MYSTICAL MUSIC NZ ` land of milk and honey. A land where everyone has the same opportunity. Or do they? URBAN MUSIC NZ is the land where, somehow, a disproportionate number of Maori and Pacific kids are growing up in freezing, mouldy houses, sick, hungry and in poverty. Those same kids are failing in school, leaving school early or getting kicked out, having kids and existing on the benefit, without ever having the opportunity to see past their immediate needs and dream. This is the situation Whanau Ora was brought in to address. Copyright Able 2016 Whanau Ora is a simple approach to a complex problem. Most people have no idea what it is. It's the first time I've heard of that one. I have no idea. (LAUGHS) Whanau is the family. Is it, like, getting all the whanau and the family all together? Well, the whanau are the family, and what are the ora? The extras? The hangers-on? Everybody's water, isn't it? And it's been surrounded by controversy from the beginning. I'm sure the Korean, the Chinese, the Irish, Scots and even the English people in this country would love to reconnect with their family, but we do not think that that is a valid use of taxpayers' money. I don't care what they say. This is an opportunity that we are giving to families to transform their lives. Whanau Ora is an approach to working with families in need that is being implemented throughout the country. I'd just turned 16 when I had Ngahere, and his dad was about 15. I've had a lot of help from people, and they just didn't help me. When other agencies were coming, I was actually turning against from people` away from people, cos I was wondering, 'Who's telling you this information? 'OK, I'm not trusting you again. I'm not trusting you.' And I just basically ended up shutting everybody out. When it's up and running, the Whanau Ora approach will work across existing health and social services, supporting whanau to support each other, moving the power away from the state and back to the family. What's the matter? Marcia is staying at Te Whare Karamu, a home to four vulnerable teenage mothers and their babies for up to six months. House parents Carl and Kathyanne live in with their 15-year-old daughter. Just normal life. Keep going every day, and, um... The girls are getting ready for school at the moment. The van should be here any minute. Before they come here, it's kind of` The baby is driving whether they're up or down or where they are. But after they've been here a few weeks, they learn to drive the routines for the babies, and they're the ones that are in control of them. It's not just about us and our way. It's about giving them choices. No. Yeah. Whanau Ora is about giving them the opportunity to open their eyes and for them to work with their family to do that. We've gotten girls in that are quite far along` quite advanced. They avoid medical professionals, and they avoid the doctor, they avoid dentists, they avoid anybody like that. So the baby's just gonna come. It'll just miraculously appear. Lots of them are-are scared to be judged, and-and there is a lot of that around. 'Oh, you're 16, and you're pregnant,' you know? We've got two girls that are due to move at the moment, and Nani, our social worker, is working with them at the moment to transition them into independent living. Each week, Carl and Kathyanne meet with other agencies to weigh up the needs of the girls on their ever-increasing waiting list, and to discuss how they will transition the girls in the house back out into the community. It's early days for Whanau Ora, but strengthening the communication between services will be critical for its success. < I could even look into the family violence history as well, cos if he's getting to the stage where he's lighting curtains on fire in their whare, then that's really dangerous. I would accept her as being a priority, to be honest. Mm-hm. We need to start working on this mum around family violence, you know, like, and the effects that it has on her. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, great (!) PEOPLE SING WAIATA In Hawke's Bay, two Maori non-government organisations have just won Whanau Ora contracts. The research now begins for them as they streamline their health and social services, Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga are the largest NGO in Hawke's Bay. Our model is actually the kainga model ` getting our community to be a community again, be the village that brings up the child. But how do you do that? # He karere tenei ki te motu! # Napier's Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri are a smaller NGO who have also won a Whanau Ora contract. Like Taiwhenua, every service, including Whanau Ora, is available to everyone, not just Maori. We generally target the high-needs communities, and they are more than likely to be Maori and Pacific Island. Hi, Bonita, it's Renee speaking. Renee is a social worker in schools. She's also training to become a Whanau Ora navigator, supporting