My name is Catherine Kearney, I was born in
Penang at hospital Bersalin Pulau Pinang on
May 5th 1975
and adopted at birth by a Australian parents, Dennis and Patricia
Kearney. I have two older brothers Brendan and Shaun who are Australian.
I moved to
Melbourne ,
Australia
in 1978 and have lived here ever since. Growing up, I never learnt much
about Malaysian culture so when I was in my early 20’s I became curious
about my birth family, country of birth and culture. Many years later I
decided to search for my birth family and have received lots of support
from my family and boyfriend.
Two years ago I went to the Dept of Human Services - Intercountry
Adoption Service, VIC. This was my first attempt to search for my birth
family. They introduced me to the ICASN network which has been helpful by
hearing and reading familiar thoughts from other inter-country adoptees.
A friend of Patricia’s lives in Kuala Lumper is
helping me with my search and so far I have found out my birth mother was
last known to be living in Taiping. In October, 2004, my boyfriend
Quinton and I visited
Malaysia
. This was my first trip back, I was excited and nervous. We hired a
scooter and visited hospital Bersalin which made me happy to see. We then
went to visit
356 Perak Rd
in
Georgetown
the residential address of my birth mother when I was born. I had a
letter translated into Malay (the national language) which said my name
and mothers name and I was here searching for my birth mother.
Many different dialects are spoken in
Malaysia
because of the different nationalities that live there. I am Chinese
Malay, the Chinese speak about five different dialects. I showed some
locals in two nearby eateries and every person was very helpful asking
around who could understand Malay. Some didn’t know where number 356 was,
some said it was behind the restaurant somewhere. We rode around for
about 30 minutes. I don’t know if I found number 356, but it seems a
block of empty apartments have been built.
Perak Road
is very close to the hospital Bersalin so my birth mother may have stayed
there temporarily while pregnant.
We spent five days in
Penang and four days in Kuala Lumper (K.L). While
in K.L, I called The Star newspaper to place a story in their paper (this
is the number one English newspaper in
Malaysia
). The editor thought it sounded like a good story and arranged a
reporter to contact me for an interview. On the morning I was to fly out,
Chow (the reporter) and a photographer came to my hotel The Renaissance,
interviewed and photographed me and Quinton. I was asked lots of
questions about how I was adopted, did I live with a loving family, why I
was searching, what made me search. One question that really got me was
“would you move to
Malaysia
with your birth family?” I thought “wow what a question!” To be honest,
I didn’t know the answer. Australia has been my home all my life, could I
adapt to the Chinese Malay culture? Would I want to leave
Australia
, it’s a great place, but the experience of living in
Malaysia
sounds attractive too. I placed my email address in the story for people
to contact me with any information. The article can be viewed
here.
I received many emails ranging from those wishing me
luck and people giving me phone numbers to contact. One email stood out
from the rest, from Su-Yin the niece of Helen, Helen claiming to be my
godmother. I showed Patricia the email. Su-yin and I emailed each other
confirming information and it turns out Helen is my godmother. Patricia
and Helen had a reunion on the phone and are ecstatic to be in contact
again. I didn’t find out anymore about my birth family and although Helen
isn’t related it’s great having some success from the article.
I feel complete and much happier in myself for
visiting
Malaysia
. It’s not a place unknown to me now. I felt sad seeing the poverty over
there and how my life could have been. I haven’t completed my search and
my next option is to write to the Chinese Daily paper. Recently I came to
a standstill. Do I want to go on further with my searching? The thoughts
going through my mind are revolving around “I’ve come this far, why stop
now?” Will I have to look after my birth family financially? I’m still
curious but I would feel complete knowing what I know now. I’m sure I
will come to a decision that’s right for me.
A couple of pictures of my return
visit:
Catherine on Scooter
Catherine having interview with The Star
Catherine's partner on Scooter
