Karere Pāpāho / Media Release
Tuesday 12th November 2019

Te Rūnanga ā Iwi o Ngāpuhi CEO, Lorraine Toki, is not surprised by the findings following the release of the review into Oranga Tamariki.

“Ngāpuhi has a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Oranga Tamariki, and we have been in negotiations around early intervention and prevention for some months now. However, it seems that the solutions and recommendations that we have provided under the newly introduced 7aa Act, do not fit into the Wellington box of Iwi led innovative practice.”

Ms Toki goes on to say, “Iwi are ready and wanting to work collaboratively with Oranga Tamariki Regional offices, based on our knowledge of our whānau, to develop prevention and intervention models that work on the ground for our people. We also need these services run by Iwi and to be fully resourced equivalent to internal Oranga Tamariki models, if we are to truly make change.

Ngāpuhi have double the amount of tamariki mokopuna in care than any other Iwi, and we will need to work together in a real & tangible way if are to collectively make the changes for whānau and mokopuna, as proposed within the report. Preserving the whakapapa of our mokopuna is our future, not continued talk fests and reviews that confirm what we know and tell us nothing new.”

End

© Scoop Media