whanau to develop and implement long-term goals. When I first took the role on, I thought it was to support and encourage them to learn, um, but I'm having to go back two steps and just encourage them to create routines and structure in the morning ` to get them to school, to get them into the mind frame of just actually learning. All right, I'm outta here. I grew up in Porirua ` Cannons Creek ` and it was a pretty rough upbringing, really. My parents hadn't grown up with alcohol, drugs, those sorts of things, but moving to Wellington, that's what they indulged in. They split up when I was 5, and things, sort of, got worse, really. She met a number of other men, and she had quite violent relationships. And I was, sort of, left to raise my four brothers and sisters. I didn't realise how much I understood where whanau that we support here at Te Kupenga come from until I started working with them. I can connect with them, and I can understand some of the issues they have and why they have them and why they can't work through them. As you know, I've met up with Mikaere's mum,... Yep. ...so I'm now gonna be supporting her to the budget service as well. Good. Even the big sister got involved there, so that was good. Which is quite nice. They're coming to intermediate with bad learning habits. They already address teachers in a really bad way. They really don't wanna learn. They already hate maths. The way they speak to the teachers` They will go, 'Oh, F you, stupid slut', and da-da-da-da-da. And then they'll video the reaction and then upload it straight away to YouTube. We've got two programmes coming up next term. Yes, I was wondering, cos we've got a number of children that` that actually need that anger management stuff... OK, cool. ...that we talked about. Yeah. Nearly all the kids we've worked with are doing hardly any learning. And we're lucky if we get them to do` to do any in the end. And how are you and him getting along? Good. Better than last time. You're not pissing him off? Nah. (LAUGHS) Family violence is a biggie. No food ` so poverty. Those are the biggies. Mikaere was referred to me through the school to help with his attendance and truancy issues. He's just getting into lots of fights, refusing to follow any instructions in class, um, would yell out in class, disrupt other people's learning, just be really really cheeky. Not 'I'm good at fighting'. Uh-uh. It came to light that he wasn't coming to school because he had no lunch. There wasn't enough kai at home, and they didn't have any means of transport. And it came to be that there was a lot of other things going on at home for him, with regards to dad not being able to work and provide for them. Do you know what strengths are? Um... So you want 300? Yep. Marcia has had over 19 agencies and services working with her and her 9-month-old son, Ngahere, at a great expense to the state. Not a problem. Can you take the jug off him? Baby's daddy was really violent, and CYFS got brought into the picture. And I wanted to keep Baby, but he didn't. So the way I could keep Baby is I had to go through all these agencies to keep him, and when I would go with that agency, I will muck up, and then more agencies will come on, and then I piled up with all these a` different agencies, and, like, sometimes there was, like, three appointments a day. Like, every day, I had appointments with different people, and I don't know who was who and what that person was there for. The Whanau Ora approach recognises that the family remains long after the services and agencies have come and gone. So if the whanau itself is strong, there will be support for the individual within the whanau. But most health and social service contracts focus on the individual, ignoring the whanau. In some cases, they are here because of family. And there's not a parallel programme to us whilst they're here to try and rebuild those relationships. We've got the state interfering in most of our family's lives on a daily basis, and I think that that's because we have lost that engagement with one another. I didn't really pay much attention to him until I came here. At first, it was really weird. I've grown up with hit your wife, hit your husband ` all that stuff. Everybody notices the big change that we've gone through. He didn't trust nobody. He wouldn't go to nobody. That's cos of the past that me and his dad put him through. What do you reckon our chances are of scoring another house? Marcia's transition out of Te Whare Karamu is proving to be difficult on a number of levels. She's got good grounds for Housing NZ. I mean, if she's gonna go out and she's gonna actually be in a place that's not suitable for her and baby to live, then we're actually gonna lose all of the good ground that she got, eh? And is there a plan to move in with her partner? Because she can't. Not this week. Not this week. THEY LAUGH I'd be wanting that we have, at minimum, that five s` five sets of eyes looking in on this