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'Structural racism': Adoption cut off abuse survivor from her culture

Friday, 23 July 2021

Survivors of abuse from the Pacific community will give evidence before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. (First published July, 2021)

Alienated from her culture as a baby, a Samoan survivor of abuse in her adoptive home wants the state to help her reconnect and recover from her childhood.

The survivor, who can only be identified as Ms TU, was adopted at birth to a Pālagi (Pākehā) couple ill equipped to help her understand her heritage and herself.

Speaking to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care this week from Australia, she said the state failed in its legal obligation to guarantee her rights to her culture, calling it “structural racism”.

**READ MORE:

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Lead counsel assist Tania Sharkey addressing another anonymous witness, protected by screens.
Lead counsel assist Tania Sharkey addressing another anonymous witness, protected by screens.

**

“I felt like the state tried to erase my history as a Samoan child. Regardless of whether there was any malice involved, I felt like this was a complete disregard for my needs as a cultural person,” she said.

“It cut off my ancestral links, it disconnected me from my culture. That is abuse by the state. Part of me is missing.”

Children should ideally be placed with families of their own culture, she urged, especially to help children cope with being bullied over their skin colour. And if it can’t be done, the state should fund adequate support.

“How can they understand what impact that has on me, to be marginalised and an outsider, when that is not what they are experiencing?” she said.

“The state should be providing opportunities for engagement and connection with culture.

“They should have social workers for that.”

Fine mats from all across the moana are strewn before the Royal Commission of Inquiry and survivors giving testimony.
Fine mats from all across the moana are strewn before the Royal Commission of Inquiry and survivors giving testimony.

As an adult, she has desperately tried to learn Samoan language and culture, but struggles against her own feelings of shame.

“I have an eating disorder and I’m still trying to work through my loss of culture and identity, and the trauma of the abuse suffered in my childhood.”

The Pacific Investigation is part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care, and is hosted at the Fale O Samoa (Samoa House) in Māngere.
The Pacific Investigation is part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care, and is hosted at the Fale O Samoa (Samoa House) in Māngere.

Trying to connect with her heritage, Ms TU struggled to find her biological mother, who had given the hospital and adoption agency a fake name, and records were sparse.

She wishes her mother had been offered an open adoption, leaving a door open to reconnect later in life. Today closed adoptions like hers are rare.

Dr Sam Manuela, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at The University of Auckland gave evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
Dr Sam Manuela, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at The University of Auckland gave evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.

“An open adoption would’ve given me some kind of protection or at least I might’ve known where to go. An open adoption would have given access to my aiga, culture and language.”

The state’s failure continued after her adoption, because no one followed up on the family.

Just 18 months after her adoption, her adoptive parents split up and her adoptive mother descended into alcoholism, eventually bringing home several violent men who terrorised the household.

Strangers stayed over and sexually assaulted her. Ms TU and her siblings went to school poorly clothed and barely fed.

Her adoptive grandmother called her “pickaninny,” and her adoptive mother’s boyfriends called her “black b….”.

Ms TU said she would have been able to cope with that abuse better if she’d had access to her culture.

“The more I delve into that world, the stronger I feel as a person,” she said. “If I had it from the beginning it would have been a protective factor for me, I believe.”

She may be right, according to researcher Dr Sam Manuela, who gave evidence on Friday afternoon.

Manuela is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at The University of Auckland, and is Cook Islands Māori and European. His research has focused on cultural psychology and Pacific issues.

In his research, he found that having a strong ethnic identity can be a “protective factor for Pacific peoples”, providing a kind of buffer against harm.

He found wellbeing and identity are crucially linked for Pasifika, and while a strong ethnic identity is only one piece of an “intricate and complex puzzle”, it matters.

Having read several witness statements in preparation for his own testimony, Manuela said many of the survivors were young when they were abused and only just developing those crucial ethnic identities.

“They may have been more vulnerable to the negative effects of these experiences,” he said.

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