Abused and suffering in the care of Oranga Tamariki: Karisma Emery's story

Monday, 19 August 2019

 At the stroke of midnight she was taken.

Karisma Emery was five years old and asleep with her two little sisters when police and Child, Youth and Family (now Oranga Tamariki - Ministry for Children), burst through the door of her mother's Waikato home.

'That's when everything changed,' she said.

'That's when everything turned to s…'

Emery shared her story at a Whānau Ora-led inquiry into children in state care, in Hamilton on Monday.

**READ MORE: 

* Māori leaders launch inquiry into tamariki being taken from their whānau

* Māori inquiry into Oranga Tamariki: 'We have a right to stand up for our babies'

* The Detail: Māori plant flag over uplifted children

* State care of children has 'failed', says Minister

* Findings of internal inquiry into Oranga Tamariki child 'uplift' won't be public**

The meeting was to formalise the terms of reference for the inquiry.

There are four inquiries into Oranga Tamariki and their handling of child uplift cases.

The probes come after a Newsroom investigation revealed the lengths Oranga Tamariki would go to during an attempt to uplift a newborn at Hawke's Bay Hospital earlier this year.

At the meeting, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, chairperson of the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, which organised the meetings, said Māori families expected their leaders to do something about it.

'A thousand people in these two hui have said they will give support, they will have a say, and their expectation is that there will be some good outcomes from our mahi (work).'

People in rural areas won't be forgotten, she said, as the inquiry will go 'where the people are, the ones who can't get to us but who are so important'.

Emery knows all too well the life of a child in state care: she's proof.

It's been 12 years since she first came into contact with the child welfare agency and police - and she remains in state care. Her residence for the past 18 months has been a motel room.

Emery understands now that she was taken because her mother was an abusive drug addict and an alcoholic.

Speaking outside the meeting Emery said her life has been left in tatters since the day she was 'kidnapped' by the state.

She recalled waking up the morning after her uplift in a home of a complete stranger.

'My first placement was with some random lady we didn't know,' Emery said.

'The second was with my aunty, it didn't last long because she was giving us hidings.'

The only comfort for Emery was that she still had her two baby sisters with her aged four and two at the time.

The familiarity was the only comfort she could cling to. But that was ripped away from her in their third uplift.

One of her sisters was sent to live with her father.

'My sister was four when she was sent to live with her dad,' Emery said.

'It wasn't long before he beat her to the point she was hospitalised. The last time I've seen her was about eight years ago. I've only seen her four or five times since I was five.'

Emery and her baby sister were shuffled through more placements before returning to their mother, who was pregnant.

'We were given back to her not long before she was due, but that was only so when CYFs came to pick us up they could take the baby too.'

The three children were then placed into another home for a year before they returned into the system, where they have stayed ever since.

The children have been separated. Emery says one placement, which lasted two years, was a living hell.

'I spent two years in a placement where I was abused every day,' she said.

'The system is f…..'

In another, she said she was put through a glass window in Rotorua and ended up in hospital.

And abuse in state care is of no surprise to Government officials.

An Oranga Tamariki report released in July found that over a three-month period more than 100 children in state care, some were still living with their parents, were harmed sexually, physically or emotionally.

The report detailed 16 cases of neglect, 19 of sexual harm, 54 children that suffered 'non-accidental' physical injury and 33 children that suffered emotional harm.

Several children suffered more than one type of harm, with 154 cases documented overall.

Emery is still a ward of the state. The trauma of her short life is evident.

Today, 12 years on, Emery is in and out of the Youth Justice system and is currently on probation.

Emery says suicides have played a big part in her life, she has lost many friends and family that way.

She said she has made multiple attempts on her life since she was 10.

'I used to cry myself to sleep for years,' Emery said.

'My social worker said I was going on respite for the weekend and left me there for six months. I had two placements both only last a week or so before I was put back into residence.'

No placement has stuck for the girl that just wants a family.

Emery hopes that by telling her story it will help children, still stuck in the system, to seek those people who will love them.

'They need to find someone who will advocate for them,' Emery said.

'And actually want what's best for them. I know heaps of kids in the system who self-harm, heaps of my bros do that.

'I think my life and my relationship with my mum would be better if I wasn't taken,' she said. 

'I think that instead of going against the family [Oranga Tamariki] should be helping the family to better themselves so that they are able to keep their kids.

'My mum is in a much better space now. If she had had that support when we were uplifted we could have moved back home to her and been a family.'

The terms of reference for the inquiry will be presented at Tūrangawaewae Marae on Tuesday and is expected to produce a final report in February 2020.