By An Aspiring Social Worker
It is an interesting time to be on placement at Oranga Tamariki (although, one could argue, when it is not?). It was with a wary sense of foreboding and an almost legendary awe that I entered the Oranga Tamariki offices for the first time. To be a student at Oranga Tamariki feels like I’m wandering around with my eyelids taped to my eyebrows and my mouth ajar. With the constant criticisms from the media regarding the release of the number of children abused in state care and the increasing number of Māori children being uplifted from their whānau versus the strenuous and sometimes frantic work that the social workers do on the ground, I am surprised that workers even turn up to do their mahi every day after how much is said about them.
Despite its many publicised flaws, my impression of Oranga Tamariki was that it was the ‘ultimate’ social work agency. It is the standard by which all social work agencies should operate, as our state representatives of standards of care for our tamariki and rangitahi. However, after just fifteen days spent at Oranga Tamariki, I am starting to get a glimpse into the complexity these social workers are expected to operate under. They are the fence before the cliff; they are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff; they are both colonisation and decolonisation embodied; they are working for the Crown yet their work is made up by the damage done by the Crown; they are both tika and pono; they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. The recent media coverage over the uplift of a Māori baby from their mother in Hawkes Bay hospital lingers in my mind and feels a bit too close to home in terms of the clients I work with, and the weight that social workers decisions have on whānau.
I wonder about the upcoming law changes to the Act, and what real impact they will have on reducing the amount of Māori tamariki coming into care; there is a lot being said both in-house as well as in the media about what affect this will have. A kaupapa Māori approach to the Family Court will be important (if done properly) for disrupting ‘the systemic undermining of Māori and their whānau.” Institutional restructure to adopt kaupapa Māori should not be a new idea. Just in April the Chief Executive Grainne Moss signed an agreement with Waikato-Tainui , a partnership aiming to keep Māori out of state care. Waikato-Tainui acknowledged the development of their own programme Mokopuna Ora, it’s success, and the need for Māori to be able to work with their own to ensure their tamariki are held within their whānau, whakapapa, and iwi.
This is an important step towards seeing real change for Māori communities. With the recent well-being budget announcement, I can’t help but wonder what it would look like if we resourced our NGO’s even half as well as we did Oranga Tamariki. To address the issue of the over-representation of Māori tamariki in state care (not to mention poverty, crime, intergenerational trauma…) surely, empowering (i.e. funding) Māori organisations and iwi should be our first port of call? Continuing to only adequately resource Oranga Tamariki the Crown ignores the importance of Māori and iwi deciding what is best for their tamariki, not to mention the long history of institutional racism and the perpetuation of intergenerational poverty the Crown is responsible for. We need to acknowledge and legitimise the important role that NGO’s play in our communities; we need to enable them to thrive alongside their whānau and iwi’s.
Of the staff I have met at Oranga Tamariki, I am consistently blown away by their passion for Māori, for bicultural practice and for the best possible outcomes for the tamariki and whānau they work with. But their jobs are hard; they are complex; they bear the burden of working in an imperfect system and expected to produce perfect results. I don’t know what can be done for Oranga Tamariki. It is a Crown organisation that has been responsible for the stigma and colonisation of Māori. It will always bear that cross. But what we can do, and what we must do, is to resource and hold up our NGO’s to be able to continue doing their mahi for their people. Because that, is prevention.
On Monday I return to placement and we will meet, as we do every morning, to say karakia and sing waiata as a team. After this I will return to my desk and plunge back into the work that all too often is overwhelmingly complex. I cannot not do this work, and neither, it seems, can my colleagues. But it is hard work, and there are no easy answers.
References
Doyle, K. & Robson, S. (2018). ‘’Deeply disturbing’: more than 200 children abused in state care in last 6 months, reports show’. RNZ. Retrieved from: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/384748/deeply-disturbing-more-than-200-children-abused-in-state-care-in-6-months-reports-show
Dreaver, C. (2019, May 10). ‘Oranga Tamariki accused of bullying, racism over removal of baby.’ RNZ. Retrieved form: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/388886/oranga-tamariki-accused-of-bullying-racism-over-removal-of-baby
Morning Report. (2019, April 4). ‘Young Māori over-represented in state care and detention’. RNZ. Retrieved from: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/386318/young-Māori-over-represented-in-state-care-and-detention
Waikato-Tainui. (2019). ‘Waikato-Tainui sign agreement with Oranga Tamariki.’ Waitkato-Tainui. Retrieved from: https://www.waikatotainui.com/te-hookioi/waikato-tainui-sign-agreement-with-oranga-tamariki/
Williams, T., Ruru,
J., Irwin-Easthope, H., Quince, K. & Gifford, H. (2019). ‘Care and
protection of tamariki Māori in the family court system.’ Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga: Te Arotahi (1), 1-21. Retrieved from: http://www.maramatanga.co.nz/sites/default/files/teArotahi_19-0501%20Ruru.pdf
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