Monetary payments and an apology are the key parts of settlement offers, and for most agencies and faith-based institutions, are the only redress offered. A small number of counselling sessions are included in some offers and at times, other forms of non-monetary redress have been provided. But what survivors said they also needed was help with employment training, housing support and other practical ways to get their lives back on track. Tanya and Georgina Sammons said a big impediment was their lack of education and having to build connections to their family and culture from scratch. Loretta Ryder said: “I don’t really want the money. I want a house for all of my kids on our land. The answer for me lies with the people.” Another survivor, Mr A, said The Salvation Army needed to offer substantive forms of support, not just money. He was unhappy with the dollar value put on his years in care, and said he would have preferred to have someone actively help in his prison-release plan and a life coach to help him stay out of prison.

For many Māori, restoring the mana of the survivor, including their wider whānau, is necessary to putting right the harm that was done. This includes restoring connection to whakapapa, community and whenua. One survivor explained, “connection and relationships are what heals people. When you take away those connections you take away the wellbeing of that person”.

Māori survivors have told us that they wanted specific steps to support individual and collective well-being, and help to connect or reconnect to whakapapa and culture. Pacific survivors have also emphasised wanting cultural restoration, including for example learning language.  

Keith Wiffin said he considered redress to be about “restoring the wellbeing of those people affected [and] this means their health and their broader needs: things like counselling, education, housing.” Another survivor said she was “seeking justice for my spirit, my heart”.

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