Forced Adoption in New Zealand - Nights with Bryan Crump

Earlier this week (22 August 2013), Radio NZ's 'Nights' host Bryan Crump featured a program focusing on the issue of forced adoption in New Zealand. Featuring interviews from those who have had various experiences with forced adoption (including yours truly) and a discussion panel with Kevin Hague MP with the Greens Party and Ann Else, an adoption researcher, it was an interesting look at how this issue is seen by different persons.

To listen to the program for yourself, the audio is available here

Piece of My Heart - NZ Film

"Piece of my Heart" is a New Zealand film based on the true stories of women who experienced forced adoption in the late 1960's. Available to purchase by ordering at leading DVD stores.  Visit the website for more information on the movie.

Synopsis

Flora Thornley has been in hiding for most of her life. In 1968 when she was seventeen, Flora had a daughter and gave her up for adoption. She has never told anyone, including her husband and two grown sons. But now, she has contacted her daughter for the first time and gets a brutal rejection letter in reply.

Devastated, Flora runs away from home to the only person she thinks will understand. Kat was her closest friend in the home for unmarried mothers where they both gave birth in 1968, but they haven’t seen each other since. Meanwhile, their lives have been very different, and Kat’s place isn’t the safe haven Flora hopes it will be. Also living there is Ani, a stroppy teenager two weeks away from giving birth and in complete denial about the reality of life with a baby.
As Flora writes to her daughter, explaining how and why a woman could give away her baby, we go back to 1968 and learn what really happened. In the present, Flora has to face up to what a life of deception has done to her as she tries to reconnect with Kat, deal with Ani and tell her husband Mike the truth after thirty years of lying.

PIECE OF MY HEART is a drama about reconciliation – between the present and the past, between a mother and her child, between a husband and a wife. Adoption is a part of so many New Zealand families and their stories – this is the story of one particular woman as she finally acknowledges the past in order to change the future.

PIECE OF MY HEART is written and directed by Fiona Samuel adapted from the novel 'Does This Make Sense To You?' by Renee. The four leading roles are played by Annie Whittle (THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN), Rena Owen (ONCE WERE WARRIORS), Emily Barclay (IN MY FATHER’S DEN) and Keisha Castle Hughes (WHALE RIDER).

The Adoption Act 1955

You can read the entire legislation of the Adoption Act 1955 through this website.

Adoption (NZ) in the early 2000's

From the "Encyclopedia of New Zealand"

Adoption rules

Adoption in New Zealand remained regulated by the Adoption Act 1955, which set up the governing framework.

To read the section in its entirety, please visit the page here.

Don't amend Adoption Act 1955 - scrap it and start again!

This is a blog post from 2009 by Labour MP Lianne Dalziel which raises some ingteresting points:

Don’t amend Adoption Act 1955 – scrap it and start again

Posted by Lianne Dalziel on August 20th, 2009 I made a contribution to Red Alert some weeks ago that people should judge the Chief Justice’s speech “Blameless Babes” after they had read it – and a couple of phone calls I received from the media yesterday, suggest to me that I should offer the same advice to those interested in the recent speech of the Acting Principal Family Court Judge [PDF link].
You could be excused for thinking it only recommended extending the existing adoption laws to same sex and de facto couples. It doesn’t – it recommends a total overhaul of the law and I agree. Apart from de facto couples and same sex couples the speech covers step parent adoptions and the severing of links with the birth parent and his or her extended family; Maori customary adoption (whangai) – banned by the current law; and inter-country adoption and surrogacy.
These are challenging issues and, as someone who has sat on select committees and been a Minister at the forefront of legislative change, I know how hard it is to construct a rational platform for constructive debate on such matters. That is why I am suggesting that we flick it back to the Law Commission. I know they reported on this in 2000, but that report was not limited to adoption – it proposed a fundamental overhaul of all guardianship laws and that is where the Care of Children Act 2004 came from. However, we omitted adoption, and that was for all the reasons spelled out in the judge’s speech. We also left it out of the Statutory References legislation, which was a Bill that removed relationship-based discrimination from countless pieces of legislation in one hit. That was for the same reason – extending a flawed piece of law doesn’t fix the underlying problem.
To summarise why we did not address adoption in the Care of Children Act there are four points to make:

