Murder of disabled people The Disability Clothesline (http:// disabilityclothesline.org.nz/) reports that 37 disabled people were murdered between 1997 and 2019. It is likely that this is an underestimate, as these figures are accessed from public documents and reports. Also, It is not known what percentage of these are family violence deaths. Even so, despite these deaths, there is no mechanism, in Aotearoa, to record and report specifically on the deaths of disabled people. Family violence-related deaths of disabled people may, by law, be investigated by the Family Violence Death Review Committee (FVDRC), however, disability has not, to date, been systematically investigated or reported on by the FVDRC. The FVDRC is working towards addressing this gap. Children There is little information about the abuse of tāngata whaikaha Māori or disabled children in Aotearoa. Much of the abuse in institutional settings was abuse of children (for example, that investigated by the Abuse in Care Royal Commission (2020) and the Donald Beasley Institute), but this is unquantified. Sir Robert Martin was one of many disabled children who, as babies or children, were put into institutions such as Kimberly Hospital in Levin and there suffered many forms of violence and abuse.93 Sir Robert says “the Farm earned itself a reputation for brutality…I don’t remember being touched and cuddled like other kids are. I was never loved as a child. Me and all those other kids…” He goes on to say: People say these things didn’t happen, but they did. Or they say that if these things did happen then they were unusual. That it was just a few people who did bad things. I’ve spoken to people all over New Zealand who lived in Kimberley and places like it. In fact, all over the world people have told me their stories and they are all the same: institutions are places of abuse.94 A study among children in special education units in Aotearoa95 established that children with learning disabilities were far more likely than non-disabled children to experience physical violence, bullying and sexual abuse including rape, and, although girls especially often tried to report the abuse, they were frequently ignored. In a follow up report about the same study (2006), nearly half of the participating children were identified as Māori, but the data was not disaggregated by ethnic identity. However, identifying racism as an intersectional form of abuse, one boy in the study responded to a question about reporting abuse with “It would be a waste of time. Cops wouldn’t believe a Māori kid in our town”.96 According to parents of disabled children and their advocates, until recently seclusion was being used to control some disabled children’s behaviour at school and currently, disabled children in New Zealand are being regularly excluded from school.97 These practices are harmful, stigmatising and disabling, and have long-term effects on children’s education, lifelong wellbeing and participation in the community. Acting now for a violence and abuse free future 33