Examining the Family Violence “Safety” System in Aotearoa New Zealand: Where are Victim-Survivors Experiencing Safe Practice?

In this report, a critical multi-case study approach is used to explore the day-to-day functioning of the family violence response system in Aotearoa New Zealand as experienced by victim-survivors.

Five victim-survivors (three wāhine Māori and two Pākehā) were interviewed and their family violence agency records obtained on their behalf under the Privacy Act 2020. These accounts and records were triangulated and analysed in light of a broader literature review on family violence system responsiveness and the diverse expertise of the research team. The result is a deep, multi-layered, critical analysis of the operations of the family violence response system over time.

Whilst participants had some positive experiences of practitioners and individuals, there were key features of the systemic response to family violence that were unhelpful, unsafe, and at times extremely harmful. These were:

• failure to provide the practical help that victim-survivors needed;
• system fragmentation – a large number of agencies each delivering transactional, single-issue, time-limited responses;
• family violence systemically understood and responded to as an issue of the victim-survivor’s mental health;
• a system built on distrust of those it serves;
• wāhine Māori being disproportionately poorly served; and
• systemic collusion with men using violence.

These issues were evidenced not only in the women’s experiences as recounted to us, but in the records of the agencies they engaged with, or were required to be involved with.

In stark contrast to this were the responses received from kaupapa Māori practitioners and providers. In this report, we discuss the response one participant received from the Manaaki Tangata e Rua programme provided by Te Puea Memorial Marae. This wahine (woman) and her tamariki (children) received:

• a culturally safe response, which provided immediate protection and material assistance;
• a holistic assessment of her circumstances and a long-term wrap-around response. Kaimahi (workers) used their relationships with state agencies to shield her from the fragmented state system and bring the services she needed to her on the marae;
• relational, respectful and positive acknowledgement of her as a Māori māmā, and all she was doing, as opposed to starting from the premise that she was doing something wrong.

This very different response was underpinned by, and enacted from, Indigenous values and an Indigenous worldview.

These observations suggest that Māori leadership, governance and ongoing oversight offer the greatest potential in the urgent task of transforming the state family violence response system – for the benefit of all victim-survivors and their families and whānau.