VOYCE Whakarongo Mai - Listen To Us: Our journey and our newest Care Experienced Museum Project

By Amanda Faauga, Sydney-Anne Martin & Jamie Lee Evans

Photo: Michael Perkins, VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai & Jamie Lee Evans

 

VOYCE – Whakarongo Mai stands for Voices of the Young and Care Experienced – Listen to Me. We were created with care experienced young people, for care experienced young people. We work with care experienced pēpi (babies), tamariki (children) and rangatahi (young people).

VOYCE has been in operation since 2017 and has been working hard to make sure young people have their say in lots of different ways since. VOYCE has helped young people speak to the Select Committee, and have their voices heard at a government level.

VOYCE also runs tūhono, or connection events, to help care experienced young people meet other people who are also in care. These events can be a whole range of things, but some examples of VOYCE tūhono/events include pool parties, picnics, trampoline park fun, learn to surf, and so much more!

VOYCE Kaiwhakamana (advocates) help young people by attending FGC’s (Family Group Conferencing), making sure that young people have their voices heard, and understanding the decisions that are being made. Kaiwhakamana can help attend other meetings with young people and support young people in residences. VOYCE does all this work because when we were being created, young people told us that they needed a service that could support them, help them understand what was happening, and to help connect them people who were important to them.

The VOYCE pou

The VOYCE pou were co-created with care experienced young people and Māori artist, Shane Hansen, to reflect the five pou, or pillars of VOYCE:

·       Whakatairanga – We promote the collective voice of care experienced tamariki and rangatahi atawhai so that it can influence the wider care system.

·       Whai Pūkenga – We equip and enable tamariki and rangatahi atawhai for their future.

·       Whakamana – We advocate alongside of and with tamariki and rangatahi atawhai in relation to their goals and concerns.

·       Rangatiratanga – We build leadership among tamariki and rangatahi atawhai.

·       Tūhono - We connect tamariki and rangatahi atawhai through activities and local networks.

The pou are represented by artwork of animals that embody elements of the pou, for example, the web of the spider in the Tūhono pou, represents the strong bonds that a young person forms with their whānau and other important support people. The whakatairanga pou is represented by the Tui, whose beautiful song is heard loud and clear – for all to hear.  This is representative of our young people having their voices heard in the care system.

 

The Foster Care Museum

The Foster Care Museum Project in Aotearoa[1] is six months young and growing. VOYCE Whakarongo Mai has provided incubation and seed funding to get it started. The project is inspired by Foster Youth Museum (FYM) in the United States, which has been running for 20 years. The Aotearoa project will be officially named soon. This and all other critical decisions are guided by an advisory committee of seven former care experienced youth. Jamie Lee Evans, who is also a former foster youth, is the founder of FYM in the U.S. She moved to Aotearoa seven years ago and is leading the project.

The pilot phase of the Aotearoa museum includes three Pop-up exhibitions around the country. Each Pop-up is accompanied by a storytelling workshop geared to support youth to identify the most poignant and important stories and artefacts that represent their experience of foster care. Pop-ups give the project the opportunity to sample the kinds of stories that Aotearoa youth want to make known. At the end of each pop up the youth have the opportunity to loan or donate their items to the museum’s developing collection. The first two pop ups have been immensely successful, with sizable public attendance and youth donations to the collection.

The first Pop-up in Auckland had more than 30 items on exhibition. It included a contribution from Tupua. His piece was a hand made carving by his father who was in prison at the time he made it. The carving is a wooden frame with five cut-outs for photos. Those holes remain empty, depicting the hard truth that many if not most children who spend their lives in foster care, rarely have photos of themselves as infants or children. Tupua has loaned the carving to the museum, and it was also displayed at the second pop up in Christchurch.

