The Children, Young Persons and their Families act 1989, from a Maori perspective

Abstract

To do research from a Maori perspective is new and challenging, and needs to be valid in its own right. Having said that, it also needs to be written down. The journey that I have taken is like going onto a marae to hui. Those being researched are the tangata whenua, and as the researcher I am the manuhiri. Within this context, ethical issues have been asked on the journey and these are addressed. For any qualitative research you have to look at what is there, do it, then explain why it was done that way. For this particular piece of work, it became apparent that the methodology, the process by which the information was obtained, became the focus of the research. The research method became a substantial part of this thesis. While the methodology was the guideline, the data and actual subject matter, and what came out of that, is the second part of this thesis. Practitioners in the Department of Social Welfare ("DSW") provide a service to whanau in the care and protection of their children and young people, pursuant to the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 (the "CYP&F Act" or the "Act"). This thesis addresses: