Major changes needed in foster care system

Kathleen Patricia Coster is a survivor of foster care abuse.

The 59-year-old mother is giving evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into state abuse, about growing up in foster care.

She was fostered as a baby by Pākehā parents and remained in state care until she was 7 years old.

The years were filled with abuse at the hands of those who should have protected her.

“One day at the age of seven I came home, my bags were packed and I was going home to my real family. It was a horrific shock to be told that everything that I believed, everything prior to that, was now gone."

But Kathleen’s return didn’t mean an end to the abuse which she describes as a nightmare. She ended up back in state care four years later, living in the south island.

“It was drummed into me that if you were Māori … you weren't worthy of anything and that you were a ward of the state, just one of those ‘scum’ kids."

With the inquiry wrapping up this week, Coster has been invited to participate in a survivor lead discussion panel to look at what works and what doesn’t in the current state care system.

"Removing a child from the home … there's a lot of different reasons. A lot of people say ‘We don't want the children moved’. But in my case, it saved my life."