baby. Te Whare Karamu is just one of 55 health and social service contracts that Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga deliver in their higher-needs community. This area is well known for the gangs. We have drug abuse, alcohol abuse, um, domestic violence on a daily basis, and that's what they have to deal with. But at the end of the day, we're about keeping those children safe. Maori organisations work holistically but are constrained by contracts that focus on individuals and single issues, and a lot of the work they do isn't written into any contract. In here's all, um, kitchen stuff ` cutlery, glasses, bowls, warm blankets. And so for us, the donations come in, and they go out again. A nurse may go into a whanau home and, um, have a specific job to do, but that whanau's got many areas of need, and, you know, measuring a baby's, uh, weight is not necessarily their priority. You know, uh, putting kai on the table and getting their kids an education and adequate housing is their priority. So for us, whanau ora is about utilising the services we've got in a more holistic manner, to achieve the whanau's outcomes. Families in need often don't access services, so the workers in both organisations are mobile, and the strong relationship they develop with whanau means that they have an opportunity to offer support in many areas of need. ...got a latch on that bottle? Good. Yeah. Heck yeah. Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri are developing their Whanau Ora approach. It might be nine different services. And really, if we're talking about whanau-centred services and it being holistic, we really need them to be supported by the staff. And it doesn't matter who they get, they should be able to maybe not deliver all of the service but at least promote it all. If you're a Family Start worker and you go into a whanau and you're doing your mahi, and then you find, oh, you know, the father, he's a smoker, and you might get into a conversation that he wants to quit. The old way would've been, 'Oh, well, if you do, I'll ring` get Glenn, and I'll do a referral, 'and Glenn'll get hold of you,' um, if they even thought about saying that. Sometimes it might be, 'I'm just here to do my Family Start,' and then I go, but they're not being alert to other opportunities in that whanau. Hi, Borris. I'm Renee. Nice to meet you. Renee has gathered together boys from neighbouring intermediates with anger management problems. She's brought in Jim Morunga, the suicide prevention worker at Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri, to have a chat with the boys. Yeah, and the rest of us are year eight. You're not familiar with Maori language, eh? No. Not really. Got some words, though, eh? You know some words, eh? Yeah. Yeah. OK, so here we go. The first, uh, word that's important to remember is the word whakapapa. Knowing your family and where you come from is one of the goals of Whanau Ora. It gives the kids a sense of belonging. Now, for those of us that are half, we're saying we're half-Maori, and what's the other half? Pakeha, English, or...? I'm Samoan. Samoan. Samoan. You're Samoan. Anyone else? Scottish. Scottish! Mikaere Tane Tukino Te Paea. What's the third name? > Te Paea. No, that's the last name. > Oh. One before that. > Tukino. Tukino? > Yeah. Ka pai, you. > Um` Te Paea, eh? > Yeah. OK, kia ora. > My mum's name's Marlene Te Paea. My dad's` Oh. I don't know my real dad, but I got a stepdad. Who's the next one? > Kia ora. My name is Judge. Judge. Judge who? > Judge Birch. Dad's name? > Oh, I don't know my dad. When we talk about whanau, we talk about being connected ` we talk about a family that is connected. And that makes the world, sometimes, a better place, because you then start to feel a sense of belonging, eh? Ka pai, you. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Thanks. Right, letting go of ` now! One! In the Pakeha world, they say that familiarity breeds contempt, but in Whanau Ora and in the Maori world, familiarity is a tool. CHILDREN SHOUT Often what you will find, too, with Maori people is that there are generations of dysfunction. Stop! Stop! Grab your balloons! Remember that we're a team, so it's not 'mine'. These balloons are ours. So it's like having a big cake. You have to have the story of how it's been baked, how it got to look like that. You can't just take a slice out and think, 'This is what you've got'. Family violence is an issue for many whanau Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri work with. You probably won't be surprised, but the men that we see ` more than eight out of every 10 have been in some way abused themselves. Now, I'm not making excuses, but you have to contextualise that. You have to see the whole of something, rather than just the silo. Because we're use to working in silos, eh? Let's go and fix that little bit over here. And we're just bullshitting ourselves when we think we can smooth it all over with this lovely