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Ngāti Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana says iwi and crown have been in parallel universes on the how to manage children in care.
The iwi met at the weekend with Children's Minister Tracey Martin and Māori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis to discuss responses to the high rate of Māori babies being taken by Oranga tamariki.
Mr Tomoana says he left social work almost 30 years ago out of frustration at Social Welfare's failure to implement the recommendations of the Puao Te Ata Tu report on institutional racism in the department, and things have gone backwards since them.
He's heartened Minister Martin has read that report and is considering its recommendations, and she has delegated staff to work with Ngāti Kahungunu to design an early intervention framework.
"We've said our rule is our tikanga and our kawa. Your rule is te ture. We're working in parallel universes. Let's try to fuse them so the whānau and the whakapapa of whānau is protected at all times," Mr Tomoana says.
After the last tribal elections Ngāti Kahungunu declared the next decade would be about strengthening whānau.
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