“ineradicable voices; narratives toward rerooting ”; An oral history research-creation based on the life stories of individuals who experienced transracial/intercountry adoption
Zeina Ismail-Allouche, PHD
Concordia University, 2021

This collaborative oral history research-creation, grounded in Indigenous methodologies (Kovach, 2009; 2010; Smith, 1999; Wilson, 2008), amplifies the critical narrative of transracial/intercountry adoption through the life stories of individuals who experienced transracial/intercountry adoption (adoptees), regardless of their places of origin and adoption. An Advisory committee of adoptees guided the research and 22 collaborators (including the Advisory committee) worked together to ensure a co-authored representation of these long-silenced voices. The creative outcome was a Zoom oral history headphone verbatim performance.
The online public event (available at this link: https://storytelling.concordia.ca/projects-item/ineradicable-voices-narrations-toward-rerooting/) revealed complex, intimate, intense and unique pathways with intersections of colonial systems, identity formation, and enduring racism. Search for origins was perceived as necessary for the healing process and Indigenous custom adoption was identified as the best community-based practice in parallel with investing in preventing separation and breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. 
The research-creation is timely amidst the tragic discovery of the remains of more than 1000 children buried at different sites of the colonial residential school following the 15 May 2021 release of the Laurent Commission final report on Children's Rights and Youth Protection calling for reform of the youth protection system in Quebec.  Internationally, the implications of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is expected to expose more children to the risk of falling into transracial/intercountry adoption; some 150 million people across the globe will be pushed into poverty by 2021 due to the global recession and the closure of many firms because of the lockdown (World Bank, 2021). Lebanon is of particular concern because of the country's unprecedented economic and political crises. History has proven that transracial/intercountry adoption was practiced as a rescue intervention despite the fact that it has been critically revisited in many writings highlighting its long-term and irreversible psychological challenges (Blackstock, 2011; Brodzinsky, 1993; Cantwell, 2014). 
The thesis is a complementary document to the public event. It presents the theoretical framework of the research-creation. The thesis includes my connections to the research subject, a historical perspective on adoption practices and the colonial legacies of forced separation of Indigenous children in Canada, the research methodologies, the impact on audience, my learnings about the methodologies, an analysis of findings and proposed recommendations.