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How closed adoption robbed Māori children of their identity

Closed adoption saw thousands of Māori babies handed over to Pākehā families with no way of accessing their ancestral roots. RNZ’s Te Aniwa Hurihanganui looks at the outdated Adoption Act and its impact on Māori who grew up desperate to reconnect.

A study has found that the practice of placing infants with strangers and effectively severing their relationship with their roots and whakapapa, is completely foreign to Māori.

The tumuaki of Te Wananga o Raukawa, Mereana Selby, says Marsden Funded research into adoption is long overdue.