Fa’a’amu is a form of ancestral customary adoption practiced in French Polynesia. The colonial history of this territory, in particular the establishment of the Pacific Experimentation Center (CEP), brought about profound social changes, including a significant transformation in the mode of organization of the Polynesian family, the ‘utuafare. Based on an extended family model, which is composed of land management and subsistence, ‘utuafare was operated by changes of an economic nature, influenced by the Western nuclear family model, more compatible with the market economy, and the rise of land privatization. However, despite these profound social changes, we notice a continuity, that of the practice of fa’a’amu, and this, in the absence of the application of the French Civil Code which does not recognize, as such, this form of adoption. This article looks at some strategies that can be employed by Polynesians to continue to practice this gift of children. For these parents, it may in some cases mean to stay outside official law, while others prefer procedures relating to the Civil Code so as to still benefit from some official recognition of their parenthood.