The Journey Home: Centering Adoptees In Healing and Connection

The Journey Home: Centering Adoptees In Healing and Connection
An adoptee-led conversation with Tanya Kaanta of the TIES Program exploring identity, culture, community, and healing.

This first speaker event of the new year features a grounded, adoptee-to-adoptee conversation between host Anna Sarkitova and guest Tanya Kaanta, Korean adoptee, sociologist, and Executive Director of the adoptee-owned TIES Program.

Together, Anna and Tanya will explore how adoptee lived experience shapes identity, belonging, and community across the lifespan, and what it looks like to build programs that honor complexity rather than erase it. Drawing from Tanya’s personal journey and her leadership at TIES, the conversation will trace how adoptee insight becomes practice: from homeland journeys and community storytelling to creating spaces that hold grief, anger, joy, and connection at the same time.

This interview will look closely at how identity is formed and integrated over time, why cultural and relational connection matters for healing, and how intergenerational adoptee community plays a critical role in that process. Tanya will reflect on what she has learned from adoptees and families over decades of work, the misconceptions about adoption she continues to confront, and the barriers adoptees face when trying to access culturally rooted, identity-based support.

The conversation will also look toward the future of adoptee-led programs, the kinds of policy changes that could better support adoptees, and what adoptees, adoptive families, and policymakers each need to hear right now.

This event is designed for adoptees and those in the adoption constellation who value honesty, nuance, and adoptee leadership.

Suggested donation: $10.00
GET TICKETS HERE

This event is part of the AAOM Speaker Series, hosted by Anna Sarkitova, international adoptee, advocate, and AAOM board member. Each session features adoptee authors, community leaders, and changemakers advancing justice, visibility, and equity for adoptees.
As a volunteer-run organization, Adoptee Advocates of Michigan uses this series as grassroots fundraising to support adoptee community-building, education, and legislative advocacy. By purchasing a ticket, you help us fairly compensate adoptee speakers for their labor and expertise and fund our 2026 advocacy efforts.

Whether you are an adoptee, part of the adoption constellation, or an ally, this series offers a meaningful way to learn, connect, and support adoptee-led work.

We look forward to having you join us.