More than 100 European couples come to Tahiti every year in the desperate hope of adopting a child – but in the local culture, it’s more like “sharing”.
In Tahiti, the tradition is called fa’a’amu – the child is given to adoptive parents, but the biological mother doesn’t cut all ties. There’s no agency that organises it, and the law forbids fixers from setting up meetings – so wannabe parents must literally walk the streets, awkwardly asking around. Some get lucky; some leave in tears. Among the lucky ones were French couple Marc and Nathalie, who bring their son Tomy back every year as promised to spend time with his birth parents. But can these foreign couples really understand what sharing a child means for Tahitians?
Screens with Naissance D’une Nation.
