Greetings to you who came to us with nothing in your hands. With sorrow clouding your hearts, the burden of guilt weighing heavily on your very being. Spirits crushed by the shame that still pervades your minds proffering a simple prayer. Deliver us. 

We listened to your anguished memories, heard the sobbing of your hearts, and have been tasked to give you solace from the harsh winds of time, resolution from the gravity of your abuse. May the unseen hand of providence shine upon you, the wisdom of the ages guide you, and that in the truth and justice we have sought together, may you find respite.

Finally let us pay homage to those who will not see the end of this long journey, those of you who now rest beyond the collective realm of memories, into the deep recesses of the night we bid you farewell. Sleep in eternal serenity, in the embrace of your ancestors. While your voices now are silent, your words will endure. Rest in peace. 

And in that peace, we hope you find solace in this report.

Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light - this name was given to us by the Survivor Advisory Group of Experts and Pou Tikanga, and we are grateful to them for this tāonga. This name reflects the journey that survivors have been on: from being isolated, unseen, and not listened to – to being heard, telling their experiences, and now looking to the light for healing and restoration.

This report recognises the scale of abuse and neglect in State and faith-based care in Aotearoa New Zealand. It focuses on survivors’ experiences and how the betrayal of a promise of care affected them, their whānau and communities.

We acknowledge and thank all survivors, whānau, hapū, iwi, communities and support networks who advocated or played a role in bringing about this Inquiry, for their determination and tenacity, and their patience.

We thank and acknowledge those who spoke to us and shared their experiences – nothing could have been achieved without your participation and engagement. Your contributions have been indispensable in framing findings and recommendations to achieve a more inclusive society that would see individuals, whānau and communities having everything they need to flourish and to enhance their mauri and mana. We are grateful to you for reliving traumatic experiences, making that sacrifice in the hope of achieving a better future for your mokopuna and future generations.

We recognise that for some survivors this was the first time they had shared their experience. We heard you and we have tried to reflect your collective experience in this report. We learnt along the way as we carried out our investigations and gathered evidence and information.

We also mihi and acknowledge those survivors who were not able to come forward, some because they had lost their trust and confidence in authorities due to being abused and neglected, some because they did not want to talk about their experiences.

We also acknowledge those who have died, sometimes by suicide, and some while the Inquiry was underway. We pay tribute to them and acknowledge their whānau and friends.

We acknowledge those former and current staff of State and faith-based care institutions who came forward to share their experiences, as well as the experts and advocates who provided insights into abuse and neglect in care and who will continue to fight for change, as they always have.

We acknowledge and thank the advocates, supporters, whānau, community leaders, iwi and Māori, and other people and organisations who dedicated time and effort over the years and called for an Inquiry, for redress and for an apology for survivors. They listened to and believed survivors, they petitioned, and they stood up and spoke up for them. There are too many to name, but this Inquiry would not have been possible without their dedication and efforts in calling for a light to be publicly shone on the abuse and neglect in care that left a trail of broken lives across Aotearoa New Zealand.

We thank and acknowledge Pou Tikanga for their advice to the Inquiry and for sharing their mātauranga Māori that has helped us to frame this report in a way that is consistent with tikanga Māori, while also ensuring the kaupapa discussed is held in an appropriate manner. The tikanga Māori section, karakia and waiata you have drafted and gifted, and weaved into the reo Māori names of each part so powerfully set the scene for the experiences and analysis that is covered throughout the report. Ka rawe!

We are grateful to the Inquiry’s Survivor Advisory Group of Experts, Te Taumata, Te Ara Takatū, the Royal Commission Forum and our Report Reference Groups for their advice and critical friendship. You were encouraging and supportive, but you also provided honest feedback. You agreed to speak truthfully and to constructively criticise our systems and processes and provoke our thinking. Thank you for your generosity of time and efforts, and for your honest engagement and advice.

We acknowledge our former commissioners, Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ, Julia Steenson and Judge Ali’imuamua Sandra Alofivae, MNZM for their expertise, tenacity and intellectual contribution, which strengthened our systems and processes, including the way we worked and our thinking. We appreciate your contributions.

We thank our specialist advisors, Professor Tracey McIntosh, MNZM and Associate Professor Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni, MNZM.  We are very grateful for the knowledge you shared, and for your advice and contributions. 

We acknowledge our staff and the counsel who have assisted the Inquiry. Our secretariat has been led over time by Mervin Singham, Helen Potiki and Benesia Smith, MNZM. Each of them has brought themselves and their many years of experience to the fore in leading a diverse and skilled group of staff through many changes to deliver a comprehensive work programme in a consummate manner.  They have admirably advised and supported us in our mahi. Thank you, Mervin, Helen and Benesia – we are indebted to you for all your advice, support and assistance. We thank Simon Mount KC and Kerryn Beaton KC, our two-lead senior counsel assisting the Inquiry. Your oversight of the large team of counsel assisting and provision of legal advice has been exemplary.  They also ably provided advice and support to us in our endeavours.  Thank you, Simon and Kerryn – we are indebted to you too for all of your advice, support and assistance.

To the many staff and counsel assisting that have worked at the Inquiry since 2018 until now, we thank you so much for working tirelessly to support survivors to tell their experiences and to ensure our interim reports and this report, encapsulated those experiences.

Finally, we acknowledge all New Zealanders who have engaged with or otherwise assisted the Inquiry. We all have a role to play in ensuring that Aotearoa New Zealand recognises what happened and why, seeks to right those wrongs, and seeks to build a future where abuse and neglect has been eliminated. We now know that countless thousands of children, young people and adults in the care of State and faith-based institutions have been abused and neglected, at times by multiple abusers, and that this has occurred for generations. We all have a role in seeing that this does not continue.