tag called Whanau Ora. So you have to` You've gotta move towards that. < The groundwork. That's right, whaea. You've gotta do all this groundwork first. BUSTLING MUSIC Marcia turned 18 today, and tomorrow, she'll move into her first flat with her son Ngahere, who is now 1. Scary. But yeah, it's about time. I reckon I can do it. Everybody else does too, so I better not let them down. Yeah. Next year I'm going to AIT te reo Maori. So that's my future. (LAUGHS) We think we know what's good for them, but we actually have to hold off and just provide a pathway for them. We've been doing this before Whanau Ora came out. It was just putting a name to our practice. Oh, lifters. We just need lifters. Yeah. Oh yeah, is, um, thing and them gonna come along ` your brothers? Hope so. We're a help up not a handout service, and it's about empowering them to be able to advocate for their own well-being. ...which will change tomorrow. I had work with others there. And nah, before I come here, I didn't like nobody. Like, everybody were my enemies. I didn't care who you were. But now I like working with people. Didn't think that I'll learn that here, but I learnt it. They're becoming our family too, you know? We happily take them as family. Uh, it doesn't matter how rough the edges are. We still take them. Yeah, where` where else can they go? Oh, yellow clock! The six months that the girls are here with us, probably in a lot of cases, isn't long enough. Um, they are still quite vulnerable when they go out. Uh, they do extremely well here, but within four or five weeks of being back out on the streets, so to speak, um, because of family ties, um, gang affiliations, they've got back into those old networks, and have slipped backwards. URBAN MUSIC Despite the housing shortage in Hawke's Bay, Marcia has managed to find a flat through Housing NZ. She moved in this morning, but it's not what she had hoped for. And I'm very disgusted in this bedroom. You wanna know why? Can you see all the mould? And it's got a really bad smell to it. My baby's got really bad asthma, and that will just` Couldn't tell you how many cockroaches we've killed today. It's so disgusting. When we were moving in, we could hear these, like` a lot of swearing, and in these flats over here, there's patch members ` like, actual patch members. And that's why I wanted to move to Hastings, cos I thought it would be safe for me and my baby. But no. This is so not safe. They can actually come and break through, and... I just don't like this area at all. I thought it would be safe, but it's not looking safe. Yeah. In NZ, many Maori whanau are excelling. But a disproportionate number are not. The government approach has always been to tell Maori what they think they need. But when you look at the poor state of health, education and welfare for Maori, something hasn't been working. We are dealing with some youth who are third or fourth generation where the main source of income is a benefit. Despite the many billions that were poured into the health system, our social status has not improved. Everything that's really important for us to progress as peoples in our own land have other people dominating, and I'm over that. I'm absolutely over it. Our people are not doing well. Research is telling us that we're still at the bottom of the barrel. Well, hello! We're been telling them all the` all along what we think is right for us, but they've telling us what they think that they know is better for us. Debbie is a registered nurse at Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri, but her job, like the whanau she supports, is a lot more complex. Why is it so warm? Um, the gas. Jeez, they're nearly dry too, girl. You know what? I used to do that too. To get a full appreciation of what the community needs are, you really need to work in the community to know that. Sometimes healthcare is not at the top of the priority list. Not when you got the debt collector knocking on the door. People can sit behind their desks, telling us what we need to be doing in our community and, um, what they need. Really we need to talk to the people. The health system has failed many Maori and Pacific whanau, who are worse off than others in nearly all areas of health. And it's called institutional racism. Maori people get treated differently by their GP. They don't get access to the same medications that others get. This is all in research. I'm not just spouting off something so that people think, 'There she goes again, 'talking about racism, making everybody feel bad.' And I could say the same for Pasifika people ` treated exactly the same, as if they're invisible. Have we got any tamariki we need to be seeing today? Debbie, like many Maori health workers, has always taken the Whanau Ora approach out into the community. She's only contracted to help the head teacher at this kohanga reo in Maraenui with her diabetes, but she also checks on the kids, and the underlying reasons for their health