In Conversation with Maria Haenga-Collins, adopted person and PhD Candidate

I spoke to Maria Haenga-Collins, a PhD candidate in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History (School of History) at the Australian National University, about her studies and her experience of adoption.

Maria is a Māori (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Ngāi Tahu) woman who was first fostered, then adopted, into a Pākehā (white) family in the mid 1960s.

Her doctoral, thesis, which she will complete  later this year, focuses on closed stranger adoption in New Zealand and the impacts this practice had on Māori. Incorporated into her research are the experiences of birth parents, Māori adoptees, and social workers of the era (1955-1985).

Maria, you have had a break before you begin to write the final chapters of your doctorate thesis. In spending time with family back home did you learn anything more about yourself to support you in completing the final stages of your current studies?

Yes! I learnt how important it is for me to be surrounded by people, family and friends, who love me, and support my work! The PhD experience can be very isolating at times. You spend so much time in your own head, and writing about adoption – not just the theories but peoples actual lived experiences, which are often extremely painful experiences, – can be hard – especially given my own relationship to the topic.

So reconnecting with people and place renewed my energy, reminded me of where I’ve come from and where I’m going. I’ve come back with a renewed confidence within myself and with my work.

What chapter are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on a chapter which focuses on the life narratives of three Maori women who were adopted into Pakeha families as babies. Their experiences illustrate how adopted people feel that they live in, and are forced to navigate, an ‘in-between space’. A space where they are ‘betwixt and between’. I argue that this in-between space is three-fold as they are positioned between their birth and adoptive families, between a Maori and Pakeha identity, and between having their behaviours and feelings overly pathologised while being required to integrate the trauma of adoption without understanding and specialist support. The chapter specifically explores the navigation, and intersections, of these spaces through the lenses of psychology, identity politics, and adoption and racial microaggressions.

Tell us a bit about your adoption experience and any lasting impacts on you as a person?

Like so many other adopted people I can say adoption isn’t a one-off experience – it’s a lifetime experience! Being adopted, and being Maori adopted into a Pakeha family, has certainly framed how I see the world … ideas about belonging, identity, ‘race’, racism, the narratives we are told and the narratives we in turn tell…. All topics discussed in my thesis!

To what extent have your studies – your Masters and currently your Doctorate – helped you understand your adoption experience and to live more comfortably with it? And I do acknowledge being ‘fully comfortable’ with being adopted may remain challenging for you as it does for many other adopted people.

I’ve become a lot more aware of my inner processings and I’ve become a lot kinder to myself. I’ve now interviewed, or spent time talking with, over forty people about their experiences of adoption. It has been a humbling experience as I realise we all carry some form of trauma from those experiences. The ‘walking between worlds’, the common fears of abandonment, rejection, loss, unresolved grief… yet we remain an amazingly brave and resilient group. We can be shape-shifters, bridges, we have the ability to see multiple perspectives, and to cross diverse boundaries

While in New Zealand you did present at the ICARs conference in Auckland. What were the key messages in your presentation?

My key message was that ‘closed stranger adoption’ in New Zealand resulted in a significant number of people with Maori ancestry having their ancestral, familial, and cultural connections severed. Even with the implementation of the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985 half my research participants have still been unable to trace their whakapapa (Maori genealogy). As whakapapa is viewed as a primary requirement to claiming a Maori identity they feel isolated and invisible as Maori. The isolation and invisibility lasts a lifetime and is passed on to their descendants.

What are some of the key observations you took away from the ICARs conference?

A notable observation was the polarised position between those either pro or anti adoption. I had thought there may have been more open-minded discussion.

In terms of a paper presented by Dr Diana Marre from Spain, on transnational adoption and the outsourcing of reproduction, I was struck by how much we have NOT learnt from past adoption practices!

The continuing global inequalities in adoption and transnational artificial reproductive technology where people are subordinated and exploited by reasons of gender, class, race, poverty, and geography. It both amazes and saddens me.

What are your future plans once you have completed your studies?

To secure full-time employment and to re-establish a home-base. I’m also looking forward to continuing research, interviewing, writing, and the book!

Thank you Maria for offering insights into your personal experience of adoption and your current studies. I, and many others, look forward to reading your thesis once it is completed later this year. Good luck!

Thanks Thomas – and thank you for all the work you do in helping those who are in some way connected to adoption to find a safe space to connect and share.