Global, November 2012

Thank you to Australian adoptee Dave Medhurst and family for sharing updated photos of the Theosophic Thong Thien Hoc orphanage from his recent trip back to visit his Vietnamese family. Read more here.

Melbourne October 2012

Vietnamese adoptees Dr Indigo Willing and Dominic Golding joined Korean adoptees HeeRa Heaser and Dr Jessica Walton for a panel talk chaired by Korean adoptee author and activist Jane Jeong Trenka in Melbourne, October 2012.  The panel talk was part of the 10th Australian Adoption Conference. See Day 1 and Day 2 of the program here.  In a later presentation, a key note featuring Jane Jeong Trenka, a call for signatures for a petition to include overseas mothers in an apology to mothers also featured at the conference.

Don’t forget to visit the AVI Facebook Page for more regular updates about what’s going on in our community.

Global adoptees’ news:

Letter to the President to Stop the Deportation of Kairi Shepherd & Others

http://www.adopsource.org/Shepherd_Community_Letter_%20final.pdf

“On May 8th, Kairi Shepherd, an Indian adoptee who has advanced multiple sclerosis, was issued what in effect was her death sentence: deportation to India — a country she has not seen or known since she was adopted at 3 months old — and consequent separation from her family and doctors…”

Don’t forget to check out the AVI Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/adoptedvietnameseinternational) as the quickest way to get up to date news on events and other things related to the adopted Vietnamese community.   Recent posts there include:

July 2012

– A book to be released soon on adoptees as parents, with a link to the book’s own FB page https://www.facebook.com/ParentingAsAdoptees

– A blog alerting people in the MN, USA media that adoptees have a voice and important perspectives to share in media stories on adoption http://readingspark.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/1212/

– A response to the above, calling for interviews with MN, USA adoptees http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/daily_circuit/archive/2012/07/help-create-a-stronger-community-of-international-adoptees-and-families.shtml

– A global adoption community coalition letter in support of Kairi Shepherd, and adoptee citizenship, including signed by AVI after careful consultation with the AVI advisory group  http://adopsource.org/Shepherd_Community_Letter_%20final.pdf

– A story about a Rockford Viet adoptee in the USA who reunited with his Vietnamese mother http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1081599463/Rockford-man-connects-with-Vietnamese-mother-decades-later

Plus you can also search older archives by ‘liking’ the AVI FB public page.

AVI sends out care and respect for the Vietnamese people who arrived 37 years ago, and in memory of those who didn’t make it.

Also a special time for all involved in the Vietnam War period, including over 1000 Vietnamese children who were sent abroad in the years before 1975, and approximately 3000+ Vietnamese children during Operation Babylift in 1975.  April 1975 marks the end of an era that changed so many lives forever, but also the development of a global adopted Vietnamese community where we hope adoptees will always be able to feel that they belong and can be themselves.  In our current times, we are also finding more and more connections than ever before to our surviving Vietnamese relatives.  These are special times.

Please see the AVI Facebook Page for updates on current events in your area that are marking this year’s 37th anniversary.

In peace.

Dr Bert Ballard, academic and featured in Operation Babylift film (also in AVI advisory group), and Kevin Ost Volmers, Korean adoptee and founder: LGA, will present at this conference in New York city in April 2012: http://symposium.jointcouncil.org/?page_id=11

RSVPs for this event have now closed. Thank you: Hermosa Beach, LA, Sunday 25 March, 2012

Meeting for Cali VN adoptees.  RSVPs closed 22 March 2012, but if you would like to make contact for future visits/meet ups please feel welcome to email: indigowilling@gmail.com

International mobile (text only): + 01161403168490

Conference: Claremont, CA Thurs 22- Sat 24 March, 2012

AVI founder Dr Indigo Willing & Dr Bert Ballard are at Claremont 22 – 24 March to attend  The 4th International Conference on Adoption and Culture:  http://pages.scrippscollege.edu/~scastagn/ASAC-2012/Schedule.html

Dr Willing& Dr Bert Ballard (also an AVI Advisory Group member) are presenting ‘Transnationalism Beyond Transmigrants: Chinese Adoption in North America and Australia’. Dr Willing will also be chairing a special panel discussion with other international guests, Prof Rene Hoskbergen and Prof Ravinder Barn on adoptive parents.

The conference is open to the public but all attendees must officially REGISTER (small fee included). To do this visit: http://pages.scrippscollege.edu/~scastagn/ASAC-2012/Schedule.html

If you are a transnational and transracial adoptee, please say hello if you are attending. Indigo’s email: indigowilling@gmail.com International mobile (text only): +001161403168490

A number of AVI’s Advisory Group members are featured in a newsletter (PASQ, QLD Australia – http://www.bensoc.org.au/uploads/documents/PASQ_Newsletter_Summer2012.pdf) and also posted as an online article on adoptee website (tba) about their Vietnamese adoptee community work, and why being in contact with other adoptees can generate a healthy sense of engagement and connection for individuals adopted from Vietnam in any era, and from any country-of-origin.  Contributors from AVI include:

Dr Indigo Willing, Academic & Asian Australian Film Network Co-Convener, QLD Australia, adopted from Vietnam.

