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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