Paora Moyle, researcher and survivor of abuse in care. Photo: Abuse in Care - Royal Commission of Inquiry / Brett Phibbs
As the government prepares to deliver its apology to those who experienced abuse in state and faith based care, an independent report is putting the voices of rainbow survivors at the center.
Survivors of abuse will gather in Thames on Tuesday to watch the live broadcast of the national apology being read in Parliament.
They will also receive freshly printed copies of Voices of Takatāpui, Rainbow, and MVPFAFF+ Survivors, provided by Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki -Hauraki Women's Refuge - to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission.
Abuse survivor and researcher at Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki Paora Moyle said the 66-page independent report puts the voices of rainbow Māori who suffered abuse at the forefront.
"We may only be 7-10 percent of those that came forward to tell our stories but they are powerful voices because when you look at the intersectionality, how they were targeted for their identity and sexuality.
"People took it upon themselves not just to abuse them because they could but to fix them, to try and make them straight. Those are pretty horrific things for young people to experience and the beauty [of] this report is that it concentrates on what's good in the world not what happened to us, we are not what happened to us we are what we do with it."
Caption: Voices of Takatāpui, Rainbow, and MVPFAFF+ Survivors, independent report. Photo: Supplied/Sarah Sparks
The report is structured so the voices of the survivors are held in their entirety, Moyle said.
"Many different whānau lost loved ones never to be seen again and a lot of our survivor whānau members have passed on now and it leaves whole chunks [missing] within a generation of people."
The biggest return from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care is that the testimony of survivors has now been recorded and they no longer have to fight to be believed, Moyle said.
But the ultimate goal of the report is to stop young and vulnerable people being taken away from their whānau, they said.
"They talk about hope in terms of not wanting this to ever happen happen to children in the future, but particularly trans and takatāpui young people who do they see themselves reflected in? That's why it's really important for us to be valued."
Moyle said the government's public apology - which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will deliver - is useless without plans for redress.
They advocate for a collective redress for the families of those who suffered in state care.
"I'm not really looking forward to the apology because to me it's meaningless, it has no kaha (strength) behind it, it's empty it's like a ghost a vacuum. If you don't have any redress or intention to change what you are saying sorry for then it's pretty powerless.
"Most of our whānau now are looking forward to the hīkoi, the hīkoi envelops all of who we are and what we are about and what we want to see change in the future so that's where we are gravitating more towards."
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