Tikanga Māori and the Indigenisation of New Zealand’s Penal Programmes

• In Event: Prison Groups at Risk

Abstract

Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand, are grossly overrepresented in the country’s prison population. In 2019 the Government introduced an ambitious prison policy, Hókai Rangi, to rehabilitate Māori and break the cycle of chronic Māori reoffending. Hókai Rangi promotes Māori cultural identity and heritage (tikanga) as the basis of the new rehabilitative model. This model is a reflection of the evolving national discourse in New Zealand that today celebrates Māori as tangata whenua (people of the land). My paper acknowledges the need to address the overrepresentation of Māori in prison but questions whether Hókai Rangi is delivering on its promises. It reaches the dispiriting conclusion that it is failing its objectives owing to a combination of implementation woes.

Author

• Philip Austin Joseph, Faculty of Law, University of Canterbury (NZ)