Rich learnings from international exchanges of Indigenous people - Dr Moana Eruera

Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services hosted April Lawrie, the inaugural Commissioner for Aboriginal Children & Young People in South Australia, her colleagues from NGO Relationships Australia (South Australia) including Torres Strait Island. Photo / Supplied

OPINION

Mokopuna Māori are disproportionately taken into state care by Oranga Tamariki, at a rate of five times non-Māori children.

Historical and social conditions continue to negatively impact Māori and intergenerational violence and trauma within whānau Māori persist.

There are rich learnings from international exchanges of Indigenous people and wisdom that explore traditional child welfare practices centred on reuniting children caught in the complex web of State care.

I was involved with one recently involving international child protection experts.

They’ve created reclamation pathways for Indigenous children in care to be returned to their own communities that honour their heritage and nurture their well-being.

Very topical and timely, too, given our chief ombudsman says Oranga Tamariki must “change on a scale rarely required of a government agency”.

One answer lies in the strength of our Māori connection with the collective of Indigenous global solutions and networks that are culturally relevant, breaking cycles and changing outcomes.

Why not boost support for Indigenous solutions of traditional healing and restoration processes because they are proven to work?

April Lawrie, the inaugural Commissioner for Aboriginal Children & Young People in South Australia and Dr Moana Eruera.

In Australia, they’re circumventing State intervention using this approach that’s bolstered by Treasury support enabling devolution to community-based Indigenous solutions. Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services hosted April Lawrie, the inaugural Commissioner for Aboriginal Children & Young People in South Australia, her colleagues from NGO Relationships Australia (South Australia) including Torres Strait Island staff and an elder as well as Department of Child Protection South Australian Government senior colleagues.

The Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner has her own statutory mandate: “To ensure country, connection and healing for Indigenous children”. Four states have Commissioners like April. Eleven days ago, after the recent Closing the Gap report, the Australian Government announced there will now be an overarching National Aboriginal Commissioner.

What a win to create more opportunities and achieve better outcomes at a local level for the First Nation people of Australia.

Our wānanga in Waitangi and Kaikohe with April and her group evidenced the impressive success of our Indigenous cousins in reducing tamariki entering the system across the Tasman.

The numbers don’t lie.

Their data shows 93 per cent of tamariki that they work with in early community-based family group conferences don’t touch the system.

It’s a highly effective model that’s proven its perceived value by the State, given the ongoing investment.

Frontloading funding locally is always far more cost-effective and commonsense. As the saying goes, isn’t prevention better than the cure?

Imagine more of this being done in Aotearoa by those trusted and embedded in their community like Māori providers, instead of the model currently taking place inside the system by Oranga Tamariki, which is clearly not working.

Why not instead, accelerate the excellent progress Iwi, hapū, and Māori service providers are making across the motu using Indigenous problem-solving?

Value it by trusting it, funding it and achieving intergenerational change.

In our rohe of Te Tai Tokerau, Ngāpuhi has solutions in place such as Mahuru, alternatives to locking our Ngāpuhi young people up in youth residences or group homes. These initiatives support our tamariki and rangatahi to return and reconnect with their whakapapa networks so they have enduring safe relationships and an individualised wraparound programme of healing and development.

But to build on this transformational kaupapa we need more investment.

Being able to understand what the Aboriginal approaches are, some are different from ours, did show what could be easily transferable to us and as a consequence provide powerful solutions proven to work. As a member of Te Pūkotahitanga, the Maori Advisory group to Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence, we share the same view that prevention and healing stops the cycle of trauma.

Investment into early intervention and healing initiatives and strategies with whānau is key.

It reverses intergenerational disadvantage and inequity for tamariki safety and prevention of violence within whānau.

Dr Moana Eruera has more than 30 years of experience in family violence prevention, statutory child protection and youth justice, social work education and iwi social services sectors. She is a member of Te Pūkotahitanga, a Māori Advisory Group for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and chief executive of Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services.