Can Pākehā caregivers provide adequate cultural support for Māori children in care?

Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Associate professor Khylee Quince says ideally Māori children would be placed with whānau members. (File photo)

Can non-Māori caregivers raise a Māori child in a culturally appropriate way?

It’s a question that has come to the fore, again, in light of the high profile ‘‘Moana’’ case, in which Oranga Tamariki attempted to remove a 6-year-old Māori girl from the Pākehā couple that has cared for her for three years, because the agency felt they could not provide her cultural needs.

Family Court Judge Peter Callinicos last week dismissed Oranga Tamariki’s application in a 145-page ruling. He said the ideal goal was to have children of a specific cultural group with caregivers from the same family or cultural group but “sadly that may sometimes not be achievable”, and such a belief-driven approach distracted from the mandatory consideration of what was holistically best for the child.

Ngāti Kahungunu leader Ngahiwi Tomoana, who had supported Oranga Tamariki's application, disagreed and said “the days that judges can tell us we’re not good enough any more are over”.

Judge Peter Callinicos issued the ‘’Moana’’ decision last week. (File photo)

* Judge dismisses Oranga Tamariki's bid to remove Māori girl from Pākehā couple

* Oranga Tamariki immediately suspends 'reverse uplifts'

Justice advocate Julia Whaipooti says it shouldn’t be necessary to go outside cultural and whakapapa connections to find healthy and strong relationships

Associate professor of law at AUT law school Khylee Quince said ideally Māori children placed in care would be raised by whānau or within their iwi. But when that wasn’t possible non-Māori caregivers would be suitable so long as they understood the importance of providing for the child’s culture.

Quince said even with “all the will in the world” a non-Māori couple would not have the networks, knowledge and resources required to provide the cultural needs for a child and would need assistance –something the foster parents of Moana were not provided by Oranga Tamariki.

Assistant Māori Commissioner for Children Glenis Philip-Barbara. “For a Māori person so much of our identity is wrapped up in belonging to a whānau.”(File photo)

But more importantly, said Quince, and where Oranga Tamariki also failed in Moana’s case, the agency must try harder to find whānau placements for children in care.

“The more general issue is what does Oranga Tamariki do to explore kin placements. I’m Ngāpuhi and Ngahiwi is Kahungunu, both tribes of more than 100,000 people. Now all of those people are kin … How can there not be kin placements when there are so many of us? It's the infrastructure to find and explore kin placements that is the issue. And that’s the role of the Crown, via Oranga Tamariki,” she said.

Quince said anyone putting their hand up to be a caregiver had to be “both willing and able to provide for the cultural needs of this child. You have to put some work in. I don’t know that that’s been made clear. Then there needs to be the support from Oranga Tamariki”.

A child's need for cultural support should be seen as great as their need for health and safety, she said.

The former deputy head of Oranga Tamariki, Hoani Lambert believes the call for no children requiring being uplifted should be supported. (Video first published in October 2020)

Lawyer and justice advocate Julia Whaipooti said non-Māori caregivers could “potentially” ensure a child was given cultural support, “but that's not really the point when we’re talking about systemic racism and injustices in a system such as Oranga Tamariki”.

“For mokopuna Māori we come from whānau, we come from hapū, we come from iwi, we have thousands of connections, and the fact a system cannot connect our kids to whānau within their whakapapa is inherently the problem. It shouldn’t be necessary to go outside of our cultural and whakapapa connections to find healthy and strong relationships,” she said.

Non-Māori caregivers could provide support in a material way, but that was not enough.

“Connection to identity and culture is so important. It’s such a vital thing, and we want our kids to be raised with that,” she said.

It should never get to the point where a Māori child is placed with non-Māori caregivers, she said.

Assistant Māori Commissioner for Children Glenis Philip-Barbara said she could not comment on the ‘’Moana’’ case in particular, but said the Commission’s Te Kuku o te Manawa report released last year found that pepe Māori “deserve to be both safe and with their whānau. It’s not one or the other”.

“For a Māori person so much of our identity is wrapped up in belonging to a whānau … It’s not just about being connected to people. It’s actually part of your identity,” Philip-Barbara said.

She said situations such as Moana’s were “just a symptom of a system that doesn’t work for Māori”.

“It’s why we’ve called for a total transformation and ‘by Māori, for Māori approaches. We know from the evidence over many years that separating whakapapa connection creates trauma and loss of identity for Māori children,” she said.

Philip-Barbara said non-Māori caregivers dedicated to ensuring a Māori child was connected to their culture could go “a long way” to providing adequate cultural support, but “would need to understand that their connection to their whakapapa holds all of that child’s history, culture and identity and all of these things are essential to their wellbeing”.

“For that child as they grow to adulthood, to truly understand who they are as a Māori person, they need those relationships to the people that their whakapapa connection takes them toward,” she said.

“It’s not just understanding te reo, or tikanga at a rudimentary level,” Philip-Barbara said.