A Maori Service Development Team meeting at Orakei Marae.
“Kaua e rangiruatia te haŻ o te hoe; e kore to taŻtou waka e uŻ ki te uta”
“Do not lift the paddle out of unison or our canoe will never reach the shore”
To National Maori Service Development Adviser Barney Tihema, this proverb sums up the role of Corrections’ Maori service development advisers.
“Essentially we are here to help reduce the disproportionate rate of Maori offending,” says Barney. “We are creating networks between the grass roots and the rest of Corrections and working together to reduce re-offending.
“Advisers do this by building partnerships with Maori communities, helping ensure the programmes and services Corrections provides are effective for Maori and that Corrections is responsive to Maori.”
The advisers play an important role in reducing re-offending, Barney explains. “We know over 50 percent of the prison population are Maori and we know that one size does not fit all in rehabilitation.
“Providing the ‘right intervention’ for Maori begins with an acknowledgement of the specific needs of Maori.”
Corrections has eight regional and two site-based Maori service development advisers at prisons around the country. They work to integrate Maori cultural values and to make sure Maori philosophies and practices are at the forefront when considering solutions for addressing reoffending by Maori.
In practice this means visiting a Maori Focus Unit, assisting with health or education contracts, providing feedback on policy documents, mentoring staff, having input into operational decisions, attending runanga meetings and liaising with Kaumatua or Kaitiaki.
“It means ensuring national programmes for Maori are consistently implemented and that feedback from programme providers, the community, and staff is channelled to Corrections,” Barney says.
“It means working with Maori staff networks to facilitate this feedback, support staff, and promote recruitment and retention. Working together we will get there,” says Barney.
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