Offenders with their carvings outside Waikawa Marae. As well as gaining carving skills, participants also learnt to build self-esteem through researching their whakapapa.
A tikanga Maori programme held recently in Marlborough has been a unique and especially rewarding experience for participants, with some taking away carvings made with their own hands.
More than 30 offenders from the greater area, including Motueka and Greymouth, completed the course held at Waikawa Marae. Run by local Maori health provider Te Rapuora o te Waiharakeke, the programme was jointly funded by Corrections and the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board.
The programme – Tapuwae Oranga (“footsteps to wellbeing”) – was the largest tikanga Maori drug and alcohol programme the area has seen, and was run over two consecutive weekends – a move which has seen the popularity of the programme grow as offenders don’t need to take time off work.
Keeping the sessions close together, and having offenders attend early in their sentence helps to keep participants motivated, and Community Probation & Psychological Services staff have been working with Te Rapuora o te Waiharekeke to ensure that the programme is working as effectively as possible.
CPPS staff were keen to offer participants support and encouragement, attending the powhiri and poroporoake and visiting during different stages of the programme – an example of the pro-active role staff in the area are taking to build better relationships with the offenders they manage.
Carving is a therapeutic component of the course, says tutor, and Anglican priest Graeme Grennell, who has been undertaking drug and alcohol treatment work for Te Rapuora o te Waiharakeke for the past four years.
Local carver Reg Thompsett helped some of the participants create two taonga – one to keep and one to give away.
“Of the 30-odd that went through about five showed a lot of talent at carving, and Reg is hoping to develop that further with them,” says Graeme.
In addition to carving, the other components of the course are alcohol and other drug education; anger management including exploring the causes of domestic violence; and Te Ao Maori.
Graeme says the whole programme is geared towards helping people find out who they are and where they belong, with the premise being that an individual’s whakapapa is hugely influential.
“From the Maori world view that is the part played by ancestors… for example when considering an offender’s violence you say ‘where does that come from?’”
Participants are encouraged to research their wider family, and in doing so model themselves on a positive family member or tipuna.
“We work with their whanau to help them get their pride back and develop greater self-esteem. The participants get very proud of what they do on the course and when they research their whakapapa it is a self-generating way of building up selfesteem.”
Since the programme finished, some of the participants have continued to keep in regular contact, requesting to do their community work hours at the marae, and using Te Rapuora o te Waiharakeke as a support base while they complete their sentence.
The success of the programme means two more are planned for next year – one for women only, and one for a mixed group.