Keith Griffith introduced himself in his impressive Adoption History and Practice Social and Legal 1840-1996 (p(ii)) as follows:

‘I am an adoptee. After working in electronics I trained for the Methodist Ministry and Social Work in Melbourne and Auckland. At 46 I searched and found my Birth Parents. A foundation member of the adoption reform movement, in 1979 I was involved in the first successful adoptee access to Court records. After undertaking parliamentary research for the Adult Adoption Information Bills and publishing several books on adoption, I was awarded the M.B.E. I have been active in adoption reform in Canada and USA. I have been a speaker at Conferences in New Zealand , U.S.A, Canada and England. This book is the result of four years research.’

Keith Griffith, adopted soon after his birth in 1930, understood first-hand the impacts experienced by adopted people, their birth mothers and their families caused by the law and practice of adoption.

He set about documenting the history of adoption and campaigning to change not only the law, but social and political attitudes. His work was a crucial factor in bringing about the world-leading Adult Adoption Information Act 1985. For many years he continued to support those impacted by adoption, assist researchers, and work tirelessly for adoption law reform. 

Keith’s work still guides and informs the personal, societal and political elements that surround adoption today.

The article below was published on Stuff 29th January 2011 following Keith’s death.

Adoptee spurred battle for law reform to enable access to birth information

Author: TIM DONOGHUE Jan 29 2011

Keith Clifton Griffith

b Wellington 20 October 1930;

m Helen Mary Gardner 3s;

d Wellington 12 January 2011, aged 80.

When Keith Griffith was born in a small private hospital in Wellington's Abel Smith St a prophetic struggle began.
His 18-year-old birth mother, Marie Helen Austin, who came from Nelson, repeatedly pleaded to be allowed to see her newborn son.
Nursing staff responded to her pleas by placing a pillow over her face to stifle her cries, to make sure she never saw her adoption-bound son.
Mr Griffith's political, legal and social struggle for adoption reform became much more than a personal crusade. He embarked on a determined search to find his birth parents and to make it possible for all adopted people to legally discover their origins.
He became a key member of the team which brought about dramatic reform of adoption law in New Zealand via the enactment of the-then New Lynn MP Jonathan Hunt's Adult Adoption Information Act 1985. The legislation freed up information relating to adult adoptees and their birth parents.
When Mr Griffith was finally reunited with his birth mother in 1976 she told him how she managed to grab hold of one of his feet at the birth and would not let go. "At the very moment of my birth I was thrust into the world of adoption turmoil, trauma and denial of basic human rights," Mr Griffith recalled in his memoirs.
His loud infant protests were in a sense a prophetic utterance of the mission he would take up later in life.
Towards the end of her pregnancy Miss Austin travelled across Cook Strait to Wellington to have the baby.
She stayed with advertising man Woodley Prowse and his wife in Wellington. This proved to be a godsend for the newborn baby because Mr Prowse was an innovative man employed by the Ilot Advertising Agency.
On October 22, 1930, about the time Mr Griffith had been transferred to Truby King's Karitane Hospital in Melrose as a baby awaiting adoption Mr Prowse inserted an advertisement in the miscellaneous columns of the Evening Post under the simple heading "Adoption".
Normally, adoption ads were inserted in the personal columns but, with hundreds of babies up for adoption at the height of the Depression, Mr Prowse decided it would make more sense to place the baby ad in a section where umbrellas and light shades were also up for sale.
"Adoption. Wanted, good home for beautiful baby boy, few days old  clothing supplied," the ad read.
Mr Prowse's innovative advertising technique worked and 15 replies were received.
Horowhenua farmer Joe Griffith, who was wounded at Gallipoli during World War I, and his wife, Myrtle, were the chosen ones.
Mr and Mrs Griffith knew they would never be able to have children of their own so when they saw Woodley Prowse's shrewdly placed ad Myrtle Griffith visited the Karitane Hospital and resolved to adopt the baby.
As a young boy growing up on a Horowhenua dairy farm Mr Griffith and his sister, Una, were well loved and looked after.
They had a great childhood at home on the family farm while attending Levin Primary School and Horowhenua College.
While at primary school Mr Griffith began making inquiries.
He asked his mother, "Where did you get me from?"
"Out of a newspaper," she replied. He listened to this answer in shocked silence.
"All I could think of was fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. I eventually asked Jack, the fish and chip man whether he knew anything about babies left wrapped in newspaper.
"He was shocked and said 'That would be horrible.' I said 'I don't feel horrible'. He did not have a clue what I was on about."
Mr Griffith let the matter rest for two years before querying his mother once again.
"Where did you find me wrapped in that newspaper? She replied, 'Oh no. We got you out of the newspaper but you were not wrapped in it. You were advertised in it'."

At the age of 15 Mr Griffith made his first attempt to obtain his "real" birth certificate from officials in Levin. He was unsuccessful because the law said he was not allowed to see it. This episode fuelled his desire to change the law.
After leaving school he became a broadcasting electronics technician in 1949 and spent time in Napier and Wellington.
He moved to Melbourne in 1952 and spent four years there working first as an aircraft electronics technician then as a technician for the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute.
While in Melbourne he became a Christian and began helping street people.
This led to him training to become a Methodist minister at Trinity College in Auckland.
Taihape was his first appointment to a parish where twin sons Andrew and Timothy were born.
He and his wife, Helen, worked also in parishes at New Plymouth, where their third son, David, was born, Miramar, Karori, and Hastings.
In middle age he began the search for his birth parents in earnest. He found his birth mother living in New Plymouth and his birth father, Ian Keith Mackay, ironically, living in the same Karori street as himself.
In 1988 Mr Griffith was awarded an MBE for services to adoption research, publications and formation of adoption support networks.
Sources Helen Griffith, David Griffith.