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

citizens, policy-makers, lawyers, the media, and government. All of their effort
will be required to ensure Aotearoa New Zealand is not crippled by the
disproportionate impact of our criminal justice system upon Māori. As Justice
Williams said in the JustSpeak forum, passive engagement is not sufficient.
Fourthly, academics and policy-makers ought to investigate gaps in the research.
Further interdisciplinary research needs to be done. That research must, where
possible, be solutions-oriented. And there is room for specific research into the
Youth Court model of personalised treatment of offenders, which might assist in
determining whether a more personalised approach to Māori offenders
(consistent with tikanga Māori) might be appropriate in the mainstream criminal
justice system.
Some of these ideas have been suggested before, by others. Certain ideas are
novel. What is most self-evidently unique about what has been presented in the
preceding paper is that it comes from the perspective of young people. It is
written from a position of urgency (reflective our impatience with failures to
address this issue) – but also a position of idealism, imagination, and hope. That
overall position is summarised in the declaration at the outset of this paper which
provides a bullet-pointed overview of our views.
We believe that we can get to a position in our society when we no longer have
to speak of “Māori and the criminal justice system”. It will not be easy. But if we
can get to that destination, we will have achieved something of value not just for
lawyers and policy-makers – but for our nation as a whole. To paraphrase the
closing words of He Whaipaanga Hou, this problem will take some time to
address. However, what we can all do now is commit, Māori and Pākehā alike,
to resolving it.
The keel of our societal waka, the backbone of our society, needs greater
attention. If the keel of that waka can be crafted more carefully – with the help of
all four million of us working together – we might just be able to overcome any
obstacle that the future throws at us.
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