Tāmaki Collective explores Oranga Tamariki partnership

Māori iwi and social service providers in Auckland are keen to form a partnership with Oranga Tamariki to give them more visibility of tamariki Māori in care.

The groups under the mantle of the Tāmaki Collective met yesterday with ministry head Grainne (rhymes with Sonia) Moss at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae.

Papakura marae chief executive Tony Kake says the collective is looking for alternatives to children being put in care.

He says 98.5 percent of children are fine, but there are 6,400 children under the control of Oranga Tamariki.

"Many of the people who are carers of our kids are whānau, are Māori. There's a misunderstanding that a lot of our Māori kids are going into non-Māori care. We wanted to make sure we have all the facts and then we can plan our way forward but certainly having better eyes, better visiblility on our kids if they are in care we have or even if they are not in care, that we as a community, we've got to make sure out kids are visible, that they are free from harm," Mr Kake says.

The collective will work on monitoring mechanisms and how so set up mātua whāngai-style support so tamariki can be cared for within wider whānau or hapū networks.

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