Adopted at birth to a Pakeha family, Vicki was brought up to value and embrace her Maori heritage, a parliamentary committee heard yesterday.
She later worked at Maori Affairs and gained a degree, mostly in Maori studies.
Vicki's job as a social worker was secured on the basis of being Maori, and she married a Maori.
But after tracing her birth family, Vicki learned the devastating news that she was instead the daughter of a Madagascan sailor.
The case was an example of the need for legal open adoptions so people knew their background and could choose what culture they wanted to identify with, Alison Thom, chief executive of Ngapuhi Runanga, told the Government administration committee, which is holding an inquiry into adoption laws.
She said she went to school with the woman, whom she called Vicki, and later worked with her.
Ms Thom, who has 20 years of social work and policy experience, said Vicki was adopted as a baby by a Pakeha family who encouraged her to learn about her Maori culture and heritage.
But Vicki revealed to workmates that she had found her birth mother and she had told her that her father was Madagascan.
"For 25 years, Vicki had believed that she was Maori," Ms Thom said.
"It was very, very sad because she'd made an investment. It was as if she'd lied.
"Identity was everything ... and here was Vicki, who probably before most of us, had asserted herself as a Maori, and finding out ... she wasn't Maori."
Ms Thom said there was a need for legal open adoptions so people would know the truth about their background.
"Actually knowing their families, despite their failings, is very valuable to kids.
"Adults often can't cope with it, social workers often can't cope with it but ... children can not only cope with it but essentially need to know," she said.
The open and sometimes informal arrangements familiar to Maori, in which children were placed with relatives or families, occasionally needed legal status.
Guardianship came closest to the concept, called whangai, said Ms Thom.
Whangai would be difficult to put into law and was best left as a customary practice but Maori would find it useful to have legislative safety such as guardianship.
- NZPA
Cultural rug pulled from under 'Maori' adoptee
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