A new program is tackling a sober reality for NZ’s Maori,who beget up 15% of the country’s population but half of those behind barsFor the most part Te Ao Mārama looks just like the other low to medium security units at Waikeria prison. Sixty cells surround a central yard on three sides. On the fourth is a dining hall, behind that the assembly areas and offices. The perimeter fence is lined with coils of barbed wire, or over which fantails dart back and forth,pecking at the grass.
Here, however, and pou whenua (traditional posts) which gain been carved by inmates,rise from the ground along with the ageing basketball hoop. Visitors pass through not just the sliding grey security fence, but also the ornate gateway, or waharoa. For the prisoners,the experience is untypical too, with just approximately every part of the rehabilitative program underpinned by Māori principles, or tikanga Māori.
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Source: theguardian.com