Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
It’s been a while since I’ve written a post, mainly because I’ve been meeting deadlines! Here are some events to keep in mind, if you like YA books, are interested in conversations of historical connections, or like podcasts that reveal the inside experiences of a person (me). Today (First, my YA fiction story, “Shawl Dance”, […]
Considering that ICWA is at stake on the U.S. Supreme Court level, it is important for child placement professionals, and prospective adoptive parents to really understand how impactful anti-Indian structures are on American Indian transracial adoptees.
I have the honor of being asked to speak for the Utah’s Annual ICWA Conference. I will be giving a virtual presentation. American Indian children who have been removed from their home and are being considered for placement in foster care or adoption require stability. The removal itself is traumatizing, with effects that last late […]
I will be giving a presentation of Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption and talking about the writing of it, and why it was an important book to be out in the public space. Please join me at the LaVeta Library at 1:oo p.m. for a reading, conversation and questions.
Recently, U.S. Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett suggested that child placement through adoption makes Roe V. Wade a moot point. And there are pleny of myths that point to this seemingly painless transaction. But as Katherine Joyce, a writer for Salon, states, “the suggestion that adoption entails nothing more than several months of inconvenience […]
Join me as I talk with three fabulous adoptee writers about their books, their experiences and their craft. The conversation will prove to be intriguing, educational, and not an event to miss.
Join me as we get into the details of what it means to write about the adoption experience, and what the experience is reading that experience. Discussion of Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoptees. Members only.
Last month, I participated in a podcast with the Archibald Project, an organization that uses storytelling to address the orphan and child vulnerability crisis in creative and educated ways. I loved talking with them because they asked the hard questions, those questions that reveal the complexity and depth of tough issues, the ones that make […]
Ok, I just gotta say this: being a speaker at TEDxMileHigh is a (terrifying) rush! And for me, a relative introvert, it overwhelmed my senses. After preparing for this moment for almost 2 months, complete with several intense and interesting trainings, Rick and I walked down the hall and toward the dressing room. One of […]
During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, American Indian children were placed with white families at a phenomenal rate. By 1974, approximately 30% American Indian children were removed from their American Indian families and placed with non-Indian families. Neglect was cited most often, a vague term that was responsible for changing the lives of Indian children, […]