Author
On Human Adoption and the Manufacture of Identity
Coming Soon
What is adoption, really? What purpose does it serve in our society? And is adoption – a child placed, most often, with unrelated adults, with all records permanently sealed – a blind spot in our shared understanding of the human right to identity?
Your answers depend on where you stand: as a mother or father who lost a child, as an adopter, a legislator, a bureaucrat, a relative or friend affected by adoption, or as one of more than 100,000 New Zealanders and tens of millions worldwide who were adopted as infants.
Tree of Strangers
Available Now
How do you convey your life in a few sentences when almost every memory is missing?
Barbara Sumner grew up in a family filled with secrets and lies. At twenty-three she decided she had to find her mother.
Remarkable, moving, beautifully written, Tree of Strangers is a ripping account of a search for identity in a country governed by adoption laws that deny the rights of the adopted person.
The Gallows Bird
Available Now
A story of enduring love and friendship, and the bold, wild women who refuse the dictates of their times.
London 1833: The cast-out child of an aristocratic mother, Hannah ‘Birdie’ Bird is a laundry maid with a hidden past and a suspicion that the wealthy family she serves is hers. Longing for beauty and liberation, Birdie risks everything to change her circumstances.
Drawn from the rarely celebrated true stories of female convicts sent to Australia, this striking debut novel vividly evokes a far-off time.
About Barbara Sumner
Photo credit: Thomas Burstyn
Barbara Sumner is an author and filmmaker. Her back catalogue of achievements includes producing three highly acclaimed feature documentaries, a career in journalism, event production, television, bringing up four daughters and being accepted into a Masters program at the tender age of 60.
Barbara lives with her husband Thomas Burstyn in Hawke’s Bay with a curmudgeonly ginger cat. She spends her time reading, writing, walking, and corrupting her grandchildren with wild ideas about life, love, and imagination.