problems are not ignored either. OK, yeah. It was really big, and it's going down,... Down, yeah. ...but they didn't say what it was. Has she got enough energy? Do you think she's happy and running around with other kids? Um, some days she is. Some days. Yeah. Are you gonna go to your mama? Haere mai. UNSETTLING MUSIC Half the houses in the Napier suburb of Maraenui are state houses. Many are in appalling condition, with kids living in overcrowded, cold bedrooms, then suffering from skin infections and Third World diseases like rheumatic fever. At the same time, many houses are being demolished or just boarded up and left vacant. I met Sharlene at the kohanga last week. She said that since they had moved into Kelvin Road` Is it cold and damp? Oh, it'll be cold and damp and mouldy, and she said her babies have been sick. I asked mum, 'Could you take her back to the doctor?' And she rang me yesterday to say thank you,... Mm-hm. ...because baby had developed a little bit of cellulitis. Frozen` Freezing? Frozen this morning. I was like, 'Oh my God.' So I chucked them in bed with me just to warm them up. Because I'm wondering if there is any insulation. Where do the kids and you sleep? In here? Cos it's warmer. It's fr` On the floor? On mattresses. Have you got good whanau support? Yeah, kind of. I've been through a lot of... A lot` lot of stuff. Domestic violence and blah blah blah. Freezing, isn't it? It's vitally important that we start getting it right, that we start giving people homes that are well-insulated, carpeted, and I know they'll be saying, 'Oh, you know, the money isn't there.' But then, when we think about the other end of it, all these people that suffer health problems because of the bad conditions they're living in, it's costing the health dollar. URBAN MUSIC Marcia still studies at the Teen Parent Unit at William Colenso College, while Ngahere goes to the on-site day care. Getting back to school and getting back into the same routine's really hard. It's me doing it by myself, and I don't got Kathy and Carl no more, reminding me. I had a phone call yesterday from one of her social workers, and there is a lot of concern around her at the moment. She's slipped backwards. Uh, Children and Young Persons Services, I understand, have taken court action, uh, have made a declaration and are looking at uplifting, uh, Baby. Only Tuesdays and Thursdays we get sleep around home, but the rest of the days, no. Why is that? Parties and` Ugh. Parties everywhere. It's just so frustrating. You just get him to sleep, and then the music goes louder or there's a fight breaking out,... (CALLS) ...or the police are coming, and... Maybe that's something we can` we can have a little bit of a chat about when we` How old are you at the moment? 13. And you started smoking last year? Renee was contracted to work with Anneka two years ago to stop her truanting. She's ended up supporting the whole whanau on many other issues, most of them falling outside her Social Workers in Schools contract. Hey. Hey, I'm` I'm with Arnies at the moment, and, um, I'm` for a good reason. 'Anneka was, at that time, uh, living with her godparents, 'um, who were in the Mongrel Mob, 'uh, because Mum had left her there at that stage and she was on the run, 'and it was just through a conversation with the school-based nurse at the time that was here 'that, um, I had come to find out that there was extended whanau, 'so I realised there was a grandmother involved, 'and the school-based nurse took me down there to meet her.' There were over 12 agencies involved with the whanau, each providing a different service, with little or no communication between them. On top of all that, Anneka's mother has just gone to prison. Mauveen now has care of all the children, and we're now going through another phase of engaging services for support. She's quite a wee bit older with a 1- and a 3-year-old in her care, as well as Anneka, and we're going to help her work through the small novel of paperwork she's got to do in order to access some money from them. What page are you on? Um, seven, still. I had no choice. I had to finish work. I didn't want to, but, I mean... Cos you were` ...when you've got a choice like that, you've got no choice, if you want to keep, you know` And I didn't want one scattered here, scattered there, and I didn't want them going to CYFS. Definitely not. So here we are, filling out all these. See what I mean why I need her? Look how I write! (LAUGHS) She knows how to write. I'll just make sure that you get it too, eh? '...being released.' And he's not allowed the children cos of the violence. We'll keep going, then. I can't understand what this is. No. Yesterday, the father of Mauveen's youngest two grandchildren was released from jail. I'm not frightened. He doesn't frighten me. But, um, when they're outside, I watch them a bit closer than, you know` Usually I let them just go and play on the tramp and that, but I sort of watch them. If I can't