Oranga Tamariki Act: Karen Chhour’s is not the only voice that needs to be heard on state care and abuse - Tupua Urlich

A judge applied section 7AA in a decision granting a grandmother custody of her grandchild after a long battle with Oranga Tamariki.

Tupua Urlich (Ngāti Kahungunu and Croatian whakapapa) is the National Care Experienced Lead for VOYCE – Whakarongo Mai, an independent charity that advocates for the approximately 6000 children with care experience.

OPINION

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has “seen first-hand the devastation on caregivers’ faces, and pain in their voices when they are told a forever home did not necessarily mean just that”.

But I have also lived through years of abuse and isolation, fueling an identity crisis as a young boy raised in our state care system. It’s a system that didn’t value my whakapapa, culture, or whānau.

I spent my childhood in a trauma-inflicting state care system that tore us from our whakapapa, and turned us into chequebooks for “professionals”. What I needed was to belong, and I would not experience that until I met the man who would save me from the “pipeline to prison” that the state had laid down.

At 10 years of age, I was a broken and angry young boy, suffering from the natural consequences of spending a childhood abused and isolated. No mainstream school was prepared to take me on as my behaviour was too much for them to handle, so I was sent to an alternative education centre.

Tupua Urlich.

It was there that I met Peter Nordstrom, who knew that I wasn’t a bad kid, but that the issue was I had no whānau base and no connection to my whakapapa. I was lost, and the abuse had left me without any reason to try and “be good”.

Pete introduced me to Te Ao Māori, and we focused my education on tikanga and history. From these lessons, I understood I am forever connected to my ancestors, and they are my reason to strive for great things in life.

Learning about my turangawaewae offered me something I hadn’t had for most of my life, and that was knowing where home is.

While in care you have very little stability, placements change all the time, and for me knowing where I belonged offered me comfort through uncomfortable times.

While the Act Party claims that repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act is to place the wellbeing of children and young people first, they need to understand that for us, as Māori, connection to our culture and our whakapapa is core to our wellbeing.

The views expressed by Children’s Minister Karen Chhour remind me of my time in care, when I was excluded from conversations around my care plan and future. It feels like the Crown continues to belittle us as Māori, and despite its atrocious track record, it speaks as if it’s in the moral position to determine what’s best for us.

The minister states “Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act was introduced about five years ago, with good intentions to bring attention to Māori children, and encourage them to be connected to their hapū and their iwi”, which is part of its function. 7AA also places obligations on Oranga Tamariki to report publicly on what they have done to reflect commitment to the principles of Te Tiriti O Waitangi, and improve outcomes for tamariki and whānau Māori. The repeal of 7AA removes that accountability.

The Act Party has presented this case as if placement decisions are being made on the basis of culture, not safety. That somehow the two are mutually exclusive, and that they believe Māori are not safe to raise our own children.

They ignore that 7AA was introduced to address the big picture and the intergenerational impacts of abuse the state has inflicted upon whanau. Instead, the Children’s Minister has shared examples of cases with poor social work practice, poor decision making and poor outcomes for children in care as a reason to support the repeal. She failed, however, to recognise the advice of her own officials, which stated that repealing 7AA would not resolve the issue identified.

Children's Minister Karen Chhour.

She then made an emotional plea, naming a harrowing list of children who had been harmed in state care – prior to 7AA even being introduced.

The minister has shared that her own experience of state care informs her politics. I would caution her not to place her own experience over the collective experiences of the care community, and to consult with us about how to best improve our collective experience.

If 7AA is repealed, it’s a green light for this Government to continue to sever our ties to whakapapa and culture, the most important connections to have throughout life. We are going to see more isolated, disconnected young people emerge from the care system, struggling to move forward.