Change urged for Family Group Conference process
Researchers in New Zealand who are also former wards of the state have stressed the key changes needed to ensure any Maori-run alternative to Oranga Tamariki doesn't just turn a "white bureaucracy to a brown bureaucracy".
One of the recommendations is an overhaul of the Family Group Conference process, proposed by Paora Moyle, a former ward of the state, and a social worker for more than 30 years, who has also completed a Masters in Family Group Conferences from the perspective of participants.
Moyle said the conferences do not assess the whanau according to their worldview and strengths.
"It's not an indigenous process or 'Maorified', it's not a whanau-a-hui, a hui-a-whanau - you can't put a Maori name to a process that bastardises our people and calls it okay."