A Waiariki Māori health leader has joined calls from Waikato counterparts for systemic reform after independent reviews exposed serious failures in the treatment of an 11-year-old autistic Māori girl.
The calls follow the release of two independent reviews into the case, which found the non-verbal autistic girl was wrongly identified as an adult mental health patient before being handcuffed by police, admitted to a mental health facility and administered anti-psychotic medication.
The reports identified multiple failings across agencies, prompting a public petition calling for a formal Government apology, an independent whole-of-government review into the experiences of tāngata whaikaha, and reforms to better protect autistic people and disabled children.
Te Taura Ora a Waiariki Iwi-Māori Partnership Board chairman Hingatu Thompson said the case highlighted fundamental shortcomings in the way frontline services respond to Māori.
“What this case shows is our frontline workers are not able to work with Māori. They’re not able to understand. If you can’t tell an 11-year-old from a 20-year-old, how can you understand other cultural nuances? How can you meet their needs?” he said.
Thompson said opportunities to prevent the incident were repeatedly missed.
“There were people along that pathway saying, ‘This is a child’. They were saying she was autistic, but they continued down the same pathway that led to a terrible outcome for the whānau,” he said.
“There was also no Māori partnership and no meaningful Māori participation throughout the process, so the failures continued until they became extreme.“
He said the case represented a failure to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Waikato-based clinician and Te Tiratū Iwi-Māori Partnership Board representative Dr Mataroria Lyndon said his thoughts remained with the child and her whānau, who had endured months of trauma while navigating multiple investigations.“Our aroha is with the whānau and the tamaiti because we’ve seen the impact, the trauma and the harm over the past 15 months,” he said.
Lyndon said one of the most alarming findings was the inappropriate use of psychiatric medication and restraint.
“As a clinician, one of the most significant findings is the inappropriate and unlawful use of psychiatric medication and restraint. Those medications should not have been used in the first place.“
While supporting the recommendations contained in the reports, Lyndon said they did not go far enough.“We need independent advocacy for whānau in these situations, and we need Te Tiriti obligations, whaikaha rights and tamariki rights properly considered and upheld.“Managing Director of Te Kōhao Health and Māori health advocate Lady Tūreiti Moxon said the incident further demonstrated the need for greater understanding of neurodiversity and culturally responsive care across frontline services.“An 11-year-old girl is pretty easy to spot, but to confuse her with a 20-year-old woman with mental health issues shows there are some big gaps in our system,” she said.
She said accountability must extend beyond an apology.
“I would very much advocate that they apologise properly to the māmā and compensate her. Often, what happens is they say sorry, and then they walk away.“
Moxon said any response must genuinely restore the whānau and ensure lessons are embedded across government agencies.
Thompson agreed the focus must now shift from identifying failures to implementing change.
“We have to learn from this, and it can’t just be another report. The whānau want to see meaningful action because they’re still living with the impact.“
The petition, titled Never Again: Ensure the well-being of children and tāngata whaikaha, calls on the Government to issue a formal public apology, commission an independent review into disabled people’s experiences across government agencies, and implement reforms aimed at preventing similar incidents in future.
Nā Te Okiwa McLean rāua ko Piripi Taylor nō Pūkāea