• First there was the need to update our guardianship laws, which are the primary legal source of parental responsibilities to their children.
• Second was the reality that adoption severs legal relationships with wider family members as well as birth parents, for example grandparents (this is hugely challenging when you think of step parent adoptions and the impact on grandparents).
• Third was the absence of any legal arrangements around whangai adoption and the implications of applying the current law to whänau, hapü and iwi – the Law Commission recommended an alternative status called an “enduring guardian”.
• And finally there was the simple fact that less than a quarter of adoptions today are stranger adoptions, meaning that adoption is now much more often about providing a legal framework around an existing set of relationships.

The Care of Children Act 2004 says that the “welfare and best interests of the child must be the first and paramount consideration” and it applies in equal respects to all couples regardless of whether they are married, in a civil union or in a de facto relationship, same-sex or otherwise. This is the vision I have for modern adoption laws – a child-centred approach that ensures that their interests lie at the heart of any decisions that are made. The current Adoption Act says that the court has to be satisfied that the welfare and interests of the child will be promoted by the adoption, but it does not make that the paramount consideration as does the Care of Children Act.
Having seen what the Law Commission has done with other subjects that involve a legal framework alongside wider societal and cultural values, I think it would be helpful if they were to develop an issues paper on adoption, so that all of the factual information and evidence could be placed on the table, enabling a constructive debate to occur and a modern adoption framework to emerge.
It may well be that the best approach would be to amend the Care of Children Act 2004 to include adoption, as well as some of the other legal issues around parenthood, such as surrogacy, because that would build on legislation that already has the best interests of the child at its core and it is already non-discriminatory in its application.

Read the original post here

Change.org petition - Inquiry into New Zealand Adoption Act polices and practises

Have you been affected by the Adoption Act 1955?  We are gathering signatures to put forward to the government to convey the need for an Inquiry into the policies and practises of the New Zealand Adoption Act 1955.

Please sign and pass along.

Thank you!

Petition can be found here.

"Adoption and its Alternatives: A different approach and a new Framework"

In 1999, then Minister for Justice Tony Ryall, requested the Law Commission to produce a report on adoption in New Zealand.  The following report was released and has since then, been swept under the carpet and virtually ignored.

Report

Have you been affected by New Zealand's adoption practises?

If you were affected by the NZ Adoption Act 1955 as a mother, father, adopted person or other family member, if it isn't too difficult and too upsetting, would you be able to write/type your story out?  We are collecting experiences and stories of those who have been affected by the policies and practises of the Adoption Act 1955. We are doing this to show it was more widespread than a few families and who was involved outside of parental pressure. If you feel you can do that and would like to be a part of something, please let me know via email.

Names can be given as aliases and all information will be kept confidential.  Please contact for further information.

Transcript of apology and speech delivered by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Link to webpage can be found here

Transcript (courtesy of the Prime Minister of Australia's web site) is as follows:

National Apology for Forced Adoptions

THU 21 MARCH 2013

Prime Minister

Canberra

[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED]

In just over an hour’s time, the following words of apology will be moved in the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced the separation of mothers from their babies, which created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering.

2. We acknowledge the profound effects of these policies and practices on fathers.

3. And we recognise the hurt these actions caused to brothers and sisters, grandparents, partners and extended family members.

4. We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your children. You were not legally or socially acknowledged as their mothers. And you were yourselves deprived of care and support.

5. To you, the mothers who were betrayed by a system that gave you no choice and subjected you to manipulation, mistreatment and malpractice, we apologise.

6. We say sorry to you, the mothers who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent. You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal.

