I’ve recently returned from an incredible trip to the Netherlands for the INEA Congress and Festival. While at the Congress, I had the privilege of meeting Colombian intercountry adoptee, José Montoya who performed his monologue live, entitled Grief. It was an excellent performance exploring a topic in adoption that many fail to grasp or understand, unless they’ve also lost their entire kin, culture, country and identity. I hope you will watch Grief to gain some understanding from lived experience and a very talented person, José Montoya. After the Congress, I reached out to Jose and he share ..read more

by Jillian Kurovski, adopted from Sth Korea to the USA. I was talking to my birth mother today for Lunar New Year. She always wants me to know how much she loves me and that she is sorry. I always tell her there is no need to be sorry. Our conversations remind me that my mother and I share much pain and trauma over the same separation. Knowing that she shares this grief too and that is is likely she feels alone in her sorry is a unique feeling that I find hard to describe. I think we both wish we could cry in each other’s arms to lighten the other’s load. Our separation bears down on both of u ..read more

Vår Benum 임숙희 is born in South Korea, adopted to Norway When upon a time did the Great Sorrow come? Suddenly under vibrant verdant skies an indelible day in May? Or an excruciating, crisp, and harrowing hour in September where it all became too late and every thing vanished? Why did it not go away when the world was reborn? Maybe to remind me that I exist? Maybe as a testament to one I could have become? The images Vår shares below are her artwork illustrations made for some of the poems and songs she created such as what you’ve read above. She has published two poetry books in Norwegian as an ..read more

Ebony Hickey is a proud Haitian Australian intercountry adoptee artist who has just finished performing at the National Gallery of Victoria with Afrocentric. Instagram ebony.hickey.7 Have a listen to Ebony’s recorded spoken word performance: Resources Ebony’s artwork and presentation at the K-Box Adoptee Take-Over night Ebony’s I Am Me artwork Ebony’s Born both Ways artwork Ebony’s artwork features in Australia’s Adoption and Suicide literature review (p1) A compilation of intercountry adoptee artwork as shown at ICAVs website The post Afrocentric first appeared on InterCountry Adoptee Vo ..read more

This was written upon request of ISS-IRC for their No.269 Nov – Dec 2023 newsletter, published on 16 Jan 2024. This is a Special Edition celebrating 30 years! The ISS-IRC provides technical assistance to the Central Authorities of the 1993 Hague Convention for Intercountry Adoption and their newsletter is distributed to the Central Authorities. In this latest newsletter, the ISS-IRC has kindly provided the 2022 intercountry adoption statistics and analysis. See their published report here. I’m an intercountry transracial adoptee born in Vietnam in 1973, of Chinese origins, and questionably tak ..read more

by Lynelle Long, Founder of ICAV This year has marked 25 years since I began ICAV and as we near the end of the year, I reflect on the achievements and milestones made during these years. It has been my life mission to create a space for intercountry adoptees by intercountry adoptees. The changes over these years in our community have been massive and impressive. I can’t wait to see what is coming in the next 25 years as adoptees not only continue to find their voices, but turn it into purposeful action like we have seen published in the media recently. In Belgium, they have become the first ..read more

What does it mean to be accountable? Wow! What a day!  On Friday 3 November 2023, I spent 4 hours in a mediated session with one of the organisations who accepted responsibility for my sexual abuse by my adoptive family. This was enabled as a direct result of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse. My claim took approximately 2 years and on 8 Nov 2022, my claim was accepted by 2 of the 3 institutions that I had nominated: the Lutheran church and the Australian Department of Home Affairs (Immigration). A victim can elect if they wish to have a Direct P ..read more

Adoptee presenters to the UN Committees and Special Rapporteurs 20 September 2023 is the first Year Anniversary of the publication of the UN’s Joint Statement on Illegal Intercountry adoptions. I’m still buzzing with the incredible energy from the event and working collaboratively with our global community to present to the UN Committees and Rapporteurs as victims of illegal intercountry adoptions! Our community is amazing when we can harness our power and work collectively! It’s no small feat to overcome the individual traumas, in and ex-adoptee group politics, national and global politics ..read more

There IS beauty in diversity! It’s a universal truth that we don’t have to be white skinned and fair to be considered beautiful but for so many transracial and intercountry adoptees like me, we can often grow up feeling like we are not as beautiful, especially when raised in isolated areas or with few racial mirrors. Growing up in rural Victoria, Australia was challenging for me as I was often the only person of colour except for some Aboriginals. I absorbed an unspoken assumption that white is best and hence I felt ugly and ashamed of my ethnicity because I was always surrounded by white pee ..read more

by Maddy Ullman, born in China and raised in the USA. I wrote this on the last day of disability pride month (July). I started disability pride month at a conference on a panel discussing the intersectionality of disability and adoption. The audience heard me and my truths saying things like: If someone handed me a magic cure today, that would get rid of all my disabilities, I wouldn’t take it. I don’t know who I’d be without disability and there’s beauty in that. Disability has taught me to be adaptive and resourceful. I have more empathy. More drive. I am so proud to call myself disabled ..read more