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Download AudioA survivor of abuse in state care says iwi have a lot of work to do to gain the trust of affected whanau.
The report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care was tabled in parliament today, representing six years of work and testimony of more than 3000 survivors of abuse from the 1950s until 1999.
Bernie O’Donnell says when it was going on iwi didn’t step in to help.
The former Manukau Urban Maori Authority chair says they have a role to play now but not as leaders.
“There’s a degree of trust survivors need to build with iwi. I don’t think their narrative around uplifting is the same as us. Ours wasn’t about uplifting. Ours was about intervention, those kinds of narratives and you will hear lots more because it’s about ma tatau, mo tatau, by survivors, for survivors and we need to maintain that,” Mr O’Donnell says.
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