New campaign aims to target overrepresentation of Māori children in state care

Thursday, 16 May 2019

A video launched by the Māori Council features as part of a new campaign to get people talking about problems that go on behind closed doors.

The Māori Council has issued a call to action to try and fix the system that sees an overwhelming proportion of Māori children in state care.

According to the council, more than 70 per cent of children in state care are Māori. More than 80 per cent of children in the juvenile and youth justice system are also Māori.

Of the general population, Māori make up 15 per cent.

The council's executive director Matthew Tukaki said the system was built to help children, but it was not doing well enough.

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The Māori Council's new campaign aims to start an honest conversation about Māori children in state care.

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'In nobody's world should parents be hitting their children,' he said.

'What we need are not only honest conversations of the sustained failure of the system, we also need to do more as Māori to protect our children from harm and much of that needs to start in our homes and communities.'

The campaign featured two main parts, Tukaki said. The first was bringing to the table honest conversations about what went on behind closed doors.

It wasn't just about violence against Māori kids, but also violence they might see in their household, he said.

A video released by the council said: 'You may think your tamariki can't hear you fight; but they can.

'They hear each word, they feel each hit. Whānau violence is not who we are. Change starts with you.'

The other part of the campaign was about detailing the rights that whānau had and where they could go for help if they need it.

One of the areas targeted was directing them to places where they could get legal aid if they were unable to afford a lawyer.

Tukaki said there needed to be more leadership from Oranga Tamariki and the government on addressing the systemic problem.

'Why is it that Oranga Tamariki is not doing enough to highlight the systemic problems that are going on? It is left to the Māori Council to deal with what is going on in homes and the failure in the system,' he said.

Currently, New Zealand was 'nowhere near able to meet the needs of kids in [this] country', he said.