Reversing the Gaze: An Autoethnographic Critique of Transracial–Transnational Adoption to Australia

Abstract

In this paper, we engage with rescue and saviour narratives surrounding transracial–transnational adoption (also known as intercountry adoption) as a provocation and as manufactured myths. These myths have erased the nuances and complexities of transracial–transnational adoption by commodifying adoptees as pitiful orphans in need of rescue, first families as incapable or unworthy, and adoptive parents, countries and organizations as benevolent saviours, with adoption as a purely humanitarian act. The arguments presented here are both personal and political and are attempted through a decolonial reflexive lens. The paper deploys an autoethnographic approach examining aspects of white hegemony in adoption, unpacking the experiences of adopted South Korean Australians (adoptees of Korean descent raised in hegemonically white families and communities) to explore how whiteness shapes and obscures one's self-understanding of adoption and how colourblindness appropriates and colonizes their identity as ‘white Asians’ or ‘invisible Asians’. These experiences will be compared and critiqued with broader adoption literature and interwoven with narrative and creative productions by South Korean adoptees—to articulate and centre adoptees' voices as experts in their own lives and to contribute to a decolonial politics of knowledge production and a step towards the decolonization of adoption.