Parenting order — supervised contact — welfare and best interests — tikanga — Te Ao Māori — Care of Children Act 2004, s 5 — Hopkins v Jackson [2022] NZHC 2649 — Brown v Argyll [2006] NZFLR 705. The parties were the separated parents of five children. The parties had raised the children to be immersed in Te Ao Māori speaking te reo, and they incorporated tikanga into their day-to-day lives. The purpose of this hearing was to make orders arranging contact between the applicant father and the children. The background of these proceedings was that while the parties were still together, two whānau hui were called in which the applicant father was challenged about a sexual relationship he had had with his cousin. The outcome of the hui was that the father would move out while working through the hara (wrong) he had caused to his whānau. The children were present and engaged in both hui, which led to their relationships with their father deteriorating. Both parties agreed that contact between the father and the children needed to start. The Court found that the welfare and best interests of the children required the relationship with their father to be re-established in a positive way, and then to be strengthened. To achieve this, the Court ordered there be three-weekly visits, moving to fortnightly thereafter. The first three visits would be supervised in order to prevent talk of conflict between the father and the wider whānau, and then further visits would be unsupervised subject to endorsement by the lawyer for children. Judgment Date: 26 July 2024. * * * Note: names have been changed to comply with legal requirements. * * *