TITLE: 2nd Generation Adoptees

DESCRIPTION

This event was held on March 20, 2021 featuring panelists Dyani White Hawk, David Quint, Kayla Phillips, and Maya Castro-Dabbeni. Adoption is a legacy that extends beyond the individual adoptee. A deeper exploration of epigenetics, genetic memory, and generational trauma is happening. This panel explores the impact that adoption has on our next generation. Hear from children of adoptees who have deeply contemplated what it means to be raised by an adoptee. Including thoughts about:

Navigating relationships with the adopted side of your family.
Conflict about searching for biological family.
Forming your racial identity as a biracial second generation adoptee.
The importance of creating community for the second generation adoptee experience.

PANELISTS

Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a multi-award winning visual artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. White Hawk earned a MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011) and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008).Her work is among many private and public collections. She is represented by Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis. Dyani is the daughter of Sandy White Hawk, a trans-racial adoptee and the founder and Director of First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI). Dyani also believes it is vitally important to understand the multi-generational impacts that governmental policies focused on removal and assimilation have had and continue to have on communities.

David Quint’s career as a filmmaker has spanned 25 years and countless stories, but a mystery shadowing his own family’s story had always haunted him. Setting out with his father on a high-stakes trip to an orphanage in Switzerland, David records their desperate search for answers that lead to Father Unknown - a feature film that brings audiences along for the ride on a deep and powerful journey in search of connection, identity, and intergenerational healing. I've put quite some time into processing how relinquishment and adoption have impacted subsequent generations in my family story but this will be my first time sharing that with other 2nd generation adoptees.

Kayla Phillips is 20 years old in her third year at Bennington College. She primarily studies psychology with supplementing studies of philosophy and media studies. Kayla has always been interested in human development, social justice, and political theory. Kayla is the daughter of an adoptee and growing up has always had contact with both her mothers adopted and birth family. Kayla also plays guitar and has an ever-growing love for singing and music. Kayla is interested in attending this panel to get connected to other children of adoptees and hear their stories and hear about the intersections of common experience those children share.

Maya Castro-Dabbeni has grown up her whole life hearing and talking about adoption as a second generation adoptee. She is biracial, Colombian and Italian, as well as trilingual, Italian, Spanish and English. Her mother Astrid Castro is a Colombian adoptee and the director and founder of Adoption Mosaic. At a young age Maya was a driving force in finding her maternal birth family. To this day she is still uncovering connections to her Colombian roots, in addition to exploring how generational trauma and epigenetics affect second generation adoptees. Maya is excited to be on this panel to bring the topic of second generation adoptees to light.