Hello!

My name is Nari Baker and I am putting out a request for interviews
of adoptees who have lived in Korea for at least one year. I have
been living in Seoul since July 2007 on a U.S. Fulbright grant for
the purpose of completing several oral history projects. Below I
describe all three projects that I am working on. I am open to
volunteers picking and choosing any combination of the three
projects they would be interested in contributing to.

The first project is an online podcast which can be found at:
canariesinthemother land.wordpress. com The purpose of the podcast is
to explore the notion of Koreanness within the adoptee/gyopo
community living in Korea. It is my hope that it will connect
adoptees with other gyopos in order to build a broader and stronger
community base. I feel that there is much than can be learned from
and shared between either community from the varied and sometimes
similar experiences of living in Korea. It is also my hope that it
can be resource for adoptees (and other gyopos) who are interested
in coming to Korea to live.

The second project is a book project which Kim Park Nelson began.
It will be a book of transcribed interviews of adoptees who have
lived in Korea for at least one year. These interviews are an open
forum for adoptees to tell their life stories, including but not
limited to their childhood memories, living in Korea, and their
birth searches. There is no time limit for these interviews.
(Interviews can easily be used for both the podcast and this book
project.)

Finally, my last project is entitled, “Talking to Ghosts.” This is
a project for adoptees who have not yet found their birthparents.
This includes people (like me) who have been refused a meeting by
their birth parents. I am planning to record oral conversations
with my envisioned birth mother and father from significant places
in my adoption past (such as the steps of my adoption agency, my
birth city, and the beach where my birth parents met). I am
interested in sharing this process with other adoptees who would be
interested in contributing their conversations. Volunteers can be
adoptees who have lived in Korea for any amount of time. I envision
an eventual public exhibit to come out of this project.

I am from the United States and am a native English speaker. I am,
unfortunately, not conversant in any European languages. I am,
however, more than happy to try to find interpreters for people who
would like to be interviewed in languages other than English.

Thank you very much for your consideration! If you are interested
in contributing to any of these projects, please contact me at:
nari.baker@gmail. com or 010-3385-9665
I look forward to meeting you and hearing to your story.

*Note: The interviews that will be posted for the podcast will be
edited to fit within a one hour time frame, but the interviews for
Kim Park Nelson’s book project will be transcribed in entirety.

**Note: I live in Seoul but am willing and able to travel to
interview anywhere on the peninsula.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.