When he was four weeks old, Mana was placed into foster care. The first years of his life were marked with fear, violence and isolation as he was moved from home to home until he was luckily taken in by loving foster parents. Two years ago he met Jaye Pukepuke, leader of Bros for Change, a youth work programme for rangatahi tāne in Ōtautahi (Christchurch). Māori make up 59 percent of children in state care. How can rangatahi find their own sense of whānau when theirs is fractured?

This episode is a part of our series Rediscovering Aotearoa: a decolonisation series. Listen to our podcast on Whānau | Family here, and read the article here.

Made with support from NZ on Air.