Our mokopuna deserve a future where their cultural heritage is celebrated, their potential is boundless and their rights fiercely protected, says Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is co-leader of Te Pāti Māori.
OPINION
It is through colonisation that successive governments have failed mokopuna Māori, and we will continue to fail them if we refuse to accept the truth about our governing structures.
The colonisation of Aotearoa is not a historical memory, it continues to this day, and it is being advanced by the people we elected.
Our history of failing mokopuna can be traced back to the British Empire’s assimilationist agenda.
The British knew they could not change the mindsets of the indigenous people they were colonising, so they went after the mokopuna.
In Australia, Canada and Aotearoa, indigenous children became the targets of indoctrination.
Oranga Tamariki, and the previous iterations of state care in Aotearoa, are the most obvious examples of the ways that Māori have been isolated from their whakapapa and forcefully assimilated.
The standard practice of these institutions has been to steal our mokopuna, subject them to abuse and send them on their way through the pipeline: from state care to youth residences to youth prison to adult prison.
It is not hard to find information about the horrendous track record of state care in Aotearoa, especially when it comes to their treatment of Māori.
It has been estimated that up to 250,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults were abused in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 2019. Over 80 per cent of the children abused in state care are mokopuna Māori.
This abuse has led to the continued victimisation and incarceration of our tamariki and rangatahi.
One in three children placed in residential care by the state ended up in prison later in life.
That number rose to 42 per cent for Māori.
These statistics reflect the ways that we have failed mokopuna Māori, but these failures are not inevitable.
We can be the change by acknowledging that it is not our mokopuna who are at fault, but our kāwanatanga structures that were built on racist foundations.
We must acknowledge and remedy this reality to assert our mana motuhake.
Just as the British started with our mokopuna when they attempted to assimilate us, we must start with our mokopuna to break free from the chains of oppression.
The fear of failing mokopuna Māori persists in the face of entrenched systematic barriers, including poverty, institutional racism and intergenerational trauma.
Addressing these barriers demands a multifaceted approach that addresses the root causes of inequity while amplifying the voices and agency of Māori whānau, hapū and iwi.
For too long, the voices of tamariki Māori have been silenced, their rights trampled upon and their potential stifled by systematic injustices and the continual perpetuation of these injustices.
They have borne the brunt that has cast a shadow over their futures.
Enough is enough.
We refuse to accept a status quo where mokopuna Māori are overrepresented in state care, where their cultural identity is treated as an afterthought and where their whānau, hapū and iwi are sidelined in decision-making processes.
By Māori, for Māori, with Māori is the solution.
Te Pāti Māori will continue to advocate and fight for mokopuna Māori by enforcing a solution in the form of an independent Mokopuna Māori Authority.
This policy is a radical transformation acknowledging the gradual transition required from the current state care model to an indigenous care model, with a designated three-year timeframe to shift power, funding and workforce from Oranga Tamariki to the Mokopuna Māori Authority, overseen by its inaugural board and the minister.
The authority would safeguard rights in He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, emphasising whakapapa-based obligations and upholding tino rangatiratanga for all Māori entities invested in the welfare of mokopuna Māori.
We can see that the fear of failing mokopuna Māori isn’t a fear for this Government – in fact, it isn’t even an afterthought.
They have removed te reo Māori from signage, they have removed kai from lunchboxes and they will remove children from their whānau – showing that time and again the removal of our rights as tangata whenua supersedes their responsibilities to be Tiriti partners to our future generations.
Our mokopuna who do not yet exist will inherit the decisions we make.
They deserve a future where their cultural heritage is celebrated, their potential is boundless and their rights fiercely protected.
Ka tika, ko ā tātou tamariki, mokopuna Māori te take.
The Rotorua law student who authored it says the support was 'overwhelming but inspiring'.