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Trauma-Responsive New Zealand

The SYSTEM will not include us

 

Tēnā Koutou katoa

Greetings to many

I have not posted for a long time.

I have been busy spending time with our survivors of abuse in State Care and rebuilding my relationship with Oranga Tamariki

In short, working to heal the harm.

Over the past 3 days, I attended the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in State Care hearings to listen to the

Institutional responses of State agencies to abuse in care

I made daily posts to my LinkedIn network

I am going to share those posts here with you to raise awareness

Sadly, it became clear that all the State agencies are very good at apologising and acknowledging the disturbing and distressing harm inflicted on children and youth from 1950 to 1999.

Apologies are easy to give

An authentic apology

More than words on paper

More than words from our mouths

An authentic apology

Is changed behaviour

That changed behaviour comes from what we think and what we believe

Our actions

Our inactions

Come from the thinking of individuals

On a systemic level

That thinking comes from the TOP

From leadership

ALL the State agencies fail in working towards healing the harm because they ALL do not include us in a meaningful way moving forward.

I will let you make your own conclusions by sharing my reflections in subsequent posts.

In closing, I want to share what many of the survivors shared with me as I sat with them over the past three days

The SYSTEM learns from the pain they inflicted on us

They make changes without us

They do not include us in those changes

They continue to inflict harm after 1999

They continue to inflict harm today

By not interacting with us now

By not including us now

They do not sit with us

They do not talk with us

Many did not turn up to the hearings when we shared our testimony

our journey

They do not work to heal the harm that they have inflicted on us

They do not acknowledge the contribution we have made by

excluding us nowas they did in the past

And so the power imbalance continues

Perpetuating the abuse of children, youth and adults by the State

The behaviour has not changed

Therefore the apology is not authentic

Link to NZ Abuse in State Care website



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