One Plus One is an Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) television series that involves interviews with sports stars, politicians, and other public figures (Australian and international)

In the current One Plus One – The Elders series, journalist Dan Bourchier interviews Aboriginal Australian & Torres Strait Islander Elders from across the country.

From Yarrawong on Yorta Yorta Country (Victoria), and born in 1964, Iam Hamm—who is currently Chair of First Nations Foundation—tells Dan about being adopted. He was a “stolen child” he says.

In a variation on the stork story, Ian says that as a small child he thought parents driving to collect a baby was how babies were made—as they did to collect his sister—and that his family was entirely normal.

It wasn’t until he was in teacher’s college that Ian Hamm found out his birth family was a big Aboriginal family in nearby Shepparton. Moreover, he’d met some of his family but had no idea of the relationship.