Ma¯ori don’t need these ‘saviours’
I’m not sure why I was affected more this week by what I heard at the Waitangi Tribunal urgent inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. I had heard similar evidence before, read various lengthy reports written over the years, spoken to many with harrowing lived experience of having their children forcibly taken from them. But this was different.
How did these forcible removals happen and why? Thousands of beautiful Ma¯ori children, thought to be better off in care, removed from their families, everyone they knew and loved. The State comes for the newborns now, they want them young. Much less trouble than an older child, I presume. And they don’t come any younger than just two or three days old.
It was for their own care and protection, so Ma¯ori children had to be taken.
This week I heard about that care and protection they received. One woman, now a grandmother herself, said nine of them were taken in her case. Sexually assaulted, all raped, physically and emotionally abused. And the State is still in their lives, now meddling with her grandchildren. A brave and fearless woman who said she was not ashamed to tell her story. The shame is not hers; it’s the state that should hang its head in shame.
But the State says all that has changed. Things are different now.
Tell that to Jean Te Huia, Ma¯ori nurse and midwife of 30 years. She heads the Ma¯ori Midwives Association and dismisses that claim. More than 400 newborns taken in the past three years. The majority taken without the mother and family knowing this was to happen.
A recent review by the Ombudsman of 74 uplift cases questions the process undertaken to acquire the children and if the uplifts were necessary at all. If they weren’t, have the children been promptly returned? I doubt it.
Ms Te Huia gave evidence of the racism, emotional abuse, biases, discrimination and neglect she saw countless times meted out to Ma¯ori mothers and their families. The collusion of state agencies: OT, DHBs, Police, DSW, Family Court all committed to working together to ‘‘save’’ Ma¯ori children. They had to be taken, it was for their own for care and protection.
Thousands of children never found their way back to their families. Whakapapa links broken, disconnection from wha¯nau, hapu¯ and iwi. Loss of culture, identity and belonging.
For many young adults, new families formed when they left state care. Forged in care and protection homes. Gangs. The gangs, now hated, that the state itself created. They had no further use for the children, they merely tipped them out onto the streets.
As I sat listening, I kept wondering why nobody raised the alarm bell all those years ago. Didn’t anyone, anyone at all, care? Alarm bells did go off, set off in some cases by former staff. But they were silenced or shown the exit door. Families were threatened when they tried to speak up, requesting support to help them manage their lives better. What the public doesn’t know, they don’t care about.
The true cost to our nation of the taking of Ma¯ori children for the past 80 years is incalculable. The state continues to believe that Ma¯ori cannot be trusted to care for their children therefore they retain the right to continue their ‘‘saviour’’ role, the coloniser never gives up.
Even when they lose children in their care – yes that happens too – when they know from years of data collection that educational levels will not be high, health will be compromised, job opportunities limited and socialisation skills narrow, they still believe they have a legitimate role in taking children in 2020.
It is time to start investing in families. Ensuring that State damage is limited and removed altogether from Ma¯ori families. When there is a real care and protection problem, and at times
there will be, families must take responsibility to provide a safe, stable and supportive environment for the child/children. A home where they are loved, valued and wanted.
At the same time parents and families struggling to cope need the support of their immediate and extended wha¯nau, hapu¯ and Iwi too.
The tribunal is sitting under urgency. There is not a moment to lose. Children continue to be taken by a State department with a history of failure. The hearing this week should have required the compulsory attendance of every MP.
They would then have an understanding of the racism, discrimination and prejudice that is still rampant in state departments today. They might like to do something about it.
The State comes for the newborns now, they want them young. Much less trouble than an older child, I presume.