Apologies for Forced Adoption Practices: Implications for Contemporary Intercountry Adoption

Fronek, Patricia; Cuthbert, Denise

doi:10.1080/0312407x.2013.777970

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Despite the disruptions and damages of the Adoption Act 1955 to indigenous practices of whangai, to whanau, iwi, hapu and generations of adopted Māori children, there has been no such recognition in Aotearoa/New Zealand. While the Australian government's apology has not gone far enough to redress the wrongs of the past (Fronek & Cuthbert, 2013), a space has opened there for debate on the measures that would be needed to begin processes of reconciliation and healing. The government of Aotearoa/New Zealand has refused to engage with their responsibility for facilitating similar opportunities here.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By 2012, inquiries into the removal and mistreatment of children had extended into the culturally and legally constituted governance of the forced removal of children for adoption and led to the inclusion of adoptees and their birth mothers into 'the space of national apology and regret in Australia' (Cuthbert & Quartly, 2013, p. 179). Fronek and Cuthbert (2013) problematise the rhetoric of apology through its reference to 'past' harmful and unacceptable practices that necessitate regret through the complicating increase in 'present' practices of intercountry adoption. They argue that intercountry adoption practices are embedded in this history in the present; practices apologised for in the domestic space persist in intercountry adoptions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No-man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

Blake¹,

Coombes²

2021

Preprint

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© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955 legislated and governed adoption practices from 1955 to 1985. Through an exploration of the historical, cultural and social assumptions underlying the Adoption Act 1955, this article questions how the social power relations complicit with adoption legislation and policy produce and reproduce subject positions for adoptees. In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 12 adoptees from throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. The researchers found the legal constitution of adoptees produces them as legitimate; however, they remain 'other' through dominant discourses of heteronormative blood kinship that reiterates their illegitimacy. The legal fiction of their legitimacy as if born to failed to secure them space within normative narratives of kinship and compromised adoptees' ability to take up responsibility as neoliberal citizens. Current New Zealand debate on adoption fails to take account of the experience of adoptees, focusing instead on the rights of married couples, including same-sex couples, to continue practices of adoption. Our analysis informs the critical importance of listening to how adoptees experience repeated exclusions and enduring loss represented by the metaphor of no-man's land.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No-man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

Blake¹,

Coombes²

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite the disruptions and damages of the Adoption Act to indigenous practices of whangai, to whanau, iwi, hapu and generations of adopted Māori children, there has been no such recognition in Aotearoa/New Zealand. While the Australian government's apology has not gone far enough to redress the wrongs of the past (Fronek & Cuthbert, ), a space has opened there for debate on the measures that would be needed to begin processes of reconciliation and healing. The government of Aotearoa/New Zealand has refused to engage with their responsibility for facilitating similar opportunities here.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fronek and Cuthbert () problematise the rhetoric of apology through its reference to ‘past’ harmful and unacceptable practices that necessitate regret through the complicating increase in ‘present’ practices of intercountry adoption. They argue that intercountry adoption practices are embedded in this history in the present; practices apologised for in the domestic space persist in intercountry adoptions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No‐man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

Blake

Coombes

2015

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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The Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955 legislated and governed adoption practices from 1955 to 1985. Through an exploration of the historical, cultural and social assumptions underlying the Adoption Act 1955, this article questions how the social power relations complicit with adoption legislation and policy produce and reproduce subject positions for adoptees. In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 12 adoptees from throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. The researchers found the legal constitution of adoptees produces them as legitimate; however, they remain 'other' through dominant discourses of heteronormative blood kinship that reiterates their illegitimacy. The legal fiction of their legitimacy as if born to failed to secure them space within normative narratives of kinship and compromised adoptees' ability to take up responsibility as neoliberal citizens. Current New Zealand debate on adoption fails to take account of the experience of adoptees, focusing instead on the rights of married couples, including same-sex couples, to continue practices of adoption. Our analysis informs the critical importance of listening to how adoptees experience repeated exclusions and enduring loss represented by the metaphor of no-man's land.

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“…Such confirmatory acts and recognition of past abuses have been deemed essential for the victims' process of reconciliation and healing. Numerous adoptees and experts are demanding that the apologies for forced domestic adoptions be extended to people harmed by illegal intercountry adoptions (Fronek and Cuthbert, 2013).…”

Section: Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The aftermath of transnational illegal adoptions: Redressing human rights violations in the intercountry adoption system with instruments of transitional justice

Loibl

2021

Childhood

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A growing movement of illegally adopted individuals request remedies and reparations for the human rights violations that they and their biological families had suffered. This article explores a number of measures that the stakeholders in the receiving countries can use in an effort to repair the human rights violations caused by illegal intercountry adoptions, borrowing ideas from transitional justice. In order to effectively redress the harm inflicted upon victims of illegal adoptions, a policy on remedies should combine instruments of retributive justice, aimed at holding wrongdoers accountable, with measures of restorative justice that focus on the victims’ needs and interests.

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Apologies for Forced Adoption Practices: Implications for Contemporary Intercountry Adoption

Cited by 11 publications

References 16 publications

No-man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

No-man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

No‐man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

The aftermath of transnational illegal adoptions: Redressing human rights violations in the intercountry adoption system with instruments of transitional justice

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