We have been involved in prisoner reintegration since 2014, and an advocate for systematic change to support this. The establishment of the Mana Wahine programme in 2019, a joint venture between Corrections, and ATAWHAI Charitable Trust, focuses on the wahine (woman) from tairawhiti in Auckland Womans prison is a further step in this mahi. The Mama wahine programme includes kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) visits  at the prison between members of ATAWHAI and the wahine.

The programme grew out of an earlier initiative driven by the late Dr Apirana Mahuika who was Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou Chair . ” He was interested in engaging with Ngati Porou in prison to connect them to our iwi.” They started in 2012 with monthly visits to the Hawkes bay men’s regional prison, making them the first iwi to extend such support. “This was ground-breaking for our men who were always amazed when uncle Api would visit. They felt a sense of pride that we were there and that started our journey to ensure we did all we could to support them before they came home ” says Whiti.

The aim is simple – to support those who were in prison, and reduce the number of Maori wahine heading into prison. ” What we have seen is the whanau can function quite happily without the father but it falls to pieces without the mother”. “They are generally the backbone of the whanau. Without a mum at home, their tamariki are usually taken care of by grandparents, aunties and uncles if they are lucky. In some cases , they end up with Oranga Tamariki. Statistics tell us if this happens, they are 9.5 times more likely to go to prison themselves.

The name Mana Wahine came about because the wahine felt as if their mana had been stripped from them while in the system. ” We wanted to ensure they always have mana – that it lives within them and is fostered.”

ATAWHAI wants our whanau to thrive. This means believing in them and getting them to believe in themselves and make a fresh start when they get back to Tairawhiti.

They are concerned they will get addicted to meth again. Quite a number of them were convicted due to it and find the time in prison good to get clean and back on track. Most know they wont have anywhere to live due to the housing shortage so will end up living with friends, who are addicts themselves.

The visits allow the wahine to organize things before their return to Tairawhiti. A safe house for the transition back into the community after prison would be hugely helpful. If they have a roof over their heads and a job, it would provide an enormous amount of positivity in their lives.

However, in developing any support, the wahine are asked what was important to them. “This has been a cornerstone of all our korero with the wahine ” she says. “To be effective and sustainable, all provision of support cannot be a continuation of what has been previously done, even if worth the best of intention and commitment. It will be a combination of looking backwards, both from systematic and wahine perspective, in order to move into the future and thrive. So there needs to be on-going and timely access to counselling and tikanga in order to facilitate this “.

Trust Tairawhiti cast its net far and wide to talk to many facets of the community in its drive to put together a wellness strategy that is truly representative of Te Tairawhiti. As part of that , Trust Tairawhiti representatives joined ATAWHAI on one of the kanohi ki te kanohi visits in mid 2019 and in response to a challenge from Whiti that their consultation should include those most vulnerable in the community. The wahine, Whiti had said, were and are, a target audience for Trust Tairawhiti and their wellbeing strategy” says Whiti. ” They will hit almost all the vulnerable factors here – no housing, no employment, tamariki in Oranga Tamariki care and poor health”.

There was so much that could be done to help the incarcerated woman, which would in turn help the wider community on many levels.