Ngā Mōrehu, Survivors Of The State – New Zealand’s Stolen Generation

The subject of abuse within state welfare institutions in New Zealand is finally being addressed. However, the prevalence of Māori in these institutions continues to be treated as a tangential issue. Race Relations Commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy, has underlined that between the 1950s and 1970s almost half of all children in state care were Māori. Marginalizing the voices of those affected and attempting to move on without their input or addressing their concerns destines us to repeat the mistakes of our past. Australia and Canada have faced up to their own legacy of ‘stolen generations’ and have incorporated the narrative into their school curricula and history books. It has been brought into the national consciousness and the reality is no longer debated – it is accepted as true. This needs to happen in New Zealand. Unfortunately, unlike Australia or Canada, New Zealand refuses to hold an independent inquiry or to even offer a government apology. Within New Zealand, the concept of a stolen generation is reserved for Australia and their treatment of Aboriginal people.

Susan Devoy understands the importance of addressing the issue and opening an inquiry to understand the effects it has had on our society. Her comments on the issue make this clear: “In 1978, 89 per cent of admissions to Hokio were Māori and Pasifika. In 1985, Māori boys made up 78 per cent of all youngsters held in six Social Welfare homes across Auckland. And for me as Race Relations Commissioner, if I’m to understand why more than half of our prison inmates are Māori then I need to be clear about how they got there in the first place. And like many others, I suspect that this story began many years ago in our state-run institutions. But until we have an inquiry, we will never know for sure.”

Māori have high rates of incarceration, with just over 50% of the male prison population being indigenous regardless of Māori only making up about 15% of the population. Karen Johansen, Indigenous Rights Commissioner, has stated that “Tamariki Māori were more likely to be taken from their families than other children, with some institutions reporting 80 to 100% of all youngsters coming from Māori homes. We know more than 40% of prison inmates spent their childhood in state care.” Within this state care children endured mental, physical, and sexual abuse inflicted by the people designated to care for them.

Peter Read, an Australian who was a leading figure in exposing that generations of Aboriginal children had been separated from their families to assimilate them into white culture, believes there needs to be a deeper understanding of the connection between the colonial past and the stolen generations. In a three-part series by the Spinoff, Read argues that, “In colonizing countries it’s the shame of having indigenous people still around to remind you that the country was invaded. They were a constant reminder and shame that the colonization… was not as complete as it was supposed to have been.”

There has been a recent overhaul of Child, Youth, and Family in New Zealand. There was, and still is, concern that this would create future stolen generations. The Māori Party opposed the new law as it did not go far enough in protecting tamariki Māori. It has removed the priority of placing tamariki Māori with family or wider hapu and now emphasizes placing the child in a safe, loving home. Although many might support this, it does not come without issues. First, and foremost, it insinuates that Maori are not capable of providing safe and loving homes for their children; the options are presented as mutually exclusive – either a safe and loving home, or a Māori home. Marama Davidson, Green Party MP, called the overhaul racist, arguing that “When we uphold that legislation, we are feeding the narrative that Māori do not love our children as much, and that we do not understand how to properly and safely care for our children.” Marama Fox, Māori Party co-leader, argued the high number of Māori children within the CYF’s system (63%), and the equally high number of young people in prison being Māori, (71%), make Māori the mainstream therefore, the system needs set-up in accordance with Māori principles. In the past Māori have been severed from their whanau, hapu, and iwi and therefore lost their connections to their whakapapa, tikanga, and reo dislocating them from their turangawaewae.

The 6th Labour government have promised an inquiry calling the former government’s stance ‘heartless and wrong’ and that they will ‘consider the wrongs that were committed and offer a better healing process.’ They are right – New Zealand is long overdue to acknowledge the mistakes of the past so it can heal and move forward. Bill English, former NZ Prime Minister, argued that looking backwards will not help future state abuse victims. That is a dangerous view since it almost implies that he expects there will always have state abuse victims. It is important to look backward and establish what was done wrong and then maintain a narrative about these mistakes so that we are not destined to repeat them in the future. However, it is more than just recognition, we must also ensure people’s agency is not constrained. Remedies would include raising the self-esteem of members of the currently disrespected groups and bolster everyone’s sense of belonging and affiliation of self.

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