Hui told more Maori funding say needed

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 6

Hui told more Maori funding say needed

More Maori say was needed over the distribution of funds for the maatua whangai foster care programme, representatives of the South Island tribes were told at a hui at the Rehua marae last evening. The director of community services for the Maori Affairs Department, Mrs Iri Tawhiwhirangi, said Government departments had become too involved in the scheme. Workers had become bogged down in the law courts, instead of strengthening Maoridom in their communities. “They are in the courts and have turned into servants of the system,” she said. “Maatua whangai as it was designed cannot be implemented on that basis.” A priority of the

scheme needed to be the strengthening of the whanau tribal systems to help those young people who were in trouble with the law, Mrs Tawhiwhirangi said. This focus would make the preventive and rehabilitation work of the programme more successful. As part of the maatua whangai review team she is visiting the seven main tribal areas in New Zealand to discuss proposed changes. The team is promoting a policy to transfer maatua whangai funding from the Maori Affairs, Social Welfare, and Justice departments to Maori trust boards. “We would have Maori policy resulting from the Maori people, rather than the departments,” Mrs Tawhiwhirangi said. She believed this would more

effectively deal with the needs of young people. The senior executive officer of the Probation Service, Mr Vince Naido, is another member of the review team. He is convinced families alone cannot cope with maatua whangai placements, and thinks it is important Maori tribal links are improved. "The key is tribal links; the young people must be returned back to their tribal base,” he said. Government departments would become more effective if funding was redistributed. The recommendations of the hui will be taken to Wellington where they will be discussed with departmental heads and the Government Ministers concerned.