hear them, I tend to run out. (LAUGHS) Yesterday was` was bad. Just in case he jumped over the fence. URBAN MUSIC Marcia has had to move back to Maraenui and in with her parents. I had so many people coming over. I didn't know how to tell them to go. They stayed there for weeks with their babies and that with me and eat my baby's stuff, and` Oh, it was just terrible. I just couldn't cope with it. And then, yeah, CYFS found out what was happening and told me I had to come back to my mum's. I thought I was doing everything right, because it's just me. That's what I was brought up to do. But it was all wrong. (LAUGHS) They didn't like how I was doing things. I've learnt a lot from the whare, but it's just hard, trying to put it into, like, action. (WHISTLES) Yeah, just come straight up and turn right, Jim. The anger management course Renee and Jim ran originally had six boys in it, but after just four weeks, three of the boys have been stood down, and two have been expelled. Mikaere is the only one left. What do you think would be or make a good dad? To have my real one back. My real dad. Have you had any time with your real dad as it were? Nah, I've never met him. Oh, OK. What's the third one there? Oh, thieves and stealers. What are they? 'Someone like that young man there has had, uh, an attitude of trying to be aggressive 'to keep his place in the family set-up, if you like.' Um, aggression around being disappointed or not understanding what's going on around him. Have you got some lunch? Nah. Has Mum got any kai in the cupboards? Oh, tomorrow. Just enough for tomorrow? Yeah. The school environment, to-to me, today, looks like a bloody` a grandstanding battleground, you know? And I'm not quite sure why we let it become that. My school days, there were only the teachers and our parents, whereas now, today, you got representation from every conceivable bloody source. I don't know that` that agencies really are going in and dealing with the whanau in` enough, or properly, or in an` in a` < Considerately. Yeah, in a respectful way. I have to say that, uh, again, as a programme, it's probably very limited in-in-in being resourced. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for returning the 20 RSVPs, and there's 64 of you here. OTHERS LAUGH Each month, the Whanau Ora Regional Leadership Group meet to discuss the direction of Whanau Ora in their local areas. We all know the whanau that we work with are sometimes really hard core, and it's going to take a lot of effort and a lot of time to get to the place that we want to get them to. But the contracts that everybody has, they're only short-term. Whanau Ora is a long-term plan. Whanau Ora has a fund that families can apply to to develop their own long-term goals as a whanau. Our main issue was employment, um, in-in our whanau, uh, with the rangatahi. So that was, probably, the little, uh, boot in the butt that we needed, uh, get up and go. So, we weren't too sure how it all` the Whanau Ora thing would go, and most Maori families, uh, it's always the old putea that's the, uh, problem. And, uh, one of our big things was cos no one had any money, nothing could get started. But yeah, I think we've been on the journey for about six months. We've had about five huis, 'bout a couple of hundred scraps, uh... OTHERS LAUGH And, uh, it's funny when you, uh, look at your, uh, whanau and, um, see what's in it. Uh, we have all these facilitators, we have, uh` from, uh, different social services that you didn't even know were there, some accountants you didn't even know, and, um, a lot of stuff's been brought to the top now about, uh, other issues. Uh, not only employment. Uh, mental issues. Uh, a cousin of mine, uh, decided he was gonna hang himself last week, uh, so the whanau's, kind of, dealing with that at the moment. Um, it's, kind of, brought us a lot more closer. For Whanau Ora to be successful, the government agencies also need to get closer and start communicating effectively with each other. But any actual buy-in to the approach from these agencies is still hard to see in the community. Are you fellas having any more meetings with any of the other government departments? Because I keep getting asked through Child, Youth and Family, 'So when does Whanau Ora start?' Have you heard anything specific? Which specific government departments aren't buying in? All of them impact on our whanau. Yeah. It's kind of like the government departments that we're working with are waiting for our move, and they're not necessarily making any moves towards Whanau Ora themselves. They're carrying on as business as usual. You've got bureaucrats that have been sitting there for years and years and years actually believing that they do know and understand what the way forward should be, and trying to change that is really difficult. DOOR CREAKS George. Keith. Take your hoods off, bro. Health and social service contracts run for one to three years, with no certainty of renewal. The work is taxing, and the staff turnover is high. One of my workers yesterday went to visit a whanau and got screamed and yelled at and sworn at, and, you know, that's the reality. Mm-hm. Mm-hm. We are out there working with the at-risk` well, what they` you know, the hard-to-get` Vulnerable whanau. