Series Classification: M (Mature Audiences)
The Stolen Children of Aotearoa podcast tells the story of one gang whānau who spent their teens in the custody of the state. It features Albie, his brothers Rob and Jason, and his former partner April.
The podcast is presented by veteran journalist Aaron Smale. He'd been trying to understand why so many Māori men ended up in gangs and prisons. The people he spoke to told him that the answer had a lot to do with the state-run care system.
Aaron met Albie at a gang hui in Featherston, where he was one of the first gang members to speak publicly about the abuse he'd experienced as a child, growing up in state care.
Albie and his brothers speak candidly with Aaron about their experiences in the boys' homes, rife with violence and abuse, and how the lessons of violence they learned there took them on a path to gangs and prison.
April tells her story of a childhood spent in the girls' homes. Equally violent and abusive, she emerged scarred and traumatised and found safety in gang life.
The extent of the abuse that happened in state care and the connections between this and Aotearoa's gangs was eventually laid bare in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care's report. They drew a clear link between childhoods spent in violent and abusive state-run welfare homes and graduates of those homes going on to join gangs and end up in prison.
What Aaron had heard and what people like Albie and April were saying was confirmed.
In the final chapter of the podcast, the government issues an apology—but what does this mean for whānau like this one?
Photo: Te Māngai Pāho
Photo: NZ On Air
