Experimental and poetic, The Invisible Hippo of Grief: An Adoption Story investigates my experience of the Canadian Baby Adoption Mandate Era (1945-1985) when over 600,000 newborns were placed through closed adoption to new families. Most “birth mothers” were aged 15 to 19, and many lived in Canadian government-funded maternity group homes run by religious orders where we were enculturated into silence and compliance. History reveals our babies were taken—we were not given informed consent. We were subjected to neglect, abuse, and dangerous medical procedures. The Canadian Baby Adoption Mandate Era directly involved 3 million Canadians—including infants, first parents, and adoptive parents—yet it remains a secret tidal wave of births, a missing chapter of Canadian and feminist history. While the era gains some visibility, it is rarely framed from a first mother perspective. Invisible Hippo examines the mechanisms that enacted the Baby Adoption Mandate Era and pathologized “birth mothers.” Dominant patriarchal beliefs formed a dangerous mass and exerted its power within hidden corridors. Indispensable yet disposable, we were subjected to unmitigated cruelty at the hands of the medical, legal, and social systems simply because our infants were born without legal protection provided by marriage. The Canadian federal government has refused to apologize for funding this era, despite Senate recommendation to do so in 2018. This project does not address the Indigenous 60’s Scoop.

The Invisible Hippo of Grief is generously supported by an Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Production Grant and multiple research-creation funds at Brock University.