Listen Now: 
A Whangarei marae has opened its doors to men on home detention, giving them an introduction to Maori culture through a marae apprentice programme.
Organiser Joby Hopa says Pehiaweri Marae took on 18 men aged under 25 at the start of the year and set them to tasks like maintenance, gardening and cooking.
Rather than being a periodic detention work programme, the important thing was to mentor them using the sort of tuakana-teina relationships that are fundamental to any marae and pretty much the same way he was taught by his grand uncle Sam.
"We’ve been able to stand in that gap for them because they don't have an Uncle Sam that they can go to. What we ended up doing was integrating the marae apprentice into everything going on our marae, a very unique marae that's open everyday. We have a gardening club, a raranga club, a waiata club, orchards and maintenance to do everyday. We just fully integrated them into everything that's going on so it just became part and parcel of normal life for them, he says.
Joby Hopa says towards the end of the 20 week programme some of the marae apprentices became eligible for courses at NorthTec, and they’re starting to find pathways to employment.
TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW CLICK HERE: JOBY HOPA
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
