Families Lost and Found¦ Ricki Hasson's Lost & Found experience was so overwhelming.<br /><br />Families Lost and Found¦ Ricki Hasson's Lost & Found experience was so overwhelming.<br /><br />"You look at me and I look like a Māori. But I talk white, dress white," Hasson told me when she asked for my help to find her whanau five years ago.<br /><br />Born in Whakatane to teenagers working on an East Coast shearing gang, Hasson was made a State ward as a baby and was sent to be raised by Pakeha foster parents in Nelson. <br /><br /><br />Hasson was so concerned that her upbringing would lead to rejection, she twice withdrew her application for my help.<br /><br /><br />When David finally convinced her to trust him [ David Lomas] Riki Hasson pleaded that should David find her whanau "you have to tell them how white I am and I want them to know it was not my fault. I don't want them to think of me as white. I want them to think of me as theirs".
