Birth parents lose fight for Maori adoption

File photo / Greg Bowker

The biological parents of a two-year-old girl have lost a legal battle to have their daughter raised in a Maori family.

The birth mother gave her daughter, of Maori and Cook Island Maori descent, to a Pakeha couple when she was just hours old but later changed her mind and began a legal challenge to take back the girl, the Dominion Post reported today.

The biological father wanted the girl brought up in her own culture, but the High Court this week ruled in favour of the care couple.

They were granted primary care but must ensure the girl has continuing contact with her birth family and raise her to know her Maori roots.

Justice Warwick Gendall said the arrangement was not necessarily permanent.

The court had to consider what was best for the child now, he said.

"I have referred to children belonging to themselves, not parents, biological or otherwise," he said.

"As taonga, children are to be treated with respect, responsibility, love and care by all members of the group."

Neither birth parent wanted non-Maori bringing up the girl, with the father especially adamant that she should be raised in her own culture.

He does not live with the birth mother, but they have other children together.

- NZPA