November 15, 2022
Tikanga Māori rehab centre fighting to stay open
A tikanga Māori drug rehabilitation centre at Dairy Flat on Auckland’s North Shore is fighting to keep its doors open after a police raid found drugs, money and guns on the premises.
Nga Kete Wananga Solutions manager Matilda Kahotea started the centre eight years ago with four other mothers of gang members, offering three month residential intensive therapy courses.
The kaiako of 20 years experience says they’ve been hugely successful with their focus on helping men no other rehab will take.
But now police want to close down them down.
“We’ve had a lot of high profile men come through our gates and we’ve seen them return home to their families, we’ve seen them working, they’re contributing to their own communities where they’re running their own NA meetings or facilitating their own groups, that’s what’s motivating us to keep going on this kaupapa,” she says.
Ms Kahotea says of the 25 men on the program at the time of the raid, only one was involved with drugs, and the incident was a reminder you can’t help everyone all the time.
She says while police have never taken up an invitation to observe the programme, the courts continue to refer men to it.