Hands Off Our Tamariki rally: July 31, 2019

Hands off our Tamariki, the organisation who have been calling for a halt to the removal of Māori children from their whānau, held a rally at Parliament yesterday afternoon. This was to present their letter to MPs with their demands, some of which are:

-to affirm tino rangatiratanga and the right of Māori to make decisions and control the wellbeing of tamariki and mokopuna

-that the current system overseen by the Ministry of Children be overhauled restructured in line with Kaupapa Māori and strengths based approaches that ensure tamariki remain connected to their whānau.

The rally was opened by Dame Tariana Turia and other speakers included Paora Moyle an advocate for those who have been in state care, law lecturer Khylee Quince, kaumātua Des Ratima who was present at the attempted uplift of the baby in Hawkes Bay filmed by Newsroom, and midwife Jean Te Huia who was also present at that uplift. Laura O’Connell Rapira of Action Station was one of the organisers of the rally and spoke to reporter William Boyd immediately after the event. Will started by asking how the rally went.

Photo credit: Twitter