Welcome to my fellowship

Hello! My name is Shaun and I'm embarking on a meaningful overseas research project to investigate intercountry adoptee (a person born in one country, then adopted to another) communities and impactful support services from April to June. It's about a month until I depart Melbourne to visit America, Europe and Korea on a very special grant program, and I'm going to be documenting my learnings, ramblings and photos via this website.

Beyond Origins Co is an entity I've created to initially document my research. Perhaps it may lead to other things in the future.

For background, intercountry adoptions are typically "closed adoptions", meaning that both adoptee and biological parents have rights to ongoing anonymity unless both parties consent to reuniting. However, the consequences are that many adoptees have never been able to validate the reasons or circumstances as to why they were abandoned or relinquished, and generally have very limited information about their genetic family. For some, it's not something that weighs on their mind. For others, it leaves a large void in their identity.

What if you don't know your origins? What if your family history only starts in some form of a sequel? Chapter 1 is missing because you were relinquished at a young age and the family who raised you only started writing the book from Chapter 2 or later. And what happens when you can't find Chapter 1? Ever? How do you move beyond your origins?

It was these types of thoughts about adoption and adoptee communities I was having in 2024 that lead me to start thinking about the next phase of my volunteer work in adoptee spaces and what I might focus on next.

Since 2022, I've proudly volunteered as President of the Korean Adoptees in Australia Network Inc (KAIAN). Our organisation has existed for 11+ years, focusing on running community events and meetups for people adopted from Korea to Australia. The most common topics our peer-to-peer spaces discuss are related to finding more information about our origins, searching for birth family and visiting Korea generally. KAIAN is part of the International Korean Adoptee Associations network of adoptee organisations that also focus on facilitating community spaces for adoptees to meet with their peers and talk about a range of topics. Many people over the past decades have searched for adoptee communities in the hopes of finding peers who share similar lived experiences.

After talking with 100s of adoptees over the years, the unfortunate reality for adoptees wanting to search for biological family is that most adoptees will never find any relatives or learn about their genetic origins. However despite this and maybe because of it, many people keep coming back to these adoptee community spaces. I am one of them.

Prior to putting my hand up for any type of volunteer role, I had the life changing experience of attending the 2019 International Korean Adoptee Associations (IKAA) Gathering conference held in Seoul, which welcomed over 500 Korean adoptees returning to their country of origin to attend numerous sessions covering adoptee specific themes that included identity, belongingness, family and relationships. A few sessions I still have vivid memories of:

Adoptees Without Children

Have you wondered what it would be like to know someone who looks like you? For adoptees who do not have children and have not reunited with our Korean families, this may never be possible. If this is part of your adoption journey, how has it impacted your identity as an adoptee? This session is for those who have not connected a 1st degree relative and who also do not have their own, biological children.

Bringing Our Best Self to the World

As Korean Adoptees, we exemplify unique life circumstances and experiences that may be intriguing and also difficult for others to comprehend. However, our experiences allow us to view how we accept others and even ourselves through another lens that others could learn from. This session will take the attendee through their own experiences that may not be so easily relatable and how they can take their life skills of acceptance, understanding and humanity and eliminate cultural expectations while encouraging society to be a more open and accepting place for all.

The Ugly Model - Documentary Excerpts + Skype Q&A

Excerpts from The Ugly Model, a Documentary following Korean American adoptee and fitness model Kevin Kreider who has spent his whole career trying to answer the question: "Can Asian men be sexy?”

The Ugly Model Producer Bianca Kuijper will share her drivers behind making the documentary and lead a Q&A over Skype with Kevin Kreider and open conversation on the topic of Asian Masculinity.

Age Breakout - 31-34 year olds

Group chats about anything and everything, from all over the world. I used to occasionally think about how I could have actually been adopted to America or Sweden or France or anywhere really. In this room I sat with the experiences of 50+ adoptees who actually were.

This conference was like a cyclone of so many topics I'd considered, and so many I hadn't. I couldn't believe, in this day of internet and social media, I'd never previously heard of this conference and I'd never considered the concept of an adoptee organisation or community until now. Sorry if this sounds like an ad but it really was a very moving experience at that time in my life!

We needed more of this is Australia! And that's about when I started getting involved with organising some adoptee catch ups in Melbourne. KAIAN invited me to join the committee fairly soon after.

Around the same time I was referred to a national television program discussing what life was like growing up in Australia. That catapulted me into other adoptee spaces and post adoption services that I didn't previously know about. During filming I met people adopted from countries other than Korea for the first time in my adult life. Then I wrote a news article about my experiences. Then I was invited to provide feedback to our State-based adoption agency. Then I spoke on a podcast. All of this happened within a hyper-hectic, everything-all-at-once exploration of all things adoptee-related within a short period of time. By no means was I an expert in adoptee matters but all of the above only required me to talk about my own experiences.

Fast forward quite a bit and I decided I wanted another bite of the IKAA Gathering cherry, and I had the drive and capacity to help contribute. I started joining monthly online calls with other adoptee leaders from various IKAA network organisations, probably for a good 12 months, and the 2023 conference was the first opportunity to meet most of them in person which was extremely meaningful and moving. So much experience, knowledge and care amongst the group!

KAIAN is 10-20 years younger than many adoptee orgs overseas, so it was inspiring to hear about the maturity and experience of their (almost exclusively volunteer-based) leaders. I came back from the 2023 IKAA Gathering wanting to explore a couple of things in particular:

• continuing to increase our connection with other IKAA network orgs, there was so much knowledge to continue learning from .

• work out if we could pull off a Gathering-style conference in Australia to celebrate KAIAN's 10 year anniversary

We were able to advance both, and it further developed my interest in community. I realised I needed to visit more overseas adoptee communities and spend far more time talking with current and past leaders in these spaces. Ideally not behind computer, if I could somehow find a way!

Enter the Winston Churchill Trust. Funnily enough, I only heard about the existence of their fellowship grant program from a fellow intercountry adoptee who was awarded one in 2024. The general criteria is as follows:

The aim of the Trust is to provide an opportunity to Australians to travel overseas to conduct research in their chosen field. It also aims to reward individuals who possess passion and a commitment to make a difference in Australian society. Since 1965 we have awarded over 4500 Fellowships. There are no prescribed qualifications to apply for the Churchill Fellowship award. Australian citizens, from all walks of life, can apply for a Churchill Fellowship. The topic of your proposed project is limitless, provided benefit to Australia is evident and a willingness to share your findings with the Australian community is displayed.

Note: 2026 applications are currently open, please reach out if you'd like to learn more about this amazing program

Well... fast forward again and here I am presenting a summary of my project to investigate development, sustainment and support of intercountry adoptee communities:

New Fellow Presentation Dinner. Shoutout to the team of incredibly talented Auslan (sign language) interpreters that night.

I'll be sharing my learnings and photos/videos while I travel across the east coast of America, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Korea exploring adoptee communities and the support services that assist us with our unique societal needs. The scope of my research is not just limited to Korean adoptees, it's about exploring how systems support broader intercountry adoptee populations.

There are some other critical issues happening at the moment, related to Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Australian government's imminent announcement of their own investigation into the Korea-Australia adoption program. Some other receiving countries (where adoptees placed overseas) around the world have already gone through similar reviews and I'll be exploring those precedents in Europe.

I depart mid-April and am aiming to post multiple times per week... this blog will be used to document my day-to-day findings and share some fun travel things along the way. It's always intrigued me that I could have been adopted to America or Europe and now I get to visit those who were.

If you'd like to follow along you can sign up for updates at the bottom of the page :)