No job and ready to lash out at society

By Carroll Du Chateau and Richard Knight


Lack of jobs is goading Maori men to violence, says the champion of urban Maori and Labour candidate for Hauraki, John Tamihere.

"Maori men are young, feisty, unskilled and still leaving school without the right qualifications," he said. This makes them frustrated, alienated from society and ready to lash out.

Mr Tamihere believes a solid urban Maori infrastructure based around education, sport and zero tolerance to violence will produce employable Maori men who can contribute to society.

He said that while women were adapting well to the new order by moving into service-related and high technology sectors, men saw desk and waiting-style jobs as "sissy and lacking in mana."

They also resent the fact that their women have the pay packet - and the power.

This can lead to violence moving from the street to domestic violence where it is showing up as early as five in hostile antisocial children who have watched their mothers get beaten up.

Act MP Donna Awatere Huata is convinced that the problem starts with young, single unskilled Maori women - and the men who abuse their children.

She points to appalling statistics: 75 per cent of all Maori unemployed cannot read or write; 75 per cent of Maori babies are born to young women not married to their fathers; 25 per cent of fathers who are there for the birth leave soon after - result, 50 per cent of Maori babies are raised by single mothers and transient men.

Donna Awatere Huata, a clinical psychologist and mother of seven, suggests much of the problem boils down to a skewed economic message sent down via the DPB.

A benefit brings in more than a woman's partner can earn so there is no incentive to work through the issues and stay with him.

"So she ends up having a series of transient partners who move through her life causing havoc. We don't have the figures, but the number of men abusing kids that are not their own is so high."

Donna Awatere Huata's solution is a single-hit parenting programme that physically goes into the 6000 highly dysfunctional homes in the country and teaches mothers how to parent.

"That teaches them that the minute that man raises his voice to her kids he's out."

Like Mr Tamihere she believes at-risk children should be taken out of their birth families.

A worker at the Whakaruruhau women's refuge in Hamilton, Kirimatao Paipa, says a return to traditional values is the only solution to a problem spiralling out of control.

She says physical aggression has become pervasive and people turning a blind eye to what occurs on the streets, in homes and on television are effectively accepting it.

She mourns the passing of the time when traditional Maori values dictated how a relationship was formed and conducted.

"If a woman was mistreated in any way, her family would intervene. While there would be a meeting between the two families, more was at stake. There was the mana of the family, the hapu and the tribe.

"Shame was a big part of self-discipline, the last thing anyone wanted to do was belittle the tribe and the family's standing by perpetuating violence against his wife or children," she said.

Ariana Simpson, a full-time student and volunteer at Whakaruruhau, believes Maori have been conditioned to accept rules and attitudes brought to this country by Europeans.

She and Kirimatao Paipa believe there has to be a multi-level approach to the problem, because there is no one solution.

They say Maori have to take the discussion back to the marae and talk about roles and responsibilities; violence and consequences.