Thousands of Maori people protested across New Zealand on Tuesday calling for an end to the practice of taking at-risk children away from their families, as tensions grow between the indigenous community and the government.
Children facing harm have been moved into state care for decades despite criticism from many Maori people, who believe the process is racially skewed and a legacy of colonization. Most of the children taken into state care are Maori.
Newsroom, an online news site, reported recently that officials from the children's ministry, called Oranga Tamariki, tried to take a newborn baby away from her mother in the hospital.