JustSpeak - Maori and the Criminal Justice System - Rethinking ...

solutions for the social disenfranchisement and disproportionate rates of
prosecution and imprisonment of Māori.
Research across all disciplines – from the sciences to education, from law to
social policy – is essential to understanding the interconnected nature of the
issues Māori face today. Organisations, departments or individuals wishing to
engage in interdisciplinary research might consider at greater length creating a
team with representatives from different disciplines to review the entire justice
system in order to confront these multiple and overlapping issues.
Most saliently, however, the group was generally of the view that despite some
positive evaluations of government strategies, ultimately the solution to dealing
with Māori offending must, at the very least partially, come from Māori, and be
rooted in mātauranga and tikanga Māori. Therefore any interdisciplinary research
must have meaningful Māori participation and must be prepared to be open to
kaupapa Māori ways of performing research and Māori views and concepts of
justice. A body seemingly well-placed to lead such research would be Ngā Pae
o te Māramatanga, which has worked across disciplines with a commitment to a
Māori research methodology.
One way in which such interdisciplinary research could be coordinated, with a
focus on Māori principles of justice, is through the creation of a publicly-funded
Centre for Cultural Research, as was suggested by Moana Jackson. A body
such as this could direct research and funding into broad-based research into
structural problems within the justice system which impact upon Māori, in order to
suggest more comprehensive solutions to these problems. This may overlap
with existing groups such as Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, and careful effort
would have to be made to avoid duplication or wasted resources.
More solutions-based research
11. JustSpeak recommends that research in this area places emphasis on solutions.
There also appears to be a scarcity of research into effective interventions –
“what works” – for the rehabilitation of Māori offenders in the New Zealand
context. Nor have we come across much specific research that is aimed at
attempting to provide solutions to the structural problem of the
overrepresentation of Māori in the system, including the systemic bias that
currently exists.
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