Source: New Zealand Governor General
Kia ora koutou. Ngā mihi māhana ki a koutou. Nau mai haere mai, ra ki te Whare Kawana o Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
I’d like to begin by specifically acknowledging: The Honourable Karen Chhour, Minister for Children, and for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence; Linda Surtees, Chief Executive of Caring Families Aotearoa; Tatum McKay, Interim Chief Executive of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren; and Matt Reid, Chief Executive of Barnardos.
And to all our very distinguished guests, including of course this afternoon’s award recipients – tēnā koutou katoa.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to Government House Wellington, for this year’s Excellence in Foster Care Awards. These awards hold a very special place in my heart – having spent so much of my life and career advocating for the wellbeing of tamariki and whānau – and I am honoured to host you here this afternoon.
During my time as Children’s Commissioner, I saw first-hand the profound and heartbreaking consequences for children who did not grow up in safe and nurturing environments; children who so often suffered neglect and abuse at the hands of those who should have been caring for them most. And I saw how devastating that impact could be on the rest of their lives, and on the lives of future generations.
New Zealand is home to the world’s foremost longitudinal study, The Dunedin Study, which has conclusively proven these very things: that children exposed to adverse psychosocial experiences are more likely to suffer enduring emotional and physiological problems over the course of their lives. And we know the inverse to be true: that children are more likely to lead long, happy, healthy lives, when they are part of a loving and nurturing family and home.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1989, contained what was, at the time, a profound idea: that children are not simply objects who belong to their parents, and for whom decisions are made – but that childhood is a special, protected time: a time in which children should be allowed to grow, learn, and play with freedom and dignity.
I wish to thank all of this afternoon’s recipients for doing just that: for protecting that most sacred time of childhood, and for allowing children this precious and fleeting moment in their lives to simply delight in the world, and, over time, to come to understand and begin to shape their place within it.
I know that many of you receiving awards today might feel you are not worthy of any kind of recognition. I wish to insist on the opposite: I can think of few more deserving of acknowledgement and thanks for the work you do, and the deepest care you show to these most vulnerable members of our society.
The awards you will receive this afternoon are given in acknowledgment of your extraordinary manaakitanga, as well as your willingness and indeed your desire to go beyond what could reasonably be expected of you as foster parents.
It was the American puppeteer and animator Jim Henson who said that children ‘don’t remember what you try to teach them; they remember what you are.’ In being such models of selflessness, commitment, and love, you are instilling those very virtues in the children you’ve taken into your homes and care.
Speaking as a mother and a grandmother, I wholly believe that children should be limited by nothing other than the strength of their imaginations, and the reach of their dreams. I am sure that those children who have experienced the care of each of you here today will have the best possible opportunity to become whoever and whatever they wish to be in this world.
As Governor-General, on behalf of all New Zealanders, I extend my very sincerest thanks to you all – for filling the lives of these young New Zealanders with such hope, goodness, and love – and I congratulate you once again on your awards, which could not be more truly deserved.
Kia ora huihui tātou katoa.