7. We know you have suffered enduring effects from these practices forced upon you by others. For the loss, the grief, the disempowerment, the stigmatisation and the guilt, we say sorry.

8. To each of you who were adopted or removed, who were led to believe your mother had rejected you and who were denied the opportunity to grow up with your family and community of origin and to connect with your culture, we say sorry.

9. We apologise to the sons and daughters who grew up not knowing how much you were wanted and loved.

10. We acknowledge that many of you still experience a constant struggle with identity, uncertainty and loss, and feel a persistent tension between loyalty to one family and yearning for another.

11. To you, the fathers, who were excluded from the lives of your children and deprived of the dignity of recognition on your children’s birth records, we say sorry. We acknowledge your loss and grief.

12. We recognise that the consequences of forced adoption practices continue to resonate through many, many lives. To you, the siblings, grandparents, partners and other family members who have shared in the pain and suffering of your loved ones or who were unable to share their lives, we say sorry.
13. Many are still grieving. Some families will be lost to one another forever. To those of you who face the difficulties of reconnecting with family and establishing on-going relationships, we say sorry.

14. We offer this apology in the hope that it will assist your healing and in order to shine a light on a dark period of our nation’s history.

15. To those who have fought for the truth to be heard, we hear you now. We acknowledge that many of you have suffered in silence for far too long.

16. We are saddened that many others are no longer here to share this moment.  In particular, we remember those affected by these practices who took their own lives. Our profound sympathies go to their families. 

17. To redress the shameful mistakes of the past, we are committed to ensuring that all those affected get the help they need, including access to specialist counselling services and support, the ability to find the truth in freely available records and assistance in reconnecting with lost family.

18. We resolve, as a nation, to do all in our power to make sure these practices are never repeated. In facing future challenges, we will remember the lessons of family separation. Our focus will be on protecting the fundamental rights of children and on the importance of the child’s right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.

19. With profound sadness and remorse, we offer you all our unreserved apology.

This Apology is extended in good faith and deep humility.

It will be a profound act of moral insight by a nation searching its conscience.

It will stand in the name of all Australians as a sign of our willingness to right an old wrong and face a hard truth.

As Australians, we are used to celebrating past glories and triumphs, and so we should.

We are a great nation.

But we must also be a good nation.

Therefore we must face the negative features of our past without hesitation or reserve.

That is why the period since 2008 has been so distinctive – because it has been a moment of healing and accountability in the life of our nation.

For a country, just as for a person, it takes a lot of courage to say we are sorry.

We don’t like to admit we were mistaken or misguided.

Yet this is part of the process of a nation growing up:

Holding the mirror to ourselves and our past, and not flinching from what we see.

What we see in that mirror is deeply shameful and distressing.

A story of suffering and unbearable loss.

But ultimately a story of strength, as those affected by forced adoptions found their voice.

Organised and shared their experiences.

And, by speaking truth to power, brought about the Apology we offer today.

This story had its beginnings in a wrongful belief that women could be separated from their babies and it would all be for the best.
 
Instead these churches and charities, families, medical staff and bureaucrats struck at the most primal and sacred bond there is:  the bond between a mother and her baby.

Those affected by forced adoption came from all walks of life.

From the city or the country.

People who were born here or migrated here and people who are Indigenous Australians.

From different faiths and social classes.

For the most part, the women who lost their babies were young and vulnerable.

They were often pressurised and sometimes even drugged.

They faced so many voices telling them to surrender, even though their own lonely voice shouted from the depths of their being to hold on to the new life they had created.

Too often they did not see their baby’s face.

They couldn’t sooth his first cries.

Never felt her warmth or smelt her skin.

They could not give their own baby a name.

Those babies grew up with other names and in other homes.

Creating a sense of abandonment and loss that sometimes could never be made whole.

Today we will hear the motion moved in the Parliament and many other words spoken by those of us who lead.

But today we also listen to the words and stories of those who have waited so long to be heard.

