Ka rawakore, ka ora rawa atu rānei

Child poverty or flourishing whānau

Words matter.

Over time PMP’s vision shifted away from a focus on eliminating child poverty, to asking us to imagine an Aotearoa New Zealand where all children and whānau flourish and where each and every childhood is full of opportunity. Several important reasons underpinned the change.

It was pointed out by Māori Committee members in particular, that to eliminate child poverty, the focus needs to shift from children to whānau wellbeing as tamariki don’t live in isolation.

Moreover, poverty can be stigmatising. Mahi by The Workshop, one of our Kaikōkiri, highlighted a powerful and corrosive public narrative about the causes of child poverty. “The dominant story in the public domain is one that draws heavily upon ideas of personal failing and weakness, even laziness, to explain how poverty happens.”¹  This story impacts the way we see ourselves, those living in poverty, solutions to poverty, and whether we buy into those solutions.

Although work is being undertaken by ngā Kaikōkiri, along with other groups and organisations, to tell a new story about child poverty which shifts dominant narratives about its causes, impacts and solutions, the Committee wanted a strengths-based, vision which they felt we, as a country, would be more likely to agree upon and coalesce around.

When PMP started, eliminating poverty seemed an audacious vision. But what we actually want is even more – it is for Aotearoa New Zealand to be a place where all children and whānau flourish.

Article by Alex Woodley

• ¹ Berentson-Shaw, J. (July 2018). Telling a new story about “child poverty” in New Zealand. Auckland: The Workshop and The Policy Observatory. Retrieved from https://thepolicyobservatory.aut.ac.nz/