They decided to give her a Māori, name and although she wasn’t Māori, her adoptive parents had heard of this incredible name Kura and loved it, her name would soon have coincidental significance,  becoming clear 25 years later.

Growing up, Kura always knew she was adopted., She has met both of her birth parents and most of her siblings on both sides of her natural family. Kura shares details of meeting her birth parents and many anecdotes about their time together over the years, both happy and sad.

With a largely positive lived experience, in her own words she describes her adoption as the gift that keeps on giving. As much as she was loved and secure growing up, Kura hit a low during her teen and early adulthood, eventually a run in with police was the silver lining to get help get her back on track and provided a catalyst to find her birth family. 

Kura is working on a memoir of her adoption for her three daughters and so has kept a record of all adoption correspondence throughout her whole life. Writing about her adoption experience has always been on her mind to do; so much so, she has recorded interviews with her birth family, talking about how it was for them and their experience when placing her for adoption all those years ago. 

Kura is an enthusiastic adoption advocate and feels sad that in Australia, too many at risk children are caught up in a broken system and may miss the opportunity for a safe, permanent and loving home.

Here is her story.