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Barbara Sumner

Barbara Sumner is an award-winning documentary producer turned writer of fiction for women. Her documentary This Way of Life was shortlisted for an Academy Award, she has won multiple awards for her films and an international journalism prize. Barbara lives in an art deco beachside town in New Zealand, with her husband and a very grumpy ginger cat. Her online home is barbarasumner.nz You can connect on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sumnerburstyn

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Column: Barbara Sumner – The Adoption Game Show

May 23, 2019

Column: Barbara Sumner – If adoption secrecy were a game show, they’d call it, ‘how much do you really want this?’ Because I am adopted, I have no birth story. However, the state holds a large number of files on me. Legal documents, doctors notes, feeding recipes and home visit comments. Through these documents, I ... <a title="Column: Barbara Sumner – The Adoption Game Show" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/05/23/barbara-sumner-column-the-adoption-game-show/" aria-label="Read more about Column: Barbara Sumner – The Adoption Game Show">Read more</a>

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The baby or the fridge

February 14, 2019

Column: Barbara Sumner – 1960 was a big year for my adopting parents. First came the infertility diagnosis. Then a new baby arrived with little warning and no fanfare. Followed within days by a new refrigerator. I was one of over 103,000 New Zealand babies forcibly removed from my single mother. Her dying mother sent ... <a title="The baby or the fridge" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/02/14/the-baby-or-the-fridge/" aria-label="Read more about The baby or the fridge">Read more</a>

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Consider youself one of us

January 17, 2019

Column: Barbara Sumner – As a child, my family saw the musical Oliver. For days after, my adopting mother hummed and sang the theme tune: Consider yourself one of us Consider yourself at home Consider yourself one of the family ….etc etc The song is a bit of an earworm. I’d forgotten it and the ... <a title="Consider youself one of us" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/01/17/consider-youself-one-of-us/" aria-label="Read more about Consider youself one of us">Read more</a>

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Strange fruit

November 23, 2018

Column: Barbara Sumner – There have always been inconsistencies in my birth story. The dates, the people involved, the actual circumstances. All missing, suspect or manufactured. As an adopted person I have no legal right to know anything other than the story my adopting parents chose to tell. So I decided to challenge that. I ... <a title="Strange fruit" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2018/11/23/strange-fruit/" aria-label="Read more about Strange fruit">Read more</a>

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