More than 40 items were displayed at the Christchurch pop up, including teddy bears, paintings, and documentation from interactions with the foster care system. More than 50 people from the community attended the Pop-up. An artefact commented on by many visitors was a souvenir brought back from a foster family who put their foster kids in respite care while the biological family went on a tropical island holiday. This was donated to the collection - the donor stating powerfully that the piece was a symbol of being excluded rather than included.

More pop ups are planned for other parts of the country. When a critical mass of artefacts and art has been collected, the project will begin looking for a larger and possibly more permanent space to invite more of the public to see and hear the stories of care experienced youth. The hope is to inspire communities to make a difference in the lives of youth in care and to educate about the journeys, needs, fears and successes these youth experience.

 

From a youth advisory committee member

It is an undeniable privilege to be on the advisory committee for a project that has the chance for us all to reflect, inform and potentially change the care system. It involves many voices with different relationships to the care system and brings stories of different times, the improvements, the changes and the unfortunate on-going issues still faced today.

This is done mostly through late night online meetings as our advisory committee includes young parents, students overseas, and hard workers with varying work hours.

This project is to showcase the powerful stories of our young people and what they will and have already overcome. We have identified some consistent themes here in New Zealand and continue to gather stories and artifacts to showcase them.

Our Museum themes include:

·       Unfiltered - an intense showcase of the gruesome details of abuse and the unfolding of the protection of abuse.

·       Advocacy and Policy Change - the respect given to and acknowledgment of the power of survivors, and the effects and triggers that come with being a dedicated advocate.

·       Loss of Culture - an important theme that has been felt across Aotearoa by many of the diverse cultures here is loss of culture. Not having the chance to learn and understand our culture and having to find access points of understanding as a cultural outsider in adulthood.

We have also identified that being a survivor of foster care and then becoming a parent can be tough because of the trauma carried, and the anxiety of being judged for your parenting. Something as simple as being in public with unbrushed hair or bare feet creates anxiety about having a report of neglect made about you. As a care experienced parent we have fear that there is a target on our backs.

 

Amanda’s story featured in the Foster Care Museum: Halloween Haul

October 31st 2002

 

I’m waiting for the school day to end to go home and find anything that can pass as a trick or treat basket. My siblings and I are excited to get free lollies from door knocking, knowing that we would have instant noodles or marmite sandwiches[2] as our main course at dinner time. But, the school bell hasn't rung and I’m being sent to the school office. Muscle memory tells me this is normal as I’m always going to the office for something. But my two older sisters, my twin brother and I have all been called to the office, which is confusing. We get put into the car with a lady who said we would be staying at "mum’s friends" for a bit. My oldest sister in the front seat starts crying first as we were driving. I’m in the middle of the back seat with my brother on my left and my other sister on my right. The second sister starts crying saying she doesn't want to go. My brother starts crying like it's a chain reaction that can't be helped. I can't comprehend why they’re crying or what is happening. We arrive at a house and I don't want to go on, I want to go trick or treating. I don't care for your hot meal, your clean new clothes or even my own bed in my own room. Today I am supposed to be getting lollies and rushing home to share with mum.

 

Our new caregivers seem to understand the importance of Halloween to us "neglected kids" so they load us all up into their Honda Odyssey and take us to PAK'nSAVE [3]. They tell us that we can pick one item from the lolly aisle. My twin brother and I scanned the shelves and what popped  out was the 1kg bag of Mackintosh's toffees. What a score! If we can only pick one thing why not this? After protesting that they mean we can have one item between all of us they say we can have the one bag of Mackintosh's only if we share them between the four of us. My brother and I protest and then give up and opt for some pick’nMix lollies each.

[1] Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand

[2] Marmite sandwiches are sandwiches that contain Marmite spread. Marmite is a type of yeast-based spread, thick in texture and dark in colour. Those who have tried it say you either love it or hate it 😊

[3] PAK'nSAVE is a New Zealand discount supermarket chain known for offering low prices on groceries by keeping costs down. The stores have a no-frills, warehouse-style layout, and customers are expected to pack their own groceries.