Te Puna Wai in Rolleston is an Oranga Tamariki facility that has a capacity for up to 40 young people. Photo / NZME
Te Puna Wai in Rolleston is an Oranga Tamariki facility that has a capacity for up to 40 young people. Photo / NZME
Opinion:
According to Oranga Tamariki, youth justice residences “provide a safe, secure and supportive environment where young people can get their lives back on track and improve their prospects for the future”.
This statement could not be further from the truth. Already this year alone in February, we witnessed five rangatahi (youth) escape onto the roof of Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo youth justice residence in Rolleston, Christchurch, in protest.
In June a further six rangatahi escaped onto the roof of Korowai Manaaki youth justice residence in Wiri, South Auckland also again in protest.
The “fight club” video that followed of rangatahi being made to fight each other as staff watched on revealed to the nation that these institutions breed violence. Twelve staff have been stood down for failing to do their duty to “provide a safe, secure and supportive environment.”
Further to this, five more Oranga Tamariki staff have been stood down for alleged sexual inappropriate behaviour against children in residential care.
The pipeline for many Māori mokopuna, tamariki and rangatahi starts from Oranga Tamariki, to Youth Justice Residences, then to prison and then they end up in mental health facilities. Unfortunately, this culture of violence and sexual abuse is not uncommon in these youth justice residences or children’s homes.
The late Sir Wira Gardner was tasked with investigating the Youth Justice Residences and he recommended they be closed and for a while they were. These rangatahi were housed in the community where they were getting 24/7 wrap-around and one-on-one care in some cases. However, these residences were reopened again due to the recent spate of violent ram raids.
Former Police Commissioner Mike Bush will undertake yet another investigation. These youth justice residences were broken then and are still broken. No amount of this dehumanising behaviour of fight clubs, sexual abuse or locking them up and throwing away the key is going to change anything to benefit our country.
By Māori for Māori is the only solution for Māori.
The Waitangi Tribunal recommended that a Māori Transition Authority be established, which must be independent of the Crown, to identify the changes necessary to eliminate the need for State care of tamariki Māori.
They further stated that the “Crown must honour the guarantee to Māori of the right of cultural continuity embodied in the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga over kāinga”.
A Mokopuna Authority must be established to commission for services. There are already excellent examples of this with the Whānau Commissioning Agency, Te Aka Whai Ora (Māori Health Authority) and Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand).
The Crown must invest in whānau hapū and iwi and Māori service providers to build capacity to look after ourselves.
Lady Tureiti Moxon is chairwoman of the National Urban Māori Authority and managing director at Te Kohao Health.
