Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa works everyday amongst our whanau caring for the hurting, the marginalised and the lost often in the most vulnerable communities in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

We believe that whanau, hapu and iwi are a gift from God and that our tamariki are best nurtured within this gift.

The 1989 Children, Young Persons and their Families act was not perfect but it was visionary in that it supported the rights of children to their own identity, which has proven to be crucial in their development and wellbeing.

While we support the overall aspirations of the new Oranga Tamariki arrangements to protect children more effectively, we have grave concerns as to its implications for our tamariki Maori.

We object strongly to the new Oranga Tamariki provisions that will place tamariki outside of their whakapapa.

We believe that there will be serious consequences from this policy in terms of a lost generation that we will all be having to deal with for decades to come.

We support Dame Tariana Turia in her calling this ‘institutional racism’ in that it entrenches injustice and takes us backwards as a nation and as a people.

We commit ourselves to continuing our work in supporting whanau and their loving nurture of tamariki because we know “na te taonga pumau na Ihowa nga tamariki”. Psalm 127:3