Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry and Ihi Research presented the Royal Commission with this independent research report about Māori in State care.

The research was undertaken by Ihi Research and was co-researched and written with Māori survivors. It pulls together, for the first time, data from several locations and agencies about Māori who were in State care between 1950 and 1999 and includes the voices of staff in the care and protection system during this time. It was undertaken using a Māori centred approach.

Hāhā-uri, Hāhā-tea helps us to understand how government policy directly led to Māori being over-represented in State care. It will sit alongside the lived experiences we are hearing from hundreds of Māori survivors, their whānau and experts through hui, wānanga and in private settings.

Faith-based experiences were not considered in the research, except where State power was used to place Māori children in faith-based institutions.

Key findings

• Structural and systemic racism across several government organisations created the historical and current overrepresentation of Māori people in care
• Government policies, over successive Governments, dismantled Māori communities and undermined whānau, hapū and iwi structures
• Māori in care were subjected to racist and inequitable treatment including being prevented from seeing their whānau
• The voices of tamariki Māori and their whānau were not heard in decisions about their care by the State
• Māori were, and continue to be, over-represented by up to ten times in the State care system
• It shows the impacts on Māori of the Crown’s lack of response to Puao-te-ata-tu
• The report strongly suggests that future solutions must involve the Crown working in partnership with survivors, Iwi and Māori, across State agencies.