Like the members of the Reference Group personally affected by forced adoption who I met earlier today.

Lizzy Brew, Katherine Rendell and Christine Cole told me how their children were wrenched away so soon after birth.

How they were denied basic support and advice.

How the removal of their children led to a lifetime of anguish and pain.

Their experiences echo the stories told in the Senate report.

Stories that speak to us with startling power and moral force.

Like Linda Bryant who testified of the devastating moment her baby was taken away:

When I had my child she was removed. All I saw was the top of her head – I knew she had black hair.

So often that brief glimpse was the final time those mothers would ever see their child.

In institutions around Australia, women were made to perform menial labour in kitchens and laundries until their baby arrived.

As Margaret Bishop said:

It felt like a kind of penance.

In recent years, I have occasionally passed what then was the Medindi Maternity Hospital and it generates a deep sadness in me and an odd feeling that it was a Dickensian tale about somebody else.

Margaret McGrath described being confined within the Holy Cross home where life was ‘harsh, punitive and impersonal’.

Yet this was sunny postwar Australia when we were going to the beach and driving our new Holdens and listening to Johnny O’Keefe.

As the time for birth came, their babies would be snatched away before they had even held them in their arms.

Sometimes consent was achieved by forgery or fraud.

Sometimes women signed adoption papers while under the influence of medication.

Most common of all was the bullying arrogance of a society that presumed to know what was best.

Margaret Nonas was told she was selfish.

Linda Ngata was told she was too young and would be a bad mother.

Some mothers returned home to be ostracised and judged.

And despite all the coercion, many mothers were haunted by guilt for having ‘given away’ their child.

Guilt because, in the words of Louise Greenup, they did not ‘buck the system or fight’.

The hurt did not simply last for a few days or weeks.

This was a wound that would not heal. 

Kim Lawrence told the Senate Committee:

The pain never goes away, that we all gave away our babies.  We were told to forget what had happened, but we cannot. It will be with us all our lives.

Carolyn Brown never forgot her son:

I was always looking and wondering if he was alive or dead.  …

From then on every time I saw a baby, a little boy and even a grown up in the street, I would look to see if I could recognise him.

For decades, young mothers grew old haunted by loss.

Silently grieving in our suburbs and towns.

And somewhere, perhaps even close by, their children grew up denied the bond that was their birth-right.

Instead they lived with self-doubt and an uncertain identity.

The feeling, as one child of forced adoption put it, ‘that part of me is missing’.

Some suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their adoptive parents or in state institutions.

Many more endured the cruelty that only children can inflict on their peers:

Your mum’s not your real mum, your real mum didn’t
want you.

Your parents aren’t your real parents, they don’t love you.

Taunts vividly remembered decades later.

For so many children of forced adoption, the scars remain in adult life.

Phil Evans described his life as a:

rollercoaster ride of emotional trauma; indescribable fear; uncertainty; anxiety and self-sabotage in so many ways.

Many others identified the paralysing effect of self-doubt and a fear of abandonment:

It has held me back, stopped me growing and ensured that I have lived a life frozen.

I heard similar stories of disconnection and loss from Leigh Hubbard and Paul Howes today.

The challenges of reconnecting with family.

The struggles with self-identity and self-esteem.

The difficulties with accessing records.

Challenges that even the highest levels of professional success have not been able to assuage or heal.

Neither should we forget the fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents and other relatives who were also affected as the impact of forced adoption cascaded through each family.

Gary Coles, a father, told me today of the lack of acknowledgment that many fathers have experienced.

How often fathers were ignored at the time of the birth.

How their names were not included on birth certificates.

How the veil of shame and forgetting was cast over their lives too.

My fellow Australians,

No collection of words alone can undo all this damage.

Or make whole the lives and families fractured by forced adoption.

Or give back childhoods that were robbed of joy and laughter.

Or make amends for the Birthdays and Christmases and Mother’s or Father’s Days that only brought a fresh wave of grief and loss.

