'Allow Māori to reclaim their space' — Waitangi Tribunal finds Treaty breaches in state care of Māori children

The inquiry is one of five launched into Oranga Tamariki over the removal of Māori babies by the state.

The Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi in the state care of Māori children, a report from the Waitangi Tribunal has found. 

The Oranga Tamariki Urgent Inquiry Report found breaches of the principles of partnership, active protection and options.

"Combined, these breaches operate to cause significant prejudice," the report stated.

"It also reflects the Crown’s failure to honour the guarantee to Māori of the right of cultural continuity embodied in the guarantee of tinorangatiratanga [sovereignty] over their kāinga [home].

"As such, the report finds that disparities are a direct consequence of the Crown’s intrusion into the rangatira of Māori over their kāinga."  

The report said the Crown acknowledges the "significant disparity" between the number of tamariki Māori and non-Māori children being taken into care. 

"They accepted that the broader forces of colonisation and structural racism, alongside the ongoing effect of historical injustices on whānau, hapū and iwi, contributed to this disparity."

Judge Michael Doogan wrote in the report that despite Crown acknowledgements, there is still "a significant difference between the position of the Crown and the claimants on whether the policy and practice changes introduced since 2017 will change the disparity for the better". 

He wrote that disparity had arisen "and persists in part due to the effects of alienation and dispossession, but also because of a failure by the Crown to honour the guarantee to Māori of the right of cultural continuity embodied in the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga over their kāinga".

"It is more than just a failure to honour or uphold, it is also a breach born of hostility to the promise itself."

It said Crown policy had been dominated "by efforts to assimilate Māori to the pākehā way".

That’s a finding from the Waitangi Tribunal which calls for a “by Māori for Māori” approach.

"This is perhaps the most fundamental and pervasive breach of te Tiriti/the Treaty and its principles." 

"In addition, we have found a range of breaches of the principles of partnership, active protection, and options, all of which individually and in combination operate to cause significant prejudice."

Judge Doogan said the primary recommendation is for the Crown to take a step back "from further intrusion into what was reserved to Māori under te Tiriti and allow Māori to reclaim their space".

The Waitangi Tribunal did not support the abolition of Oranga Tamariki.

"We register a caution about the risk of replacing one bureaucracy with another. While we accept that a significant transformation is required, we do not see it as simply a case of calculating and transferring to a new Māori organisation proportionate responsibility and resource from Oranga Tamariki."

It recommended an independent Māori Transition Authority to identify changes needed in state care for Māori children.  

"For at least the foreseeable future we see a role for an Oranga Tamariki statutory social worker, backed by the state’s coercive powers in cases where a Māori organisation (be it whānau, hapū, or a Māori provider) meets resistance to an intervention considered necessary for the safety of a child or children," Judge Doogan wrote. 

The inquiry into Oranga Tamariki's removal of Māori children was the fifth investigation spurred by the 2019 publication by Newsroom of footage of a Hastings uplift of a baby. 

Moss faced months of fierce criticism and her departure has reignited calls for the ministry to be Māori led.

It also comes just over two months since the resignation of Oranga Tamariki's former chief executive Grainne Moss. Moss faced pressure to step down last year over Oranga Tamariki's treatment of Māori. 

Moss appeared before the Waitangi Tribunal in November last year. She said at the time the Crown "should have identified the need to tackle structural racism head-on in the establishment of Oranga Tamariki" and the agency had failed to implement the recommendations of the racism report Puao-te-Ata-tu from 1988.

Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft wants to see a transfer of power from government to iwi.

Also last year, a report by Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft showed that in 2019 Māori babies were  five times more likely  to be placed in state custody than non-Māori. Moss said Oranga Tamariki had halved the number of Māori baby uplifts since 2017. 

SHARE ME