192 Susan Devan Harness

Adoptees On

Our guest today is scholar and author Susan Devan Harness. Susan shares from an anthropological perspective about the policies in place behind the Indian Adoption Project and why Indigenous placement with white families was preferred by the government. She also shares some of the current action in the US courts to undermine and remove the Indian Child Welfare Act and why it is so critical for us to pay attention to the cascading effects this could have. We do get personal too, about what happened for Susan in her forties as she unravelled what being adopted really meant: being separated both from her original family and from her original culture.

Full Show Notes Here

Show Notes Recommended Resources

• Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Susan Devan Harness
• Mixing Cultural Identities Through Transracial Adoption: Outcomes of the Indian Adoption Project (1958-1967) by Susan Devan Harness
• White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940 by Margaret D. Jacobs
• The Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture - Eighth Biennial Conference on Adoption and Culture, where Susan Devan Harness is one of the keynote speakers. Available virtually, most sessions were released on October 8, 2021 and there will be live Q&As October 22 & 23, 2021.
• Adoptees Off Script Book Club with Susan Devan Harness October 30, 2021

For Further Education:

• Podcast: This Land (Season Two) by Crooked Media
• Adoptees On episodes on the Canadian Sixties Scoop (Series 6): E110 with Dr. Raven Sinclair, E112 with Christine Miskonoondinkwe Smith, and E114 with Inez Cook

Connect With Us

• Susan Devan Harness: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | susanharness.com
• Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
• Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

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