But by saying sorry we can correct the historical record.

We can declare that these mothers did nothing wrong.

That you loved your children and you always will.

And to the children of forced adoption, we can say that you deserved so much better.

You deserved the chance to know, and love, your mother and father.

We can promise you all that no generation of Australians will suffer the same pain and trauma that you did.

The cruel, immoral practice of forced adoption will have no place in this land any more.

We also pledge resources to match today’s words with actions.

We will provide $5 million to improve access to specialist support and records tracing for those affected by forced adoptions.

And we will work with the states and territories to improve these services.

The Government will also deliver $5 million so that mental health professionals can better assist in caring for those affected by forced adoption.

We will also provide $1.5 million for the National Archives to record the experiences of those affected by forced adoption through a special exhibition.

That way, this chapter in our nation’s history will never again be marginalised or forgotten again.

Today’s historic moment has only been made possible by the bravery of those who came forward to make submissions to the Senate Committee and also of those who couldn’t come forward but who nurtured hope silently in their hearts.

Because of your courage, Australia now knows the truth.

The report prepared so brilliantly by Senator Siewert and the Senate Committee records that truth for all to see.

This was further reinforced by the national consultations that Professor Nahum Mushin and his reference group undertook to draft the national apology.

Their guidance and advice to government on the drafting of the apology have been invaluable.

Any Australian who reads the Senate report or listens to your stories as I have today will be appalled by what was done to you.

They will be shocked by your suffering.

They will be saddened by your loss.

But most of all, they will marvel at your determination to fight for the respect of history.

They will draw strength from your example.

And they will be inspired by the generous spirit in which you receive this Apology.

Because saying ‘Sorry’ is only ever complete when those who are wronged accept it.

Through your courage and grace, the time of neglect is over, and the work of healing can begin.

Australian Apology for Forced Adoptions 21 March 2013

Link to video can be found here

Article (courtesy ABC TV Australia) with video goes on to say:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has delivered a national apology to victims of forced adoption practices that were in place in Australia from the late 1950s to the 1970s.

More than 800 people affected by forced adoptions gathered at the Great Hall in Canberra for the historic occasion.
"Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced the separation of mothers from their babies which created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering," she said.
"We acknowledge the profound effects of these policies and practices on fathers and we recognise the hurt these actions caused to brothers and sisters, grandparents, partners and extended family members.
"We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your children.
"You were not legally or socially acknowledged as their mothers and you yourselves were deprived of care and support.

"We say sorry to you, the mothers, who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent.
"You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal."
The crowd erupted with applause and many broke down in tears at several points throughout the speech.
Ms Gillard acknowledged that despite the apology, victims will still feel the pain.
"Friends, as the time for birth came, these babies would be snatched away before they had even held them in their arms," she said.
"Sometimes, consent was achieved by forgery or fraud. Sometimes women signed adoption papers whilst under the influence of medication.
"Most common of all was the bullying arrogance of a society that presumed to know what was best.
"The hurt did not simply last for a few days or weeks. This was a wound that would not heal."
She also acknowledged children who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their adoptive parents or institutions.
She announced $5 million funding to improve access to specialist support, records tracing and mental health care for those affected by forced adoption, and a further $1.5 million to the National Archives for a special exhibition.

Australian Senate Inquiry report into forced adoption

You can find the link as a downloadable file or read it online here:

Senate report

"Time of morality delivers sorrow for unmarried mothers" March 4 2012

Time of morality delivers sorrow for unmarried mothers

• by: Terry Sweetman
• From: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
• March 04, 2012 12:00AM

HOW many of those who wallow in the warm illusions of their youth and yearn for the certainties of not so long ago, have been following the revelations of the appalling treatment of unmarried mothers in the 1960s and 1970s? More to the point, how many knew what happened but tucked the truth away behind a wall of smug denial and now selectively decry the degeneracy of youth and the complicity of government?
Last week's report into forced adoption tabled in Federal Parliament stripped the humbug from brutal and heartless policies that permanently separated single mothers from their children.
And, sometimes, they denied young men the joy of fatherhood.
Savage and judgmental laws and regulations were exacerbated by deceit and thuggery built on moral and religious zealotry.
It was the climate of the times, we are told, although those of us born after the war chafed under its obvious injustice.

