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Download AudioA Rangitāne leader says the military style boot camp for young offenders being established in his rohe is the wrong approach.
Ten young people, nine of them Maori, will start the three-month programme next week at Oranga Tamariki’s North youth justice residence Te Au Rere a te Tonga.
Professor Meihana Durie says the programme is based on a 1950’s American military framework which is not appropriate culturally for young Maori at risk.
“We have our own approaches which are kaupapa Maori driven, by Maori for Maori and for us as an iwi, we know that works and that’s an element of our angst, that we haven’t had the opportunity to share that and to say as an iwi that we disagree with this idea of breaking vulnerable people down and then somehow trying to build them up,” he says.
Professor Durie says the iwi was not consulted and was only brought on in recent weeks.
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