“I don’t think anyone should have the power to make decisions about children who they do not love.”
This statement from a survivor exposes the dehumanisation of care reduced to policy. Real care must be grounded in empathy, dignity and whanaungatanga.
What This Research Is About
This study emerged from engagements between Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ survivors and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Following an inadequate online hui in October 2022, survivors requested a kanohi ki te kanohi wānanga with all Commissioners, resulting in the survivor-led report, As a Kid I Always Knew Who I Was.
“Resoundingly, taking someone’s identity away is the biggest act of abuse.”
Colonisation systematically erased Indigenous understandings of gender and sexuality through child removal, medicalisation, and conversion practices. Pre-colonial Māori society embraced takatāpui identities as vital to whānau and hapori, but colonisation replaced this with heteronormative systems of control.
The Bigger Picture: Cultural Genocide
Colonial powers deliberately implemented policies of forced assimilation across settler colonial states: Canada, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa, systematically removing Indigenous children to erase their cultures. This systematic, ongoing separation of tamariki from their whānau constitutes cultural genocide under international law.
State and faith-based institutions targeted Takatāpui, Rainbow, and MVPFAFF+ youth under the guise of rehabilitation, seeking to “fix” or “correct” diverse gender and sexual expressions while suppressing cultural identities, creating a compounded form of erasure.
What Survivors Told Us
Using the Pū Rā Ka Ū framework, survivors shared their experiences across four key areas:
Pū (Identity): Who We Are
“For me, and the whole thing ultimately, we all want a life, a life that is rich in wellness and in goodness but always being delivered in love.”
Survivors affirmed that identity is deeply tied to whakapapa, whenua, and wairua; not separate aspects but an indivisible whole.
“What is the relationship between Pacific cultural identities and Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ identities? I just really wanted to reinforce… everything that is stated in those two sentences are me as a whole, not me as different points.”
“We know it is such a protective factor … to be around community and to have that positive community where you’re affirmed for who you are.”
Rā (Hope): Light and Vision
“Give us back our mana motuhake. The Indigenous realm is heavily affected by the way the State and religions have imposed their power, and we must not forget that.”
Hope was grounded in traditional roles:
“We are naturally carers, we looked after our whānau, our tamariki and kaumatua before the colonials descended upon us.”
“Re-indigenisation belongs to Indigenous people; decolonisation is about tauiwi decolonising themselves. It’s not about trying to be more Māori, it’s about feeling comfortable in your own skin and feeling proud about that.”
Ka (Harm): The Reality of Violence
“I’ve grown up in desolation not knowing who I am, who I come from. The state took any ounce of identity or connection, I had.”
Survivors described systematic abuses:
“Incarceration in mental institutions for their sexuality. Incorrect diagnoses to enable commitment. Electric shock treatment and [being] drugged as punishment. Various and often intersecting forms of oppression, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ageism, ableism.”
“Stop calling it ‘care’. What a bastardisation of the term, like calling it child protection or Oranga Tamariki; it’s the absolute opposite.”
“Before we even went into care, whānau had been dismantled. The State creates poverty and struggle, then decides kids are at risk and takes them away; it’s a State-fed cycle.”
Ū (Transformation): What Must Change
“The biggest thing, is to have people listen, listen to understand, don’t listen to respond.”
Survivors called for fundamental change:
“We’ve just got to stop… need to stop putting people in places, to live with strangers, to be looked after.”
“Remove the abusers, not our babies! Our tamariki should remain at home in their communities with their nannies and multigenerational caregivers.”
“Survivors can take care of themselves, work for themselves, have access to the resources they are entitled to, to design their own solutions and their own healing.”
The Hypocrisy Exposed
“The hypocrisy of Oranga Tamariki, they scream for caregivers, but they really want straight living nuclear family types, whilst blocking queer and trans folk from having kids in our care.”
“We need to support more of our queer communities to be able to do those fostering and caring roles.”
Faith-Based Institutions
“Churches shouldn’t be given tax-free rights… because of the way they treat a group of people as a second-rate group.”
Survivors called for churches to be held accountable, stripped of charitable status when discriminatory, and required to make reparations to Rainbow communities.
The Exhaustion
“We’re exhausted. We’re exhausted from fighting hatred. Those who make decisions about taking children from their cultural roots, their people, their communities, you are responsible. I don’t have the luxury of not getting up again. But we are exhausted on the front line.”
Land and Connection
“Land plays a huge part in our whakapapa… If we had our land, we would have our connections. If we had our connections, we wouldn’t have to question our own existence. Land back is huge.”
Putting it Right
“Part of putting it right is making genuine apologies… you can only tell if it is genuine when their behaviour changes.”
The research documents both systemic harm and healing, revealing how state and faith-based institutions specifically targeted those at the intersection of cultural identity and gender/sexual diversity.
“I’m thankful for survivors and the journeys that you navigate… the contributions you make just by drawing a breath… All of you matter beyond what you know. Why? Because you’re here representing those who are no longer in the world.”
Why This Matters
As Ngāti Porou, takatāpui, nonbinary, a registered social worker with thirty years of practice experience, and a researcher, I bring multiple perspectives to this work. However, this research is not intended to centre social work practice or theory. Rather, it creates a platform where survivors of state-imposed erasure can speak directly to the systems which have functioned as mechanisms of colonial control.
“Every life is worthy. Every journey is worthy. In fact, we are God’s chosen. Why?… Because we are here to teach others about humanity or lack of, about the right way to live our lives and how to treat one another as human beings.”
Change Required
Social work has functioned as a key mechanism of cultural genocide, acting as an enforcement arm of colonial systems that remove tamariki from whakapapa, pathologise Māori whānau, and frame structural violence as protection. This complicity continues through Oranga Tamariki and other Crown agencies.
Transformative change requires dismantling systems that continue to marginalise Māori and Rainbow communities under the guise of protection. Survivors’ calls for decolonisation include returning land to tangata whenua, recognising Indigenous-led solutions, and ensuring tauiwi confront their role in upholding colonial structures.
“Just have the courage to get out of the way… and stop taking up our space.”
Conclusion
This research documents both the harm inflicted on Takatāpui, Rainbow and MVPFAFF+ communities and their vision for transformation. The purpose of this work is not to centre social work but to create a platform where survivors of state-imposed erasure can speak directly to systems that have shaped their lives.
I am reminded of my son’s words at eight years old, growing up within a Rainbow community:
“You guys are sheroes, Mum, because how would we know what it’s like if you didn’t live your lives and share your stories?”
These pūrākau of harm, healing, hope and change offer direction for the future. By centring survivor knowledge as the foundation for transformation, we honour those of our rainbow and takatāpui whānau who came before us, affirm who we are now, and contribute to a future where our communities thrive with their connections to whakapapa intact.
Future work must continue this kaupapa through constitutional transformation based on Indigenous sovereignty, expanding opportunities for survivor-led research, creating ways for intergenerational healing, and ensuring that policies and practices genuinely reflect the aspirations of those most affected. Only then can we move toward true justice, not as an abstract concept, but as lived reality grounded in mana motuhake, safety and dignity.
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Author: Paora Moyle paoramoyle5@gmail.com
Article: [PDF] Only those who love us should decide our care: Elevating survivor voices of Takatāpui, Rainbow, and MVPFAFF+ communities
POUHINE 
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