April 18, 2023
Mechanisms revictimise abuse survivors
The co-chair of a new group which will design a redress system for survivors of abuse in care says proper acknowledgement and redress is of the utmost importance to achieve healing.
Māori public health researcher Dr Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, a Māori health lecturer at the University of Canterbury, has written extensively about Māori children who were adopted or taken into state care and has drawn from her personal experience as an adoptee.
She says existing compensation mechanisms had revictimised survivors of abuse in care.
She wants to ensure the process is survivor-led process and results in appropriate and meaningful recognition for those who have been harmed as well as compensation, as part of a broader process of healing.