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Fourteen armed police were used by Oranga Tamariki to uplift a five-month-old Maori baby from a mother, a new report has revealed.
Police and Oranga Tamariki staff converged on the home of the solo mum to execute an uplift order approved by the Family Court without the whanau receiving any prior notification.
That was one of the harrowing and disturbing cases uncovered by a comprehensive six-month Maori-led nation-wide review of Oranga Tamariki.
The mother thought that she was heading to a Family Group Conference (FCG) at Oranga Tamariki. But instead she was met at her door by heavily armed cops and Police dogs.
She continues to be supported by her whanau and remains traumatised today by the uplift ambush.
Her story is among the hundreds contained in the just released 200 page report to be found online https://whanauora.nz/maori-inquiry/ that emerged from engaging with 1000 whanau-Maori and non-Maori, who shared their harrowing and inhumane dealings with the government agency.
Racial Profiling accused
The Inquiry has shone light on state agency collusion, abuse of power and racial profiling.
Dame Naida Glavish, who chaired the governance group overseeing the Maori review, said this report confirms systemic failure, discrimination and inexplicable breaches of human rights towards Maori.
“We can clearly see from the volume of evidence and the heavy-handed approach inflicted on this whanau, that something is so systemically wrong. This entrenched behaviour is plain unjust,” Dame Naida said.
Dame Naida also paid tribute to the courageous whanau who fronted up to tell their stories and why it was important for Maori to lead its own review of Oranga Tamariki.
Tribute to whanau
“We are deeply grateful to whanau who had the courage to stand up and speak their truth. It was also important that Maori led the review and we as Maori look to our whanau for solutions. This will not be a report that goes on the shelves with the hundreds of others. The findings back our call for a complete overhaul of Oranga Tamariki, the Family Court ex-parte order process and the law that facilitates uplifts,” she said.
Last month, Children’s Commissioner review of Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection practices confirmed uplifts of Maori babies into state care is happening earlier and is greater for Maori than non-Maori.