It too often piled helplessness upon shame, a burden sometimes shared but often carried by the woman alone.
Some men - boys, sometimes - ducked their responsibilities but there were young couples who were willing to shoulder their burden and were dissuaded or disenfranchised by families and institutions who thought they were unworthy or incapable of parenthood.
Informed consent? You're kidding.
A little more pride wouldn't go astray in 2012, but who would want to return to a world where fear of shame could make families partners to official policies that ripped the very hearts out of their daughters?
I saw it happen.
This was a time when false pride and the pretensions of good name sometimes counted more than love in even the otherwise best of families.
The role of authority and hospital functionaries drew most attention last week, but the family strictures of an unforgiving moral code seemed to go understated.
I knew of one young man who, when he made contact with his natural mother comparatively recently, was still sworn never to reveal the family disgrace.
Our self-appointed moral guardians crushed young women trapped at their most vulnerable, but there were some who were able to defy them.
A contemporary of mine invented a husband who was purportedly serving in Vietnam and stuck with her fabrication through thick and thin so that she could keep the child who has grown into a fine woman and her joy for life.
Others didn't have the support, the maturity, the confidence, the opportunity or even the luck to demonstrate that love or even experience it for more than a fleeting second.
That is a cause for unending sorrow. It's a terrible episode in our collective past but it will never be over for those who lost children or who never knew parents. It has left wounds so deep that the inquiry found there is even anger over the terms "natural" and "adopted" when referring to adoption.
What was it all about except an arrogant exercise of power, of age over youth, in a society strangled by moral absolutism and the enforcement of cruel behavioural codes on others?
Still, there are those who decry our supporting mothers' mechanisms, who belittle the nurturing capacity of young women and would, if they could, steal their children and leave them with nothing to nurse but sorrow and guilt.
I grew up in a world that couldn't find it in its collective heart to understand, support or forgive those who through exuberance, accident or error leapt the prevailing social boundaries.
Still there are those who think it was a better place.
They must be kidding.

Link to article here
 

Call for NZ to follow Australia's lead on adoption - 21 March 2013

Call for NZ to follow Australia's lead on adoption

By: Jacob Brown | New Zealand News | Thursday March 21 2013 5:03

A woman who lost her son to adoption 40 years ago believes New Zealand needs to follow Australia's lead and push for adoption law reform, and an apology.

Julia Gillard will give a national apology today for those affected by forced adoption or removal policies and practices.
Merilyn McAuslin lost her son to adoption in 1973 after withdrawal of family and financial support ... and says she and other mothers at the time were coerced into giving their babies up for adoption.
She says Australia's lead on adoption law reform, and the national apology being given today, sets an example.
"Good for them and my first thought was Australia is so far ahead of us in that area because they've had an apology, they've been working on adoption and changing the law for ages."
There's a push for reform of New Zealand's adoption laws.
Ms McAuslin lost her son to adoption in 1973 after withdrawal of family and financial support.
She says she and other mothers at the time were coerced into giving their babies up for adoption.
She estimates more than 100,000 New Zealand women would have been affected in the so called 'baby scoop era'.
Ms McAuslin says she's starting a website to garner support.
"The law should have changed a long time ago and there should be an inquiry because women need to be able to talk about it because there's so many women in New Zealand living in traumatized secrecy."

Link to article here

 

TVNZ article 2 March 2012

'Give up your baby attitude still enshrined in NZ'

New blog!

Basically setting up this blog to post articles in one place, and to keep up to date with the current happenings.

Feel free to email relevent articles to myst1998@hotmail.com or post to the Facebook page