The Human Rights Commission has thrown its support behind calls by the Children’s Commissioner for urgent action to keep at-risk Māori children with their wider whanau or family.
Speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Commission, the race relations commissioner, Meng Foon, said he backed the approach, saying it would uphold indigenous rights of Māori through self-determination.
“This transformative approach is needed by the government for a host of issues affecting tangata whenua [people of the land] – in justice, health, education and so forth,” said Foon, who is fluent in te reo Māori.
The two-part report found that Māori infants were five times more likely to be taken into state custody than non-Māori, often in traumatic circumstances – including from maternity wards involving the police.
Foon noted that the report highlighted persistent inequities that affect Māori, including intergenerational harm being done to Māori children and whānau (family), and how this collides with entrenched disadvantage, colonisation and systemic bias.
“Such systemic bias needs to go,” Foon said.
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Māori children make up about 65% of children in state care – even though Māori comprise just 16.5% of New Zealand’s population.
Oranga Tamariki, the government department charged with investigating claims of child neglect and abuse in New Zealand, has been described as dangerous and racist by Children’s Commissioner, Andrew Becroft, who has urged the government to transfer child welfare powers of its own children to Māori.
“The key recommendation in this report, is for a total transformation of the statutory care and protection system,” said Becroft.
“By that I mean nothing short of a ‘by Māori, for Māori’ approach and a transfer of responsibility, resources and power from the state to appropriate Māori entities, as determined by Māori.”
Both the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and children’s minister, Kelvin Davis, have responded saying it was important to walk alongside Māori, but stopped short of any discussion of a transfer of power.
The operations of Oranga Tamariki have long drawn the wrath of Māori elders, with large public demonstrations held in 2019 calling for an end to baby uplifts by the state.
“There’s been unprecedented breaches of human rights,” Naida Glavish, the head of a Māori-led inquiry into the practices of Oranga Tamariki, told the Guardian earlier this year.
Glavish said there have been cases of women’s babies being taken into custody over the cleanliness of the mother’s home, or their past records, even though they had changed their behaviour, and the gang affiliations of former partners.
Glavish also accused the agency of not allowing extended Māori families to care for children – an established cultural practice – when relatives thought that was the best option.
“For us here there is no way that we are actually going to allow it to continue,” Glavish said. “We’ve reached a stage where enough is enough.”
In a statement, Oranga Tamariki said it had seen a 50% drop in the number of Māori infants coming into care in the last two years, but any decision on a transfer of power was one for the government.
The statement noted that the Waitangi Tribunal was currently assessing whether Oranga Tamariki legislation, policies and practices are consistent with the Treaty of Waitangi, with specific regard to the disproportionate numbers of tamariki Māori being taken into state care.
Becroft said it was “very heartening” that minister for children Kelvin Davis, who is Māori, “has committed to ‘fixing’ the state care and protection system”.
“Our view, however, after extensive inquiry, is that it is unlikely that Oranga Tamariki or any other iteration of it, can deliver care and protection interventions and services in a way that will be most effective for tamariki (children) and whānau Māori,” Becroft said.
“I believe only Māori can do this for Māori in a way that will deliver the best and enduring outcomes for tamariki.”
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