You’re not lost if you don’t know your pepeha by Emma West  Sep 7, 2025

The impact of colonisation means many Māori don’t know the details of their whakapapa. Emma West was one of those who knew she was Māori, but nothing more, up until the age of 50.

Here, she shares her advice on how to manage a pepeha when you’re Māori and still learning who you are.

One News 13 May 2023: When Jenny Small was adopted by Pākeha parents in the 1960s, she was cut off from her whakapapa. Six decades later, journalists Mihingarangi Forbes and Annabelle Lee-Mather reunite Small with her whānau In this One News video the Minister of Justice told the reporters that ‘....a bill won't be introduced before the next election..." And for Jenny? Where is her apology? And why did she have to get support from the media to find and reunite with her whānau? Justice delayed is justice denied

A ‘forgotten’ whakapapa: historical narratives of Māori and closed adoption

by Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, Denise Blake, Helen Potter, Kim McBreen and Ani Mikaere 2023

Source: KOTUITUI: NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ONLINE 2023, VOL. 18, NO. 2, 135–152

Cast adrift: My story of adoption

by Kim Mcbreen Feb 6, 2022

Kim Mcbreen was adopted by a Pākehā couple who were told they were getting a Pākehā baby. It wasn’t until her 30s that she met her Māori birth father. Here she writes about the impact of a Pākehā adoption system that disconnected Māori like her from their whānau and whakapapa.

Monday, 7 February 2022

No mountain, no river. By Bruce Munro

A truly personal story lies behind Erica Newman’s ground-breaking research that is helping reshape family relations in New Zealand. Bruce Munro talks to Dr Newman about why Māori adoptees and their descendants need a law change and asks what it means for all of us to forge identities grounded in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Source: The Nation, October 31/November 7, 2022 Issue

We Should Be Fighting for a World Without Adoption: If poverty, racism, and health care inequities were properly redressed, adoption would be a last resort. By Michele Merritt

This article explores the implications of the Roe v Wade and the myths of adoption.

Merrit concludes that, ‘You can care for children without erasing their history and turning them into commodities for purchase.’