A traditional whāngai arrangement will likely have been agreed to among whānau and in some situations there may not be any official records.
If you do not find any official records about your whāngai arrangement, it may be useful to ask whānau members or kaumātua if they know of any other records (written, oral, or other).
For example, there may be information written in personal diaries, in letters or emails to other whānau members, or someone may recall their own memories of events or conversations.
From 1901, the Native Land Claims and Adjustment Act 1901 required tamaiti whāngai to be registered with the Native Land Court in order to inherit lands from their whāngai parents.
From 1909 until 1955, under the Native Land Act 1909 Māori could no longer use the whāngai system. All adoptions by Māori parents had to be approved by the Māori Land Court.
Māori parents could not adopt Pākehā children. If a couple, where one parent was Pākehā and the other Māori, wanted to adopt a Māori child, they had to go to the Magistrates Court.
Adoption orders made by the Māori Land Court might be recorded in their minute books.
Find the contact details of the Māori Land Court district officesopen_in_new.
Adoption applications during this period often involved getting a social work report from the former Department of Māori Affairs. These may be held by Te Puni Kōkiri at Archives NZ.
Archives NZ holds copies of Māori Land Court (the present-day version of the Native Land Court) minute books from 1865 -1975. The minute books include information about land, whangāi and probates.
Find out how to request information from Archives NZ.
If your whāngai arrangement involved Oranga Tamariki (or a predecessor organisation such as Child Welfare, the Department of Social Welfare, or Child, Youth and Family), then Oranga Tamariki will have records about this. This also includes what they would describe as foster care/caregiving, whānau care and adoption.
Find out how to request records about you from Oranga Tamariki.
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