Counterfutures, 2023, 14: 83-111

In this article, we, three adoptee scholars, share collectively
our experiences of adoption while engaging in activism that
contests adoption practices. We apply autoethnographic
and re!exive strategies to unpack our shared conversation
in order to foreground the plight of adoptees and o"er
insight into adoption and the importance of the current law
reform in Aotearoa New Zealand. We draw on a model of
adoptee consciousness to frame the complexity of our ‘lived
experience’ and activism. In doing this we outline some of
the challenges we face as adoptees because adoption, as a
human-rights injustice, is largely misunderstood, overlooked,
or ignored. To begin, however, it is necessary to outline the
history of closed stranger adoption in Aotearoa New Zealand
with the purpose of providing context. (Authors' abstract). Record #8588