Analee Matthews, Journalist,, NSW Australia, adopted from Vietnam.

Jen Fitzpatrick,  Higher Education Officer, Adoptee Representative 2011- 2012 of NICAAG, QLD Australia, adopted from Vietnam.

Trista Goldberg, Business Professional, Founder & CEO, Operation Reunite, USA, adopted from Vietnam.

Tricia Houston, Teacher, Executive in Operation Reunite, USA, adopted from Vietnam.

Kim Nguyen Browne, Corporate Professional, Founder & CEO, Vietnam Volunteer Network, UK, adopted from Vietnam.

‘Ripples’, Government and Business Professional, adopted from Taiwan.

AVI members in Australia might be interested in a story on SBS Film Online about the ‘Asian
Australian Film Forum (AAFF)’, Held in Melbourne, Australia, 12 – 13
November, co-convened by Dr Indigo Willing, AVI founder & VN adoptee (with Amadeo Marquez Perez),
and with a couple of speakers on one of the panels (held 13 Nov) who are
transnationally adopted, including VN adoptee Dominic Golding.

The forum also brings together wider connections between Asian
Australians from a variety of backgrounds and heritages, and with
sponsorship by AASRN and SBS.

Preview AAFF on SBS Film Online
http://www.sbs.com.au/films/article/single/895863/Asian-Australian-Film-Forum-Preview

The AAFF Official website:
http://www.asianaustralianfilmforum.com

Future AVI co-presented events include screenings of Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam.

The next one is in Brisbane 7pm on 7th September hosted by the Post Adoption Services Queensland. For Australian updates and the flyer to the above event see www.adopteefilms.info and for international news you can also go to the project website: www.thebabylift.com

Entry is by gold coin donation with collection going to Vietnamese orphanages sponsored by Against the Grain Productions (ATG) Productions.

Thank you to PASQ, IAFQ, Jigsaw QLD, AVI & IAC folks plus Tammy Nguyen Lee, Jared Rehberg and ATG Prod. for making this event possible.

A COMMUNITY VIDEO MAKING WORKSHOP

Thank you to our guest lecturer Amadeo Marquez-Perez, sponsors and the 15 participants of the below event (inc. adoptees from Vietnam, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Hong Kong and locally in Australia and adoptive families). If you were a participant and would like a DVD of your class exercises please email adopteefilms@gmail.com

Workshops – ’Telling Our Stories’ Video Making Workshop

PIC: Video workshop for adoptees held 31st July 2011

A video making workshop for adoptees and the adoption community of QLD, to be held Sunday 31st July from 12.30 – 3pm. The cost is free but registrations are encouraged (pref. by 28 July). More info on this workshop is posted at www.adopteefilms.info which in 2011 is co-presented by AVI and IAC and sponsored by various adoption related groups including Jigsaw QLD and the IAFQ.

Jessica Emmett writes:

When I first started to explore my adoption “self” over 6 years ago, the AVI network and its founding convener, Indigo ‘Indi’ Willing, were one of my first connections I’d made with other adult VN adoptees. I have been on the Advisory Committee for a few years now but always wanted to be able to give something back to AVI, I just didn’t know how. Then I saw Indi had asked in late May 2011 for help to update the site. This website is my way of contributing to AVI and our community it is dedicated to.

This has been a great project, and it was exciting to have explored the enormous amount of information from the adoptee community that had been shared on the original AVI website.

The AVI team welcomes more stories, contacts, photos and requests for information to be added/amended, while retaining the historical feel of some of the existing stories/events that have been gathered over the past eleven years that AVI has been around.

While the design of any website is secondary to the information and stories it shares, I wanted to explain a little history about its new ‘face’. Since the original site has been around for so long,  I felt that I didn’t want to alter the design too much that it might become a stranger due to drastic changes or feel, so I decided to keep it simple while taking elements of AVI’s original web design and logo.

And on that note, this website is now launched. Enjoy =)
Jess

Global adoptee meet up organized by Project Return 2 in Paris for 22nd October 2010

This Project Return II event is open to all Vietnamese Orphans & Adoptees only, if you are aware of any VADs wishing to attend who have not joined the group please feel free to forward on my details and ask them to contact me at le-thanh@le-thanh.com

www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=345631618795

There will be an evening meet up and lunch get together with AVI and Operation Reunite Vietnamese adoptees 25 – 26 September 2010. For more info see event page at AVI FB Group or email: adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com

For regular get togethers in LA with VN adoptees meet ups info with adoptees from groups like Operation Reunite email Tricia Housten: thou25@cox.net

International Meet Ups for AVI members, their friends and family will be held in:

Toronto, Canada 23 – 24 September 2010

LA, USA 25 – 26 September 2010

Melbourne, Australia October 2010

For updates on other events see AVI FB Group or email: adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com

For more info email:
Dr. Robert Ballard, Assistant Professor, Communication, Leadership and Social Innovation, University of Waterloo
bballard@uwaterloo.ca

There will be a dinner meet ups with AVI Vietnamese adoptees and others during the above event 23 – 24 September. For more info see event page at AVI FB Group or email: adoptedvietnamese@hotmail.com