Following the success of his Pūwhakamua programme for men, Billy Macfarlane wants to expand. Photo / Andrew Warner
It has taken Billy Macfarlane two years to prove his offender rehabilitation programme works. But now that he has the backing of police, iwi, the community and the justice system, Macfarlane is ready to expand. He speaks exclusively with Stephanie Arthur-Worsop about his next steps.
Billy Macfarlane had a lot to prove when he set up the Pūwhakamua programme.
Here was a former drug lord on the straight path who wanted to guide his fellow Te Arawa men to a better life.
There were doubts about his intentions and his ability to turn hardened criminals into functioning members of society.
But two years later, 21 gang members, drug addicts, thieves and domestic abusers have entered his programme and 20 have emerged as counsellors, mentors and steeped in tikanga Māori.
That's a 95 per cent success rate.
Now, with the proof what he's doing works, Macfarlane wants to not only get men out of prison but stop them going there in the first place.
A youth programme, aimed at high-risk 12 to 17-year-old boys, is Macfarlane's next step to expanding Pūwhakamua in 2021.
Speaking with the Rotorua Daily Post, Macfarlane said youth had been identified as the highest priority right now.
"Our youth, especially in Rotorua at the moment, they're going crazy.
"If we don't do something about it, try to put a bit of a circuit-breaker there, those ones are going to be the next ones that fill up the cells of the men we're getting out now.
"A lot of the men we've been bringing through the Pūwhakamua programme have identified that they want to be doing this sort of work and they feel like they could make a difference with our youth.
"So we get to kill two birds with one stone. If we get the youth programme going, we can get some of these men to interact with them and mentor some of them. That's going to help the men move forward with their journey and also help the youth."
Macfarlane said he already had a plot of land pegged for the youth division and planned on applying for government funding, the likes of which funded the original Pūwhakamua programme.
"Our youth have different needs so their programme is going to be a little different. We want to get them seafood gathering, diving, jumping out of aeroplanes. We're also hoping to bring in some people from Special Forces to help us with some of the youth.
"What we're doing at the moment is building our plan. We spoke to our iwi leaders first and they have given us their support and now our trust is in the throes of making funding applications.
"Our youth are our leaders of tomorrow and we can't be disconnected from them."
Macfarlane said he also had plans to set up a women's support group to start helping some of Te Arawa's wāhine.
"I want to start with two or three of our women, those on home detention or EM (electronically monitored) bail and take them to the Redwoods or the lake to do some exercise then sit down with them and talk, be an ear for them, find out why they are where they are."
He said a plan to develop a residential programme like Pūwhakamua for women was on the cards but would require a woman to step forward and lead it.
When asked what he thought was making his programme successful where others weren't, Macfarlane said it was simple - culture.
"Our culture has been lost in the eyes of many because there's too much haka, mau rākau and warrior stuff going on.
"Even our own people think they can make excuses for their bad behaviour, blaming it on the warrior gene. We haven't got a warrior gene, we've actually got a gardener gene.
"Our ancestors never ever laid a finger on each other for 30,000 years. The whole warrior thing has happened since we got to New Zealand. We've destroyed ourselves since we've been in New Zealand.
"Our people were loving, caring people. Even some early colonisers who came here spoke about the way Māori treated their woman and children, that it was like no other. We're the worst statistic for that now.
"We've been colonised full circle, and we're failing miserably at it, that's why we're so high on all the negative statistics, because we call ourselves Māori but we don't act like Māori.
"What we're teaching these men here is how to care for each other, how to discuss their problems, how to problem solve, and work together.
"Individually, if you look at all those men's rap sheets, you'd say, 'Oh my God', but you look at them now and they're all kind, they're nice to our visitors, because we have created an environment that doesn't accept anything else.
"I believe with our youth, we have to grab them now before they get ruined by the older years."
Department of Corrections operations director, central region Louise Wood said after some initial challenges in "balancing Macfarlane's parole requirements and his running of the Pūwhakamua programme", the department had "reached a place of working collaboratively for a common goal and to support those men who are subject to community sentences and have a condition to complete the programme".
"We communicate regularly with those completing the programme and Mr Macfarlane to ensure each participant is able to meet their sentence requirements and have the support they need.
"This work is completed across both prisons and probation, and staff have attended the site of the programme at Mr MacFarlane's invitation."
Wood said the department was not aware of the proposed new programmes but with any programme which had the potential to benefit the wider community, "we would be keen to understand the content and purpose and look to see what support for this programme we could provide for the people we manage".
Te Arawa Pukenga Kōeke chairman Paraone Pirika said Macfarlane had their support since Pūwhakamua's inception.
"There were people who had their doubts about Billy because of his past but I knew Billy and I knew his family so when he said he had changed, I believed him.
"The passion he has came out in his korero so it wasn't a hard decision to back Pūwhakamua. Even if it had fallen over, it was always worth the try."
Pirika said it was to Macfarlane's testament that there were men from his original intake now mentoring the new men coming through the programme.
"You're never going to get 100 per cent with a programme like this and it is not something that's going to happen overnight but Billy has been busy with his kaupapa and it is working well. He's got it rocking at the moment."
He said the pukenga kōeke supported Macfarlane's plans to expand into youth and women's programmes.
"We are confident any expansion will be legitimate."
An appropriate spokesperson for police was not available for comment.
"My missus is the love of my life. I want to be a better partner for her and I want to be a mentor for others."
That is the hope of Te Rongopai Waiariki.
"I don't want [others] to end up in a gang the way I did. I want to be the positive male role model for [them] that I never had growing up."
And that is the hope of Corey Anderson.
Both of these men are going through Billy Macfarlane's Pūwhakamua programme.
And the hopes they express today wouldn't have crossed their minds a year ago.
"While I was in [prison], I hated my family because I believed they put me there. I now realise I put myself there.
"I was broken, I blamed everyone else for my problems, I was on drugs and I was wrapped up in being a mobster.
"I had lost my connection to tikanga Māori and I was on a dark path I couldn't see a way out of."
Waiariki, who has been on the programme for six months, said when he went to prison, he knew he wasn't happy with his life but each time he got out, "I carried on being a mobster".
It wasn't until Waiariki was referred to Macfarlane's programme during his most recent prison sentence that he saw a chance to change.
"When Billy walked into that interview room, it brought a tear to my eye because my cousin went through Pūwhakamua and I had heard about what it had done for him.
"Billy told me he saw something in me, that he saw the potential I had. Nobody has ever told me that before - that I had value. That's when I knew this was what I wanted.
Waiariki said being reconnected with his culture had restored his happiness and he was committed to proving to his partner that he could be a better man.
For Anderson, growing up without a father had him turning to gang members and criminals for guidance.
"I started getting up to mischief when I was about 11 or 12. The gang life was the only life I'd known so it always felt normal. It was a normal life to me.
"When I went to prison, I just ended up hanging out with bigger, better criminals. There are no good programmes, you are just surrounded by what you know."
Anderson came under Macfarlane's care through his uncle, who today is also featured in the Rotorua Daily Post, Joseph Herbert.
Anderson said seeing the changes his uncle made had been part of the inspiration for his move to change.
"My partner always wanted me to leave the gang behind so she's ultra rapt.
"I want to be a better father figure, break that cycle and make sure other [young boys] don't get up to what I got up to."
Anderson believed New Zealand needed more programmes like Pūwhakamua.
"If there had been something around when I was younger it may have saved me from taking the path that I did."
Both Anderson and Waiariki want to see Macfarlane's youth programme launched so they can help mentor the high-risk boys and prevent them from making the mistakes they made.
The jury's marathon deliberations ran for two weeks.