The ‘reverse uplift’ case: Māori whānau who got children back from Pākehā caregivers finally break their silence

“People are judging us. It’s wrong. It’s all wrong. We’re good people.”

That’s according to the couple at the heart of the so-called “reverse uplift” case that has been cited in the coalition Government’s controversial decision to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act.

Until now, the pair – who cannot be named because it could lead to identification of the children involved – have never told their side of an explosive story featured in a Newsroom documentary.

This week, they spoke exclusively to reporter Hikurangi Kimiora Jackson on Te Ao with Moana (Whakaata Māori, Monday, 8pm).

“We’ve never been able to share our story. The media shared the caregivers’ story over and over. They supported them but no one shared our story.”

When they took their nieces and nephew into their home, the couple never imagined ending up embroiled in a storm of outrage. Neither did the uncle and aunt expect those tamariki to feature in media coverage and political commentary that would drive subsequent discussions around section 7AA. Believing themselves to be unfairly cast as “the baddies” in what has been repeatedly labelled a “reverse uplift” by Children’s Minister Karen Chhour, the frustrated couple was clear where the blame lay.

Whānau Waipareira CEO John Tamihere and his kaimahi were at Waitakere Hospital to prevent an Oranga Tamariki uplift of a new born baby.

‘If Oranga Tamariki had been doing its job properly …’

“If Oranga Tamariki did its job properly, this wouldn’t have been a reverse uplift. If OT will stop offering people home for life while other families are fighting in the background to try to save their family, there would not be a ‘reverse uplift’.”

As reported by Newsroom, the four children involved had originally come to the attention of both police and Oranga Tamariki. Their father was in prison while their mother was assessed as unable to care for them. So, the ministry placed the children into what was described as a “forever home”, on the basis that none of the children’s whānau nor any Māori family were available to take them in.

Nearly three years later (prompted by the introduction of section 7AA into legislation), Oranga Tamariki staff identified and contacted a brother of the children’s birth mother. He explained that communications had been sparse between the two siblings. However, the couple had been fostering children for nine years, so were known to Oranga Tamariki. They remain frustrated their nieces and nephew were placed in other homes without the ministry contacting whānau in the first place.

“We weren’t told until 7AA came out and they did a little bit more research and found us.”

Journalist Melanie Reid was told to leave Hawke's Bay Hospital premises by security staff and police.

The four siblings were removed from their Pākehā caregivers and taken to their Māori relatives. Footage showed crying children being packed into cars by OT staff while distressed family and friends gathered to support the bereft caregivers. However, their uncle and aunt insist that was not the full picture.

‘Kids were so excited’

“Straight after the video of the kids [by] the media, we were singing in the car with the kids,” recalls the uncle. His wife agrees. “They were absolutely fine. They were happy to come with us and they, yeah, [were] excited. They were so excited.”

In April, after a three-year publication ban by the High Court, Newsroom won the right to show its documentary again. That triggered an equally distressed uncle and aunt to contact Te Ao with Moana and speak publicly for the first time.

Jackson met the couple in their home. The hallway was full of large portraits of each child while their names were carved into mementos on display. He was shown photographs of the children at play, in kapa haka and sports uniforms. The couple describe a “happy, crazy household”, full of life.

Jackson asked if the pair had any sympathy for the previous couple who had cared for the children for nearly three years? After all, both couples were assessed and vetted by Oranga Tamariki as caregivers.

“We feel sorry for any caregiver that gets promised home for life while the family are trying to get the kids back and then at the end of it, when they’ve realised that we are perfectly capable of looking after these kids, oh, now we have to go do the bad work and the hard work to go in?”

Over the years, commentators, politicians and media weighed in asking where the family was back at the start. Those comments have upset the couple with whom the children have been living for the past three years.

“The case has been labelled as a reverse uplift,” said Jackson. “What do you guys have to say about that?”

Not a reverse uplift

“No, it was just really Auntie and Uncle have been found. We brought them home. We would’ve been there on day one. But, because we didn’t get told, we didn’t know.”

On the week she was interviewed for Te Ao with Moana, Children’s Minister Karen Chhour made it quite clear in a public statement that this particular case was a key driver in her campaign to get rid of 7AA. During her interview with Moana Maniapoto, the minister repeatedly mentioned she had watched the footage and how “traumatic” she found it and that it should never have happened.

Children's Minister Karen Chhour. Photo / Mark Mitchell

While the minister has provided no evidence that section 7AA itself is causing problems, Chhour says she has “heard stories”. She calls for “colorblind state care” and claims that, because of 7AA, children have been removed from “safe, loving foster [homes] because the child’s foster parents were the ‘wrong’ race”.

Oranga Tamariki described section 7AA as its “practical commitment to the principles of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It’s a mechanism through which the ministry develops “strategic partnerships” with iwi and other Māori organisations to help reconnect tamariki with whanau, hapū and iwi. Anger over the government’s campaign to repeal 7AA has intensified particularly given the tabling of the Report into Abuse in State Care and establishment of the first bootcamp.

An interim report by the Waitangi Tribunal expresses concern that the rushed repeal of the section will cause actual harm. This month, Ngāpuhi uri rallied outside Parliament to express their anger. Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services chief executive Dr Moana Eruera told RNZ that section 7AA never prioritised whakapapa over the safety of tamariki and a repeal would destroy the positive advances iwi have managed to make because of it.

This whānau, sick of the inferences and assumptions, is over it.

‘They are full of love, whānau, everything’

“We love the kids. We want this story to go out there to everybody that our babies have their culture. They have their identity. They are happy. They are full of love, whānau, everything. And what people have portrayed us as, is wrong. We just want to be left alone and we want our story out there.”