The Gathering 2007, Seoul

With apologies for not reporting on this well in advance, but with hopes that this post will allow for some advance planning for next year’s events, here’s a bit on the 2007 International Korean Adoptee Association’s Gathering that took place during the week of July 31st- August 5th in Seoul, South Korea.

The fourth Gathering since the first was held in Washington D.C. in 1999, this year’s event brought together some 650 to 700 adoptees with the aim of “… demonstrating that the global community of adult Korean adoptees, representing a diverse population of nationalities, languages and perspectives, can transcend these differences to meet and work together.’’

In a video of a congratulatory welcome message to the conference, Korea’s First Lady Kwon Yang-suk said that she is ‘deeply moved’ to see adoptees living as great citizens of their adoptive countries, and apologized to the over 160,000 who had to leave Korea through adoption because of “the Korean War, poverty, and other circumstances.”

Promising to provide information, the First Lady announced a modification of a special law on adoption that would set up an “Adoption Information Center”, as well as offering more opportunities to learn Korean language and culture, expanding the number of guesthouses for adoptees for stays in the country, and a strengthening of job counseling services for those who would like to live and work in Korea.

The Gathering’s programs included presentations, workshops, research conferences, art exhibitions and performances by adoptee artists, some “seek identity through community”, and are seeing themselves as a “transnational bridge between their birth and adoptive countries”.

Eleana Kim, professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, adult Korean adoptee and Gathering attendee suggests that adoption as it applies here is actually transnational rather than international or inter-country:

“Rather than thinking of adoption as from the birth country to the adoptive country, which is a one-way trip, adoption now really is becoming much more transnational, where you have a constant flow of people, information and things moving back and forth.” she said.

As Internet contact increases between individuals, as people adopted from various backgrounds and nations find each other and the common ground from which roots spring, gathering and sharing seems a logical consequence.

With events like this becoming more common, and the involvement of more and more adoptees and their families, that constant flow of people and information should increase, and to the great betterment of the planet, I would guess.

January 2008 will see an International Mini-Gathering in Las Vegas, and another in Hawaii in October. Keep track of these, and preparations for the next big one, here.

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