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. What do you want, sole? OK. Renee has moved into a Whanau Ora navigator role. She'll now assist whanau with their long-term goals and navigate them through any support services and agencies they may need to get there. She's struggling to keep up with the workload. And I am aware that you've got a lot on your plate. I'm busy. Um, I don't even know how to explain. I just` Even though I would plan most of my days, I'm fitting in a lot more than that. I attended an` about eight hui yesterday. I'm` I'm just busy. Cos you'll have plenty of time over the weekend just to` BOTH LAUGH Peruse it? BOTH LAUGH Kia ora, Pam. How are you? Good. Come in. Good to see you. Today, she's finalising some funding for a whanau plan. It is good to see you. Mm. So we've paid you out for your first goal, which was a whakapapa wananga,... Mm-hm. ...and I'd estimated 70 whanau members attending at that stage. Yeah. Pam's whanau goal is for her family to know more about Maori tikanga ` custom ` and their own whakapapa ` their ancestry. Are you OK with it? Yeah. It was my moko. He came to the first hui we had,... Yeah. ...and that was about getting this all together. And he` he was sitting there, and he had this long jacket on, and I go, 'Take your jacket off. It's too hot.' And he took it off, and I noticed Ngati Porou on it. And I go, 'What's with the Ngati Porou on your arm, Harley?' He goes, 'That's us, Nan. Ngati Porou!' And I go, 'Oh, well, you better change it to Ngati Kahungunu.' And he goes, 'Eh, nan?' And he goes, 'Aren't we Ngati Porou?' And I go, 'No, you're Ngati Kahungunu.' I go, 'Know it in your head,' you know? First. Yeah. And that's why I really need to get it out before I cark it, um, cos once I go, I know my family's not gonna get into that area of getting their whakapapa together and putting it into their kids. Marcia moved out of home and into a flat in Napier after finishing school. She's now working with Jill, the youth worker at Te Kupenga Hauora Ahuriri. How's it going? Today, she's waiting for her parents to pick up Ngahere and take him to the doctor. How long has Ngahere been like this? Since this morning? 4 o'clock this morning. I might actually just ring and see if we can actually get him in. They might be running late. Yeah. To see if we can actually get him in today, and I can either whip back to work and get one, or I can ring Bruce and see if there is a car seat. Who's your doctor? (GROANS) Shh, shh, shh! (CRIES) I've just been to see Marcia. Mm-hm. You know that debt she had? The bank had been taking so much money off her for that. Do you actually know that she couldn't afford to get her prescription? And the doctor actually came out to me in the car and said, 'Do you realise she hasn't been taking this medication, and why?' So I went round to the pharmacy, and I explained the situation, and, um, they actually let her have it with Marcia's promise to go and pay. But yeah. Five bucks, eh? No, $20. You ought to see it. It was a great big huge bag of stuff she's got, yeah. URBAN MUSIC NZ has become a country where generations of kids are growing up unhealthy, uneducated and in poverty, without ever having the opportunity to dream, and breaking the cycle is complex. What are we up to? I'm working with Te Kupenga to ensure that they can demonstrate the outcomes that they are achieving with whanau who use their services. But, I mean, the thing is, it's all about gathering evidence, isn't it? The future of Whanau Ora depends on whether there is evidence that the approach actually works. It's the whole crux of the` of the investment is that, um, Whanau Ora collectives are able to improve the outcomes of whanau who use their services. URBAN MUSIC I'm not myself at the moment. Like, yeah, just the coming off the drugs thing, because I'm so used to every day off my face, like, just` yeah. And now to be straight ` like, actually, straight a day, it's like, 'Wow!' I see things more clearer. Marcia's still involved with a handful of agencies, but not the 19 who were involved when her son was born. She's moved again. This time, it's round the corner from her parents, back to Maraenui. That's great with them being so close and things, because they're baby freaks, and yeah, if I know, like, I'm gonna have another breakdown and that, I know I can just go put my baby there, and my baby's safe, no matter what. The family's pretty strong at the moment. The relationship's come back together like it should have been in the first place, and the support that she's had, we've had, um, has brought us, pretty much, back together, and it's` it's helped us in a long way. Ka kite! Now that he's