Not one more mokopuna should be lost to any system that cycles abuse – Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi
Opinion by
Northern Advocate
3 mins to read
Whakapapa binds the name Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi across Te Tai Tokerau, Waikato and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Today, she stands firmly as the elected MP for Te Tai Tokerau. Her career has traversed many paths, each grounded in service to communities with a focus on iwi Māori, hapū, whānau, māmā, and wāhine. For Kapa-Kīngi, every decision is guided by mokopuna. Her work is driven by the understanding that actions taken now must ensure future generations will inherit a better situation than the one experienced today.
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It is insanity to take the same approach and expect different results, writes MP Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi. Photo / 123RF
It is insanity to take the same approach and expect different results, writes MP Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi. Photo / 123RF
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.
What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Twenty-four mokopuna have been killed by their carers between December 2021 and June 2025 .
Asthe Independent Children’s Monitor’s chief executive, Arran Jones, put it, that is an entire classroom of tamariki who are no longer with us.
It is a deeply disturbing reality for us to confront. Even more disturbing is that new findings confirm our mokopuna in care are no safer today than they were four years ago.
Sustained state domination over our mokopuna has defined the way Aotearoa approaches care and protection of mokopuna Māori.
Decisions are made far outside of our communities, and the results of this speak for themselves. The Government deserves to have its rights of care of our babies revoked. Its agents are simply not fit to raise our mokopuna.
Child poverty remains a major contributor towards the current state of childcare in New Zealand.
I am acutely aware that 54% of all tamariki in care are there because of violence. Poverty at this scale establishes the ideal conditions for violence to take hold of everyday households across the country.
The recent release from Stats NZ on this should alarm us all, especially when it revealed 9500 mokopuna are living in poverty and extreme hardship in Te Tai Tokerau.
When the facts of such hardship in our rohe alone fail to trigger change from the Government, it must be understood as a policy choice.
The continued cycling of our mokopuna through unstable homes, state care and eventually prison cells requires communities to rise and force change.
In the momentum of this cycle, our mokopuna continue to endure abuse. The Independent Children’s Monitor has reported that in the past year alone, 530 tamariki were abused in state care. This is an increase from the year before.
Mariameno Kapa-Kīngi says NZ's child abuse is a deeply disturbing reality to confront.
Against the backdrop of the Royal Commission’s findings on Abuse in State and Faith-based Care, it is shameful that this pattern remains in effect.
The commission’s recommendations demanded the transformation of the system. Yet we continue to see recycled policies that waste taxpayer money.
The Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, stated that turning around generations of failure will not happen overnight. On that point, we agree.
Yet it is insanity to take the same approach and expect different results.
Mokopuna in care have not progressed any further. In fact, it is likely more difficult for them now than ever. Using punitive ideas from a bygone era, including boot camps, to uplift our mokopuna will only ever achieve the opposite. You cannot punish a child out of the harm they have endured.
The expertise of iwi, hapū and kaupapa Māori organisations must be elevated. The answers to these ongoing problems rest in our people alone.
Central Government must release its control on our local communities and resource those who know our mokopuna best. Provide the funding and humbly step aside.
That is why I brought forth the member’s bill Not One More Mokopuna.
This bill empowers iwi, hapū, and kaupapa Māori organisations to deliver local, whakapapa-based support that prevents harm before it happens.
The devolution of Oranga Tamariki would afford communities the power to decide how their mokopuna are supported into brighter futures. Futures where whakapapa, tikanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi can produce strong mokopuna.
Not one more mokopuna should be lost to any system that cycles abuse, and not one more classroom of tamariki should vanish within the span of five years.
