The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care interim report – Tāwharautia: Pūrongo o te Wā (Tāwharautia) describes the key themes and common issues from the experiences shared by survivors and witnesses. The name Tāwharautia is a word that implies providing shelter or care whether physical, emotional or spiritual. Tāwharautia has two volumes.

The inquiry was set up to examine, effectively and impartially, the abuse and neglect of the country’s youngest and most vulnerable individuals while in State and faith-based care primarily between 1950 and 1999. The terms of reference encompass a broader range of care settings and types of abuse and neglect than any other similar inquiry in the world. They require us to examine, among other things, the nature and extent of abuse in all of these settings and how different groups, such as Māori, Pacific people and disabled people, have been harmed. Despite the comprehensiveness of the terms of reference, we can reduce them to four essential questions:

• How and why have people ended up in care?

• What abuse has taken place, why, and with what effects?

• What changes have already been, and can be made to prevent and respond to abuse?

• How should State and faith- based institutions provide redress and rehabilitation to survivors?

This interim report is an overview of what has been learned so far about these questions.

Volume One outlines the Commission's work to date and how they have approached it, and analyses the key themes and common issues from the experiences shared by survivors and witnesses;

Volume Two is devoted to the voices of survivors. It shares survivors’ stories about their experiences of abuse in care.