in kohanga, me and him have got a closer bond. Like, we were in each other's face too much. (LAUGHS) Yeah, we just couldn't handle it, cos he was always demanding, and I was demanding. And now that he` we get our space away from each other, we actually like seeing each other now. (LAUGHS) Yeah. He's learning a lot of reo. That's why I think I gotta start learning reo, because what he's saying is` I don't understand. But I'll get there. This is about giving our people the tools and the ability to change what's happening to them by themselves, with the support of` if they need it, of others. But more importantly, they need to be interdependent with their own families. They're the ones who should pick up that responsibility. I have worked with, um, collectives who are actually achieving outcomes now, especially in terms of skills and knowledge ` um, improved parenting skills, improved levels of confidence, improved levels of motivation to succeed. All those types of things are actually happening at the moment. If you haven't got skills and knowledge, then` if you haven't got that sort of grounding, then you can't shift your attitude or opinion, you can't shift behaviour, and then you can't achieve circumstance change, so there is a relationship between all of those things. Welfarism. It's made the people` Between their ears, it's made them lesser beings. It's, um, demoralised them. It's lowered their standards. It's lowered their aspirations. After three months of planning, Pam and her whanau are gathering this weekend to learn about their whakapapa. That's Kararaina Nikara. That's your great-grandmother. Mm. Who is that? Mata Rore. Is that that one? Yeah, same person. Yep. Oh, is that who that is? Mm. Oh! Haratiatia Kuru ` you heard the old people saying, she was, sort of, the mother of Motiua Marae. Most of the families who were living here were her direct descendants. And let's just have a look at them. Her first-born... My son, his own relations killed him back in '94. And now, remembering about it and who it was, sort of, brought tears back to my` to me. And when` when Pat was, sort of, expanding on these connections from those families, I was thinking, 'Well, they were so close` they are so close, and they didn't even know.' And that's why you people occupied this river. It became your river. Get to know your connections. Get to know your whakapapa. Most importantly, your whakapapa, because it's your whakapapa, really, that's gonna look after you, eh? I-I really believe it. The real reason people want a whakapapa wananga is because they haven't seen their brother for five years, and they haven't seen their sister for such-and-such, and they don't know who their father is, but this has provided them with that opportunity to come together and learn about each other and build tighter relationships in order to have a stronger support network as a` as a whanau. One of the things that one of the whanau said to us the other week was, you know, um, she likens the new connections in her whanau to becoming a stronger village. We need to invest in ourselves, invest in one another, to know that if one of our kids fall over, we can pick them up, to know that if one of our family dies, that we are there for them and for their kids and for their future, and that we'll be committed to them for the rest of their lives. The potential for Whanau Ora for Maori, I think, is to help whanau realise that they can achieve anything that they want to achieve. And I think very often that has not been the message that whanau have had. They've` They've set low sights, because they've been encouraged to set low sights. Politics is a funny business, like Craig Foss said this morning that there is moves within parliament to scrap Whanau Ora for whatever reason and so forth. But I don't really care. I mean, it's there for our whanau. Use it while it's there. If it` Once it stops or anything, whanau have still got their plans to work to. How many goals did you end up having on here? Did you ever have a count? There's one... Not many. Renee is working with Mauveen on a whanau plan to support her daughter when she gets out of jail next month. And have a talk as a family about what ones are important ` especially to get you through th-this time, with Adele coming home. Yeah, that's my main priority is to get her safe. Mm. I don't want her on her own for long, either. Mm. Mm. Glad to hear you're back at work, and it's going OK. Yeah, so far, so good. Whanau Ora is in its infancy. Will it stay that way, just becoming one of those schemes that were half-heartedly tried and then forgotten, or will it have a future? Ngahere turns 2 next week, and before Marcia knows it, he'll be a young man. The question is whether he'll be a healthy, happy and educated young man, surrounded by a supportive whanau, or not. And how does his future affect us all? Captions by Philip McKibbin. Edited by Jessica Boell. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016