Adoption journey takes NSW man across the world to reunite with his birth mother

At 35, Sol Ramana-Clarke found himself focusing on his breathing in a "rebirthing" therapy session.

His adoptive father had just died, his marriage had broken down and he was reaching for solace in an alternative meditation technique.

"I got back to my birth and I was in a completely altered state of consciousness," he said.

"I was crying and crying."

For the first time in his life, the father of two felt the deep wound of being separated from his birth mother.

Sol had thought the story of how he came to be in the world didn't matter.

Suddenly it did.

An independent young woman

Back in 1956, an exceptionally independent young Canadian nurse called Brenda Hall was enjoying a working holiday in Australia.

"I was very adventuresome and nothing sort of fazed me," Brenda said.

Withstanding sandstorms and blistering heat, Brenda found herself living in the Aboriginal community of Areyonga in the Northern Territory.

"That was amazing going out with the girls and they dug under the trees and and found these witchetty grubs and roasted them in a little fire."

Brenda was in denial about the changes she'd started to notice in her body.

She'd become pregnant after a night out in Alice Springs a few weeks earlier.

"I was going to work, we were hiking all over the place."

When her period stopped, she offered her sanitary items to a friend.

"I was very naive," she said.

Brenda watched as a young Pitjantjatjara woman gave birth amongst her people.

"The old woman massaged her back and her tummy … they just took a piece of a rock and cut the umbilical cord," Brenda said.

Eventually, Brenda couldn't ignore the morning sickness anymore.

Without telling a soul about the pregnancy, Brenda took herself to a hospital in Melbourne, had the baby alone and gave him up for adoption.

As a single woman and a Christian, the societal norms of the time meant it wasn't fathomable for Brenda to keep the baby.

"I didn't even talk about it with my friend and my parents never knew," Brenda said.

She went on with her global travels.

"I was practical, I'm not that kind of a person that dwells on a lot of things," Brenda said.

Only a name to go off

In 1992, with the help of an adoption agency in Melbourne, Sol found his original birth certificate.

"There was the name of my birth mother … written in a beautiful italic script with a fountain pen," Sol said.

"[I thought] wow, this is a beautiful handwritten name, that's all I had, just her name."

Sol found out his birth mother was born in New Westminster near Vancouver in Canada.

He made his way through the phone book, one dead end after the next.

"That made me feel a bit sad deep down," he said, and he gave up his search.

A chance encounter in Canada

Nearly two decades later, Sol was visiting his stepson who was working in British Columbia in Canada.

While he was there, he came across a local adoption support group and met Amy, who had given up a baby of her own.

Amy had become a professional "searcher", connecting birth parents and adopted children.

The next week, she gave him a call that changed everything.

"I found your birth mother alive and well living on Vancouver Island and she's happy to meet you," Amy said.

The moment Sol and Brenda were reunited, something clicked inside him.

"It was amazing … looking right in her eyes and just feeling, wow this is really my mother," he said.

Back to his roots

Years later, Sol travelled back to Areyonga to visit the community that had meant so much to his mother.

When he stopped in Alice Springs, he made a phone call to her in Canada.

"I said, 'Mum, I'm here in Alice Springs to honour my conception.'"

Brenda hadn't shared details of the man she had spent that night with in 1956.

But Sol wanted to know where he'd been conceived.

"I don't need to know what tree it was under or anything and she said, 'Oh no, it wasn't under a tree, it was in the pub.'"

"So I said, 'Oh well I better order a beer to celebrate.'"