E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, tena tātou katoa

Hāhā-uri, hāhā-tea – Māori Involvement in State Care 1950-1999

The Royal Commission has received new research that shows racism across government organisations was responsible for the over-representation of Māori in State care.

The independent research report, titled Hāhā-uri, hāhā-tea, was undertaken by Ihi Research and co-researched with survivors. The report shows how colonisation, institutional racism, and assimilationist policies led directly to the over-representation of Māori in State care.

The Commission is honoured to use this taonga for our inquiry and its findings are critical to our mahi. We will assess and consider these research findings as part of our inquiry. Key findings of the report, and the report itself, can be downloaded from our website, here. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Commission's website is being updated

From Wednesday, 1 December our website will look different when you visit. We made these improvements because of feedback from survivors that the website needed to be more survivor-focused and less corporate, be more friendly and approachable, show more of the progress being made by the Commission, and be easier to navigate.

New look Royal Commission website home page

During public hearings there will a link from the home page to the hearing livestream.  When hearings are not on, you can find witness evidence from hearings, by going to the Investigation tab and selecting an investigation (such as Redress). The links to the public hearings where you can find witness evidence will be on that page. You can still search through the Library for individual witness testimony too.

State and faith-based Redress investigation page with links to public hearings on the right.

To show the Commission's progress we will be sharing on the website the total number of all written accounts, group sessions, private sessions and witness statements received, the number public hearing days and the number of documents reviewed. These numbers will be updated every three months.

Under the Our Progress tab you will find reports, a timeline of milestones achieved tells the story of the mahi of the Commission from 2018 till the present, also the news and the library.

Our progress numbers are updated every three months.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Public hearings in early 2022

 Abuse in the care of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God brothers (Marylands School) public hearing

9-16 February 2022

Marylands was a residential school for boys, many with disabilities, from the 1950s to 1984. The inquiry is also looking into any abuse by the Hospitaller Order of St John of God brothers at a neighbouring orphanage that was run by another order, and at Hebron Trust, a Christchurch facility for at-risk youth operated by one of the brothers of the St John of God order.

Read more

Māori investigation public hearing

7-18 March 2022

Kia hiwa rā, kia hiwa rā! E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā hau e whā, aro mai ki te karere nei!

Māori survivors of abuse in State and faith-based care will share what happened to them and what needs to change. The hearing will be tikanga Māori-based and held at Ōrākei Marae, Tāmaki Makaurau.

Read more

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pacific youth have their say

We recently held a fono with Pacific young people to find out what they think care in the future should be like, and how systemic failures from the past continue to persist. We need to hear from the community to shape the recommendations in our final reports. The online fono began with a welcome from Commissioner Ali'imuamua Sandra Alofivae to more than 60 people who joined the Zoom on a busy weekday evening, so a huge thankyou to everyone who gave their time and participated in a rich discussion on a challenging subject matter.

The talanoa covered topics of how we can make a safe environment for reporting abuse, how ethnicity is recorded, how would you create a safe care space if you could imagine what that would look like, and what does redress look like now and what could it look like in the future.  The fono was facilitated by Dr Sam Manuela, Sia Petelo, Litia Tuiburelevu and Reina Vaai.

Notices about upcoming fono will be posted on our website and Facebook page, and If you would like to talk to someone from the Pacific investigation team you can email Reina.vaai@abuseincare.org.nz or call our Contact Centre.