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ICASN BEGINNINGS |
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| ICASN was
founded in late 1998 as a result of 27 adoptees working together on a
project with the Post Adoption
Resource Centre (PARC) in NSW, Australia to write a book about our experiences
as adoptees. The book is called
The Color of Difference - Journeys in Transracial Adoption and was
published in 2001 by Federation Press.
The book is a collection
of personal stories and photographs giving some
unique insights into what it is like to grow up in a family
where you are of a different race to those around you.
We hope readers are able to learn about
racism, about the sense of loss that adoption can create, about the
love within many of these families, and
importantly, about what has made the difference between a
positive and a negative experience of adoption. We
wrote with honesty about our struggles to
incorporate a positive racial identity into
our sense of self and hope to
teach readers about the real impact of
trans-racial adoption.
19 of the 27 contributers to The Color of Difference book Since the book, our network has grown to include over 200 adoptees within Australia and a further 150 around the world. ICASN has been the first network world-wide to include adoptees of any racial background, regardless of country of birth, and to bring our voices together and share our experiences. Today in the USA there is an Adoptee Congress and in Europe there is the United Adoptions International networks which include adoptees of any background. Together, we aim to facilitate connections amongst adoptees and to promote and educate the wider public of the transracial, cross cultural, and cross country adoption issues that impact our lives.
Kym Stevens holds her copy of The Color of Difference ICASN also links up with many organisations world wide involved in inter-country adoption, some of these are:
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