Is My Customary Adoption Legally Recognised — and Do I Need a Certificate?

Short answers first, because this question has two parts and they have different answers.

Is it recognised? Yes. Section 53 of the Adoption of Children Act (Chapter 275) recognises adoption by custom directly, without any court order. You do not need permission from anybody for your customary adoption to be legally effective.

Do you need a certificate? Not to be adopted — but often, to be able to prove it. And in practice proof is what people come to us about.

What section 53 already gives you

Section 53(1) provides that where a child is or has at any time been in the custody of, and is being or has been "brought up, maintained and educated" by, a person or two spouses jointly "as his, her or their own child under any adoption in accordance with custom", then "for the purposes of any law the child shall be deemed to have been adopted by that person or by those spouses jointly, as the case may be."

That is automatic. No filing, no fee, no judge.

But section 53(2) attaches the qualification that drives everything else in this article: the adoption "takes effect in accordance with the custom that is applicable and is subject to any provisions of that custom as to limitations and conditions, including limitations and conditions as to the period of the adoption, rights of access and return and property rights or obligations."

So the legal answer to "what does my customary adoption mean?" is: whatever your custom says it means. Which is fine — until someone asks you to prove both that it happened and what its terms are.

Where proof becomes a problem

Custom is proved by evidence. Evidence of custom is people. People move away, fall out, and die.

Families run into this at predictable moments:

• School enrolment and school records — a child's parentage has to be stated.
• Passports and travel — particularly if the child is to travel or study outside PNG.
• Death and estates — when the adoptive parent dies without a will, and the birth line reappears.
• Land and clan membership — where the customary adoption's terms decide whether the child takes from the adoptive line, the birth line, or both.
• Compensation and insurance claims — as in Wai Gende Elewai v Motor Vehicles Insurance (PNG) Trust [1992] PNGLR 34, where a customarily adopted child's dependency claim was assessed differently, the Court noting that the legal obligations of adopting parents under a customary adoption are unclear.
• Statutes that turn on blood — in Sangumu Wauta v The State [1978] PNGLR 326 the Supreme Court held that "lineal descendant" in the Criminal Code connotes a relationship "of the blood", and so did not extend to a customarily adopted daughter.
• Superannuation, employment and bank forms — where a form asks for "your children" and someone later checks.

In each of these, the question is not whether custom is law. It is whether you can prove, years later, what your custom did.

The answer Parliament provided: a Local Court certificate

Section 54(1) allows a Local Court to grant a certificate. Two features make it useful.

Who can apply. "A party (including a natural or adoptive parent and the adopted child)". So the adoptive parents can apply, the birth parents can apply, and — importantly — the adopted person can apply for themselves. An adult who was customarily adopted as a child does not need anyone's cooperation to seek a certificate.

What it certifies. The Local Court must be satisfied "that the adoption has been made or has terminated in accordance with custom, and as to any relevant limitations and conditions referred to in Section 53(2)". It then grants a certificate that the adoption has been so made or has so terminated, and as to the relevant limitations and conditions.

That second half is the part families overlook. The certificate does not just say "adopted". It records the terms — the duration, the rights of access, the rights of return, the property rights and obligations. It fixes the section 53(2) content that would otherwise have to be re-proved every time it came up.

What "conclusive" means

Section 54(2) gives the certificate its force. Subject to Part VI of the Local Courts Act (Chapter 41), a certificate under subsection (1) is conclusive as to —

• "(a) the adoption or termination of adoption; and
• (b) any relevant limitations and conditions referred to in Section 53(2)."

"Conclusive" is not the same as "good evidence". It means the point is closed. Another court, another party and another set of elders cannot reopen it. That is a powerful thing to hold, and it is why a certificate is worth getting before it is needed rather than after.

How the process works

The Act sets out the essentials and leaves the rest to Local Court practice.

Everyone gets a hearing. Section 57 provides that a Local Court "shall not grant or vary a certificate under this Part unless it is satisfied that all persons interested have had a reasonable opportunity of making any representations that they wish to make on the subject of the certificate."

Persons interested will normally include the birth parents, the adoptive parents, the child, and — where clan interests are engaged — those who speak for the lines involved. Expect to identify them and to show the Court that they were given the chance to be heard. In practice this means bringing the two families and the people who can speak to the custom.

What you will need to establish. That the custom exists and what it provides; that the adoption was made in accordance with it; that the child was in your custody and was brought up, maintained and educated as your own; and what the limitations and conditions are.

If it is not an adoption. Section 56 covers the case where the Local Court is not satisfied that a relationship of adoption exists, but is satisfied that a relationship of "fosterage or guardianship" exists or existed by custom. It may declare that in a certificate instead, and the preceding provisions of Part VI apply with the necessary modifications. You are not simply sent away with nothing.

If things change. Section 55 lets the Local Court vary a certificate where "the circumstances of the adoption or the custom applicable to the adoption have or has changed". Custom is not frozen, and neither is the certificate.

If you disagree with the outcome. Section 58 provides that the grant or refusal of an application under Part VI, and the terms of any grant, "shall be deemed to be a decision of a Local Court for the purposes of Part VI of the Local Courts Act" — which is the route to an appeal.

Section 52 rounds out the Part with a saving: nothing in it derogates from the Customs (Recognition) Act.

Currency warning. There are reports that the Customs Recognition Act (Chapter 19) was repealed by a Customs Recognition (Repeal) Act 2025, leaving custom to be applied under Schedule 2.1 of the Constitution and the Underlying Law Act 2000. We have not been able to confirm that from an official source. It does not affect section 53 or section 54, which stand on their own, but check the position of Chapter 19 before relying on it.

Registration: getting it onto the record

A certificate is more than a piece of paper in a tin box. It feeds into the national civil register.

Part VIII of the Civil Registration Act is headed "Registration of Adoptions". Its section 52, headed "Register of Customary Adoptions", provides that where the Registrar receives a certificate under section 54 of the Adoption of Children Act that an adoption has been made in accordance with custom, he registers the adoption by binding it into the register of adopted children. The same section covers terminations of customary adoption.

Section 54 of that Act then provides for the birth of an adopted child to be re-registered, and section 55 requires notations to be made on the re-registration entry, on the original birth entry, and in the register of adopted children.

That is the practical chain most families are actually chasing: custom → Local Court certificate → registration → a birth record that matches the life the child has lived. It is also the reason a certificate is worth pursuing while the people who can prove the custom are still with you.

So — should you get one?

Probably not urgent if: the child is young, everyone in both families agrees, the child's position in the community is secure, and no outside institution has asked you to prove anything.

Worth doing now if: the child needs a passport or will study or live abroad; there is land, an estate or compensation in the picture; the elders who witnessed the adoption are elderly; the two families have any tension; the adoption has terms that people might later dispute; or you want the child's birth record to reflect reality.

Do it before you need it. A certificate obtained calmly, with both families present, is a very different thing from one sought in the middle of a dispute over an estate.