MISNAMED MINISTRY

Last week’s painful exposé by Newsroom showing in real time an ‘uplift’ by Ministry of Children [M.o.C.] social workers of a newborn baby from his 19 year old mother at Hawkes Bay hospital, provoked strong and polarised public reaction. 

On the one hand – the very much larger hand at that – there was condemnation of the Ministry from inside out and top to bottom; on the other hand, there was condemnation of Iwi Māori, Māori parents, Māori mothers and even Māori midwives and kaumātua, as well as Newsroom itself.  However, awful as the video story was to watch, it was the state’s reaction that was most repellent. 

Reminiscent of the fictional Ministry of Magic [M.o.M.] refusing to believe and trying to shut up Harry Potter and anyone else who proclaimed the horrifying truth that Voldemort was back, the M.o.C. CEO defended her staff, the Minister defended her CEO, the Prime Minister looked sad, and the Ministry attempted to sue Newsroom into changing the story. 

For Māori, this latest exposé and its fallout are very déjà vu.  Since the first modest system of public welfare was established by the state in 1860, we have been subject to innumerable cycles of bad outcomes, reviews, inquiries, restructures, changed policies and revised practices.  But the outcomes for our most vulnerable remain stubbornly bad.

Tim Garlick’s 2012 book, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS: An organisational history of the Ministry of Social Development and its predecessors, 1860–2011, provides a decent overview of those cycles and identifies their root cause; i.e. the deeply ingrained and deliberately sustained systemic racism of the state which keeps Māori from controlling and implementing our own Kaupapa Māori systems. 

Is there any answer or cure for that?  Māori have always had the answers and cures for ourselves.  

Kaupapa Māori like Maatua Whangai, Kohanga Reo, Te Roopu Wāhine Māori Toko i Te Ora, Kura Kaupapa Māori, Ataarangi, etc – all work really well under our tikanga.  Yet, as soon as government adopts them, we run into problems.  Someone should do in-depth research on why that is.  I already know it’s not because we or our tikanga and kaupapa are inferior – far from it. 

There is very little trust (if any) in the state’s M.o.C.  Sadly, some of that distrust has trickled down onto the NGOs, including  Iwi Social Services.  But the fact is that those NGOs are forced to chase the state’s social service contractual crumbs and are expected to do more for far less. 

There are some brilliant individuals working for the state and M.o.C.  But they can’t effect the necessary change which is for government to cede control of the Māori tax take to our own governing body(ies), get on with curing its own racism,  and get out of our way. 

As the Kahungunu Kaumātua Des Ratima said last week, “these are OUR whānau OUR problems OUR solutions OUR way."  He also said it was time for the M.o.C. to quit using OUR words to misname itself.  E tautoko ana mātou – we agree.