14/11/2025
This week I sat at the foot of many survivors from State Care and Faith Based Institutions as they shared their stories 💔. Each person present could feel the darkness and harm that our country permitted to be inflicted upon these innocent children, who are now adults.
I want to honour my auntie Piwi (Gwyneth), a woman who rose from the dark rooms of state care with a heart that refused to stay broken. She had to endure medical examinations that no child should ever have to go through being strapped on a table. In her own words "It was worse than the sexual abuse I had to endure".
She has taught me through her own life’s work that dignity is not given, it is reclaimed. And if wounds are where the light enters you, then she’s carried that light into every corridor that once tried to dim her.
Her smile and laughter is proof that survival can become a song. And her truth along with every survivor is a demand that systems need to bend towards justice.
The Whānaketia/Abuse in Care Royal Commission has held a mirror up to Aotearoa, gathering survivors’ stories like precious, painful jewels. Its research reveals systemic failures, lack of oversight, unsafe practices, and the long shadow of trauma that follows people through decades! Its recommendations call for truth, redress, accountability, independent monitoring and a survivor centered approach to healing and care. These are not abstract asks, they are scaffolding of a humane nation.
We need a Government that listens to survivors! Implement the Royal Commission’s recommendations with urgency and integrity. Fund lifelong supports, ensure independent oversight and legislate guarantees so that no child is again told that their safety depends on goodwill instead of rights. True repentance is not words alone, it is policy, repair, and a future rebuilt on the lessons survivors have given us.
To Auntie Piwi, you've taught me how to stand, how to name what was done and how to insist upon better. I will always carry you and Mums light into halls of power, into classrooms, and into tender spaces where our tamariki grow. You rose, and because of you we must rise too. Higher in our compassion, fiercer in our justice, and truer in our love.
I will never forget the cost of silence.
Love you Auntie
