Child welfare: midwives and support workers detail family distress

The Commissioner for Children does not want any more urgent elevations of tamariki and pēpi Māori from hospitals, but has fallen short of recommending an end to all elevations where the whānau is not notified first.

It is one of the recommendations of the recently published second part of the Te Kuku O Te Manawa report, of Judge Andrew Becroft’s investigation into the extraction practices of Maori babies by Oranga Tamariki.

94 participants were interviewed for the report who had been the subject of a report of concern or were involved with whānau, including 19 members of whānau, seven midwives, 43 community support workers and 25 employees of Oranga Tamariki.

The midwives shared how they were not included in the decisions made by Oranga Tamariki to remove the babies from their whānau and the removal process was often done clandestinely.

One midwife said that a mother came out of the shower at the hospital and found that the police were in the process of taking her baby away, and in another case, a midwife said that Oranga Tamariki arranged a meeting with the whānau, the midwife and the agencies , and took the baby. while this hui was taking place.

Another midwife said she is still crying over the removal of a baby she overheard on the phone.

“I just got home, it was seriously around three in the morning, and she is on the phone and her mother is crying and they are screaming. You can hear the panic and people banging on the door to let them in because the police they’re here and ‘we’re going to take that baby away,’ “the midwife said.

“He broke my heart”.

A community worker said that the removal of a child affected the entire whānau and as a result, family members often turned to drugs and alcohol or attempted suicide.

“… when their children are removed, you can see that hope leaves their eyes … the spirit leaves the parents until they meet again … it destroys them … you just ripped off an iwi, not just a whānau, they broke a whole whānau, hapū and iwi by doing that. “

One finding of the report was to halt all unannounced moves of hospitals, maternity units or maternity wards, “to respect te whare tangata and pēpi’s needs to bond, breastfeed (when possible) and have a calm, trustworthy environment and safe environment. “

“They should be places of well-being, care and integrity, not trauma and dislocation,” Judge Becroft said.

He said informal discussions with district health boards about implementing this had been “encouraging.”

However, he said they did not go so far as to call for an end to all poripi Māori removals from their mothers, asking instead that Oranga Tamariki “prevent” their use.

“We choose the word ‘prevent’ very carefully because that is what we want to move to.

“We believe that with much better early intervention, collaboration and iwi leadership, they will never be needed and that is what we are moving towards, but … we don’t use the word ‘stop.’

South Auckland social worker Rhonda Tautari has witnessed how eight police officers surrounded a young mother in hospital to deliver her baby.

“That feeling of abandonment, ‘where are my parents, why am I not with them’, the effects that [can have] not only in the child, but the mother says ‘oh my gosh, I’ve lost my son’ then [they] they have to replace that child, so they go out and have another child and you have another baby that is in the system, “Tautari said.

“There should be no unannounced uprising, at least preparing a whānau that can make someone who is inside that whānau take that baby away,” he said.

“Let’s work with the whānau because at the end of the day they have all the answers, they know where their strongest supports are and where their weakest points are.”

The explicit inclusion of Te Tiriti or Waitangi in the legislation will guarantee the association

The report’s key recommendation is a call for Oranga Tamariki to transfer resources and power for the care of Maori infants and children to whānau, hapū and iwi.

Lady Tureiti Moxon of the Māori National Urban Authority said that there were already many examples of Maori caring models, such as kōhanga reo and Whānau Ora.

“And we have many, many Maori providers who have been in this field for a long time and who have worked very hard during that time to keep the Maori Whānau within their iwi and keep their whakapapa ties strong, and they are the ones who are going to do this, “Moxon said.

A major legislative change recommended in the report was to explicitly incorporate Te Tiriti or Waitangi into the law, which the report said “would be a massive step with huge implications,” including opening Oranga Tamariki to High Court action if a policy or Oranga Tamariki’s decision was thought to contravene Te Tiriti or Waitangi.

“Surely that is exactly what is required, this is how the system will change, just having a theoretical compromise without teeth, I think, is inappropriate,” Judge Becroft said.

He was referring to clause 7AA introduced in the middle of last year and designed to put a child’s manna, whakapapa and culture at the center of all decisions, but said it did not create a “true treaty association.”

Maori Assistant Commissioner for Children Glenis Philip-Barbara said including a treaty clause would ensure the partnership is between equals.

“The same weight is given to Maori mātauranga and Western knowledge, equal consideration is given to the dynamics within that relationship that determines where the power lies, where the decision-making rights reside for the Maori tamariki,” said Philip- Barbara.

“I want to say that it is 2020, we signed Te Tiriti in 1840, I think we are already beyond time.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern agreed that while partnering with iwi was the only way forward, she would not commit to transferring the powers of Oranga Tamariki to the Maori, Hapū and iwi.

“You sit with us for a very good reason, because it is such a significant use of energy, but the way it has been done has been enormously problematic and rightly so we have now had four reports looking at this problem and now it is our job to act on that, but we won’t do it unilaterally, otherwise we’ll end up repeating our mistakes. “

Ardern said they already had agreements and arrangements with Iwi and Maori organizations in the area of ​​preventive child care and protection.