Māori Party President Che Wilson is angry that yet another report has detailed “persistent and intergenerational” inequities in the treatment of Māori babies by the state.
“Just two months ago, Oranga Tamariki Grainne Moss faced up to the failings of the state in the complex web of errors associated with the uplift of a 6-day-old baby from his 19-year-old mother at Hawke’s Bay Hospital.
Following four separate reviews Ms Moss finally admitted mistakes had been made, staff did not try hard enough to build good relationships with whānau or explore options to place the baby with wider family; and that as a result their actions had hurt the whānau.
“It is appalling that despite a rhetoric of ‘kindness’ and ‘wellbeing’ we have a government prepared to accept the reality that newborn Māori babies were five times as likely to be taken into state care as non-Māori babies in the last year”.
“Māori are sick of waiting for kindness to flow where it matters most – in those first 1000 days of life when our mokopuna are born into a world that should care”.
“The Children’s Commissioner has found our babies are uplifted earlier than others; increasingly even before they are born”.
“Where is the kindness being shown to our families to support them in those first thousand days. How much investment has Oranga Tamariki made into Whānau Ora Navigators to work with families the moment an issue emerges. We should be giving hope and solutions to our whānau, not just taking their children and casting our whānau to the sidelines.
“As we approach Waitangi Day and consider the long walk to nationhood our country is on, we must be brave enough to look the inequities in the eyes : if in June 2019 there were 6429 children in state care, and of those, 4420 were Māori (69%), what does that say about our capacity as a country to care for whānau Māori raising their children”.
“We know the answers lie in the hands of whānau – but we must start giving our whānau tangible, meaningful support; equipping them with Whānau Ora Navigators who can help families in a holistic way – looking at all the complex variables that impact on whānau lives. The state can not just keep on taking our kids away from us.
“As a starting point, I would hope that Grainne Moss could tell us all how many Whānau Ora Navigators she has put in place since she came to office, to provide that practical, authentic, culturally-located support right next to our most vulnerable families.
Every headline screams at us how many children the state has taken away; we want to see the dynamic change to tell us how many families the state has helped by investing directly into our whānau – not into social workers; not into Barnados or Youth Horizon Trust – but directly into working alongside those families who need help the most”.
I am not happy with Peeni Henare I think he is useless and he better get some guts or he can buggar off. As for the Dames going to the Waitangi Tribunal good on them. I believe they are right as where is the funding to deliver the Maori led intervention programmes. As for Labour it seems they have not learnt despite all the research and bloody poor statistics for Maori they are trying to mainstream us again and yet national did this also but you expect this from them. The difference is Labour holds all our Maori seats and they are still trying to control our people and they still think they know best. Well they are wrong and they might have all those seven seats but they need to be mindful as they can lose them this has happened before and it can happen again. Many of our Maori whanau don’t like to be taken for granted. I see the Maori party so far have one good candidate so that is good they need to get more ASAP. If they want to rebuild they need to get as many high profile candidates ASAP. Shane Taurima was a good candidate but whether he will have another go who knows.
I am not happy with Peeni Henare I think he is useless and he better get some guts or he can buggar off. As for the Dames going to the Waitangi Tribunal good on them. I believe they are right as where is the funding to deliver the Maori led intervention programmes. As for Labour it seems they have not learnt despite all the research and bloody poor statistics for Maori they are trying to mainstream us again and yet national did this also but you expect this from them. The difference is Labour holds all our Maori seats and they are still trying to control our people and they still think they know best. Well they are wrong and they might have all those seven seats but they need to be mindful as they can lose them this has happened before and it can happen again. Many of our Maori whanau don’t like to be taken for granted. I see the Maori party so far have one good candidate so that is good they need to get more ASAP. If they want to rebuild they need to get as many high profile candidates ASAP. Shane Taurima was a good candidate but whether he will have another go who knows.
Granine Moss also needs to tell us how Oranga Tamariki act section 7aa is working and where and why it isn’t working they should be able to tell us this because like IPCA they are self monitoring. (and its wrong )
Michelle: “Granine Moss…” Her name is “Grainne”. This is an indigenous name from my ancestral culture: do her the courtesy of spelling it correctly. It is no excuse to claim unintentional typos; you need to take more care over proofreading, before you submit a comment.
You do this to me as well, and my nom de guerre is also an ancestral family name. It is equally offensive, and completely unnecessary.
Well you know what yo can do with your ancestral culture d estirer
Michelle: “Well you know what yo can do with your ancestral culture d estirer”
Herewith you eloquently demonstrate the fact that you don’t have a countervailing argument.
As usual.
Why d estirer are you the grammar police
Its not an indigenous name she ain’t Maori
Michelle: “Its not an indigenous name she ain’t Maori”
Of COURSE it’s an indigenous name! Are you suggesting that the concept of indigeneity is exhausted by being Maori? Good grief…
You would do well to go get yourself an education. It’d come in handy: it’d lessen the frequency with which you shoot your mouth off in ignorance. And it’d spare the rest of us from being obliged to correct said ignorance
Granine Moss also needs to tell us how Oranga Tamariki act section 7aa is working and where and why it isn’t working they should be able to tell us this because like IPCA they are self monitoring. (and its wrong )
Between 2014-2017 under the national government the removal of Maori babies ordered into state care before birth almost doubled this is why Maori should never ever vote national. If we look at imprisonment rates we will see that increased as well as many other nasty statistics. To add to my comments above there was no need for Tariana to put the boot into Jacinda in my view she is showing her long held hate for Labour. And i think she is being personal, instead she needs to direct her anger at Peeni and the rest of the Maori we voted in all because her Maori party were too busy arse kissing national. Peeni has already said some dumb stuff that he can’t retract including saying they, labour can do Whanau Ora better.
““It is appalling that despite a rhetoric of ‘kindness’ and ‘wellbeing’ we have a government prepared to accept the reality that newborn Māori babies were five times as likely to be taken into state care as non-Māori babies in the last year”.”
How about some honesty on your part? Maori babies are disproportionately taken into care, not because they’re Maori, but because they’re disproportionately at risk of harm at the hands of their birth families. Kindness and wellbeing indeed: tell that to the parents and families who are supposed to have their children’s best interests front and centre.
“….our babies are uplifted earlier than others; increasingly even before they are born”.”
What? OT are doing the Julius Caesar thing now? I think you’re referring there to antenatal custody orders. That’s scarcely surprising, given the dire living conditions of some pregnant women.
“Where is the kindness being shown to our families to support them in those first thousand days.”
Look to your own society, say I. Don’t expect from a child protection agency, assistance it wasn’t designed to deliver.
The state ought not to have a role in raising our children: that’s the job of parents.
“How much investment has Oranga Tamariki made into Whānau Ora Navigators to work with families…”
Whanau Ora was established 10 years ago this year. If it were to have been an effective model, surely we’d have expected to see results by now. The statistics suggest that it hasn’t delivered what was promised.
“…how many families the state has helped by investing directly into our whānau…”
You and others are advocating for the establishment of “by-Maori-for-Maori” services. Whether or not you want to acknowledge it, this is segregation. Write it into law, it’s apartheid and racist. My generation fought successfully against such systems in other polities; I’m damned if I’ll stand by without protest, while such pernicious thinking insinuates itself into my country.
As I noted above, all of you need to be honest about what’s happening with the uplift of babies, and the factors underlying such uplifts. Don’t try to blame OT, or pakeha; it’s nothing to do with us pakeha and OT is just doing its job. We’d expect no less of it. Face up to your collective responsibility, if you see it as a collective problem.
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