Māori babies alienated by adoption

The alienation of growing up in a Pākehā family is irreversible for Māori babies adopted under historical closed adoptions, a researcher has found.

Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll said the feeling of being an outsider shaped her whole life. She did not meet the Ahuriri side of her family, now based in Tokoroa, until she was in her late teens.

The University of Canterbury Māori health and wellbeing lecturer has investigated the impact of this experience on other Māori adults who, like her, were given to families under closed adoption rules between 1960 and 1976.

Ahuriri-Driscoll interviewed 15 men and women over nine years for her PhD in health sciences. Only three of the interviewees were adopted into families with a Māori parent.

All of her study participants had reconnected with some form of Māori culture later in life but they had no knowledge of their whakapapa (genealogy) and felt they were missing an essential part of their identity.

‘‘They have tried to learn te reo, they have met with birth families but they have talked about the fact that it has not been easy, and they have not felt entirely comfortable in the Māori world.’’

Some had not been recognised as Māori by other Māori and felt they could not call themselves culturally Māori.

Closed adoptions happened under the Adoption Act of 1955 until new legislation in 1985 allowed adult adoptees to access their birth information. The adoption process was opened up at the same time.

Ahuriri-Driscoll said official figures were hard to find but she estimated about 80,000 children were adopted over those 30 years, with their birth records sealed until they turned 20.

She believed a significant proportion of those adoptions would have been Māori babies adopted by Pākehā families.

‘‘As an adoptee with a Māori birth father, I was particularly passionate about it.

‘‘For me there were a lot of unanswered questions about closed adoption, what happened and why.’’

Most of her study participants were visibly Māori, ‘‘so they always knew they were different physically and racially’’. For others, their appearance was more ambiguous.

‘‘A couple of my participants talk about the awkwardness of meeting their birth families. There was a feeling that this was a liaison that was, or had been, frowned upon – their daughter falling pregnant to a Māori boy.’’

Very few of the participants experienced overt racism from their families and some adoptive Pākehā parents supported their children in learning te reo Māori.