Whakapapa a matter of right

Technology allows same-sex couples to be parents. Photo/File

This week the Sullivan Birth Certificate Private Members' Bill came before the House for a second reading. The bill raises major issues about how we identify ourselves and how we are defined or identified by the state. While it was to deal with one specific situation, there are always wider implications when we start looking at whakapapa. Whakapapa or genealogy and whangai or traditional fostering practices permeate Maori culture. But how we as whanau define and identify ourselves and how the Government has chosen to record our history are often at odds.

In the bill before the House this week, New Zealand resident Rowen Helen Louise Sullivan was born on February 23, 1993, in England to a same-sex couple. One of her parents is also a biological parent - Diane Sullivan, a British citizen. Her other parent is an adoptive parent and a New Zealander, Doreen Margaret Shields. Her parents used donor insemination to start their family. Only Diane Sullivan's name was recorded on Rowen's birth certificate.

In 1999 the family moved to NZ. Rowen and Diane became permanent residents on family grounds. Diane Sullivan died in 2010 and Rowen was formally adopted by Doreen in January 2013. Rowen wanted her adoptive mother's name on her birth certificate but this required the removal of the name of her biological mother Diane Sullivan from her birth record. Rowen is now seeking to reinstate Diane Sullivan as her birth mother to the records so Diane's and Doreen Shields's names can be included on her New Zealand birth certificate.

In te ao Maori, many of our relationships are defined by our whakapapa, by our tribal affiliations, and by "moe Maori" or traditional marriage, modern marriage, whangai and adoption. Before the introduction of birth certificates, it was our own oral history, our waiata which told our stories - such as where we came from and who were our relatives. These stories were often depicted in our carvings and are important in establishing and rekindling relationships.

The introduction of birth certificates and post-adoptive birth certificates, while acting as a record and statement of fact, have also posed issues and challenges for us. Our history of legal adoption in this country has been one of great secrecy where birth parents and their biological children were once not encouraged or allowed to meet each other. There are some sad and tragic stories of children and parents who have been denied access to each other.

But in many cases fathers are nameless on their children's birth certificates effectively denying their children access to another extended family or other hapu and iwi.

We should not deny our children access to their genealogy no matter how painful it might be to some parties. Whakapapa defines who you are and where you have come from. It is part of your history. We believe Rowen's birth mother should not have been removed from the birth certificate. That is a birthright, borne of whakapapa. Regardless of legal certificates no one else should be able to determine the status of the relationship between Rowen and her adoptive mother and her birth Mum. Only they can define themselves. No bill or piece of paper should ever be able to do that.

In modern times our families are utilising reproductive technologies to start a family. I believe there are questions to be asked about the status of the donor. Should they just be relegated as only a part of a scientific process? Where is the recognition of their whakapapa or their family genealogy in the children they have helped create? How are their biological children able to form relationships with each other if the donor is not given status and remains anonymous? What prevents children of donors from forming relationships or marrying because they do not know their genealogy? I think these are issues we must consider as a country and be brave enough to discuss them openly and honestly.