A wave doesn’t stand still and nor will Māori

A personal reflection on the repeal of s7AA and te reo

In this guest post from Kerri Cleaver (Lecturer, Whare Wānanaga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury), Kerri explains her personal response to recent government changes.

Ko wai au? 
Ko Aoraki te mauka 
Ko Takitimu te waka
Ko Aparima te awa
Nō Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha ahau
He uri au o kā hapū o Te Ruahikihiki me Taoka
Ko Kerri Cleaver ahau

As a Kāi Tahu wāhine, hākui (mother), social worker and academic, I stand in my mana and the mana of my tupuna, as a wāhine survivor of the state foster system. The attacks to the foundations of Māori by the new coalition are clear, precise and in violation of UNDRIP and Te Tiriti of Waitangi (Te Tiriti). Our coalition government knows this and cares little for relationships, rights, and responsibilities. The following blog focuses on two targets of the coalition, te reo and repealing 7AA. Both hit my heart as intersecting lived experience of survivor, social worker, wāhine Kāi Tahu, hākui and ever longing speaker of te reo. Both hit our whānau, their aspirations, and the care of mokopuna as our future ancestors as understood in Māori terms.

Te reo.

I didn’t grow up with te reo and I’m still not fluent. I understand why and how te reo was stripped from our whānau, it’s our heart and knowledge and never fitted the colonial agenda. My poua (grandfather) growing up on the southern shores of Te Waipounamu in Colac Bay, attended the native school. For a time, the school resisted the banning of te reo, continuing to teach in te reo, attracting non- Maori students and being the community hub. I don’t know when the school succumbed to the state’s assimilation policies but this likely happened prior to my poua attending as evidenced by his lack of reo. My hākoro (dad) and my aunties and uncles have never spoken Māori and none of my poua’s moko were born into te reo rich whānau. This is the successful state legacy of assimilation that was so effective in Te Waipounamu. This is the thief of identity, stopping the transmission of knowledge and severing our relational connections between us and our environment.

Recently, headphones on listening to waiata anthems, walking towards another unpaid mana whenua manaaki and tino rakatirataka responsibility to support a Pākeha tertiary education recruitment process, I considered the ways te reo supports me. I wouldn’t understand manaaki and tino rakatirataka without te reo and I believe that this would have left me without an anchor in the years I navigated post foster system isolation. These understandings not only support me and my whānau, but it also supports the community I live in, benefiting Māori and Pākeha. We have moved on from early colonial settler days where mātauraka Māori was refused as valid and now most Pākeha and Māori enjoy kapa haka, the Black Fern haka, total immersion and bi-lingual education, holistic wellbeing frameworks grounded in te Ao Māori, connected to culture and identity grown organically and in relationship with this place.

I appreciate and gain strength from hearing te reo across these spaces and from being in the presence of te reo. It connects me to who I am, to my tupuna, to the taiao (environment). It gives me strength. It gives me lessons that I continue to need to heal from the abuse of the foster system and strengthen me to stand in my whānau and community. 

S7AA

The late Moana Jackson to social workers in 1992 talked about three un-enacted Māori rights; the right to define (through te Ao Māori and mātauraka Māori), the right to decide (how decisions are made) and the right to protect (language, culture, children). These rights are tupuna rights reaffirmed in te Tiriti. 

As a starting point s. 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act (1989) shows some recognition of the rights and responsibilities of hapū and iwi to be part of service design and delivery. It requires OT to report on Māori in state care with an emphasis on ensuring a reduction of inequitable numbers, holding the state to account on outcomes. Nowhere in the act is there a sharing of power around defining or decision making, and a minimal concession on Māori right to protect. The key aspirations of Māori to define, decide and protect were asserted in the urgent Claim to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2020 (Wai 2019) and supported in the Tribunal’s recommendations. They remain unmet by the previous government, or the direction outlined by the new coalition.

In 2020 I set up our Kāi Tahu s.396 service, Tiaki Taoka, (now Te Kaika) which delivers the caregiver functions of Oranga Tamariki for mokopuna Kāi Tahu in the state system. Through the design and set up with our community, we heard of the harm felt by our Maatua Whangai kaumatua when they were ‘cancelled’, and of aspirations for a by Kāi Tahu, for Kāi Tahu and of Kāi Tahu service from rakatahi and whānau. Te Kaika’s s.396 service was only made possible by our iwi partnership with the crown under 7AA, though in essence a minimal substandard demonstration of giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi but all we have been given.

Wāhine Māori wear the brunt of the child protection system while mana wāhine remain the leading voices advocating for rights and responsibilities as understood in our pūrākau atua narratives which place us as He whare takata (the house of humanity), knowledge carried across te reo that centres mokopuna rights. Kāi Tahu and Māori are committed to our responsibilities to mokopuna, we know our whānau. Intergenerational lives can be changed if we hold the ground hard fought by our mana wāhine. Māori know what we are doing, we need Pākeha to back us, using your power and trusting our knowledge of whānau care.

I reflect on my own foster system experience, knowing what s.396 and iwi partnerships under 7AA can bring and what can be different in this new Kāi Tahu led delivery. I spent my entire teenage life in state care, bounced around Pākeha foster homes, none with whānau (17 biological aunties and uncles to choose from) and with no communication with any whānau, other than my older sister, already in the state system. I can hand on heart say if I was a rakatahi going through the foster system now, Te Kaika would have found all my whānau, supported my relationships with whānau and the years of isolation and long journey of reconnection would not have been needed. 

I consider foster system experienced friends I have found over my life ranging in ages from 18-70 and see the struggles and difficulties that we all have faced with the multiple tasks of surviving in society, parenting, and healing. The challenges faced for the next generations would all be mitigated by 7AA remaining as a placeholder for future full devolution to Māori. The government wanting to repeal 7AA is articulating a position that Māori don’t have the right to design and deliver in the existing system, suggesting that the government should not be required to report and account for Māori children. It rips the rug away when the rug has only just been laid. 

Collective Action.

It’s important to stay in your lane and if you accidentally swerve into another and someone beeps at you, don’t worry we are all learning. Keep moving. 

To help, here is a list. 

1. Understand your lane. Reflect on who you are, your knowledge and experiences. Privileges you carry that mean you are not best placed to speak on behalf of others, or consider how you use that in spaces Māori are not present in.
2. Let Māori who have dedicated their lives to our communities or who have lived experience have the limelight and space to be heard. You may need to step back for others to be seen and heard.
3. Check parliament legislation timeframes and submission deadlines. 
4. Hit the pavement. We are full circle and need to be visible in numbers. Look out for activation and protest strategies by Te Pāti Māori, iwi leaders and other groups and join in. 
5. Being takata Te Tiriti isn’t about being silent now it is about allyship in real turn up ways. Be at protests. Put in submissions. Challenge in your organisations. 
6. If you are in a non-Māori NGO and given the coalition’s anti-Māori stance, you will no doubt have opportunities for contracts that belong with Māori. It’s key to collect in solidarity, and to reflect on what work should sit with Māori because it sits in our rights to define, decide, and protect. Be willing to say no.

In solidarity together in Aotearoa.

Kerri Cleaver