April 13, 2016
Chance for whakapapa to speak in child protection
Maori Party co-founder Dame Tariana Turia hopes reform of Child, Youth and Family will finally give whanau and hapu a voice in how their tamariki are cared for when things go wrong.
The Government is setting up as new regime for vulnerable children that will involve more partnerships with iwi, Maori and other social service providers.
The former associate minister for social welfare says the only time Child Youth and Family started getting it right was with 1988 Puao Te Ata Tu and Maatua Whangai in the late 1980s, but that influence was short-lived.
She says in its placements the agency failed to grasp that whakapapa mattered.
"I mean it got to the point where if you were Maori you could get a child from Child, Youth and Family even if you had no whakapapa connection to them whatsoever. The point has always been lost on (CYF) and they have never ever bothered to understand the duty of care they have had all these years with our tamariki," Dame Tariana says.
She has yet to see a government agency that will allow whanau, hapu and iwi to make decisions about their own lives.
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