The Rebel in Me

Failure is no longer an option

Failure is no longer an option

• New Zealand has the highest youth suicide rate in the Western world. Over 600 young people took their lives last year

• National unemployment amongst our young is a staggering 32%

• Since 2005 the number of young criminal offenders has grown at an alarming rate

• Hospital admissions due to ‘Social Gradient’ conditions continues at an unacceptable rate with Maori and Pacific Island children at greatest risk

Ahikaa Learning CentreIwi & Whanau led Development

• 50 Iwi members established an Education Working Party

• Priority: Parents of next generationWe are losing too many of our youth - alcohol and drugs- suicide & self harm- mental illness- prisons & criminal justice system- hopelessness, feeling useless, no future vision

Dominant Taiohi Attitudes• Hopeless =the despair you feel when you have

abandoned hope of comfort or success

• Helpless =unable to help oneself; weak or dependent =deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated

• Defeatist =expectation or acceptance of failure =Acceptance or resignation of prospect of defeat

Rebel

Defying or resisting some established authority, government, or tradition

ReclaimRestoration, as to productivity, usefulness, or

moralityTo bring into or return to a suitable condition for

use

Fanning the flame that burns in each one of us

• Mana Ake Identity, confidence

• Whanaungatanga Nurture, Relationships

• Kotahitanga Unity, togetherness

• Manaakitanga Caring & sharing

• Rangatiratanga Owning our future, leadership

Means keeping the ‘home fires’ burning, and is designed

to inspire and ignite the untapped potentials in our

youth, whanau & communities.

Ahikaa

Whanaungatanga

Hapaingia te Mana

Aroha & ManaakiTautoko & Awhi

Rangatiratanga

How we teach Ahikaa® Experiential Learning• Based on the now famous NFTE Bronx programmes

• Uniquely New Zealand teaching style with strong Maori values

• Kinesthetic teaching techniques get spectacular results

• 21st Century taiohi need 21st Century skills that will stay with them for life

• Our youth are no less capable of learning and succeeding than any others; they simply need a different approach – one that reinforces their creativity and talents

• It is never too late for children to become who they can be

NFTE & Ahikaa Aim to:

• Inspire, motivate and build confidence

• Develop ‘entrepreneurial mindsets’

• Build entrepreneurial eco-systems in low-income

communities

• Foster whanaungatanga and local, national and

international networks

• Facilitate local business creation and global

business development

How we teach Ahikaa® Experiential Teaching Method• Addresses motivation as well as capability• Acknowledges that all learning comprises personal,

social and environmental perspectives

What we teach

Be a part of the solution• Ahikaa:

Working together to support our kids to reach their full potential.

Child & Family Wellbeing

Health

Education

JusticeWelfare

Social Supports

Child and Family Welfare:‘An ideological battleground’

• Absolutely not a neutral exercise

• Taps into fundamental beliefs about nature of self, children & families, and society...and role of government

Differential Child & Family Welfare Foci• Relative focus: child, family, community, society• Balance of local discretion vs bureaucratic control

(subsidiarity)• Specialized vs Embedded; Degree of separation of

child welfare from broader welfare/wellbeing • Types and extent of authority used • Linkages with judicial and police systems• Relative emphasis: individual change; sharing of

social resources; collective empowerment & action

• Breadth of intervention mandate

Where do our child & family welfare systems come from?

Indigenous and Western Conceptions of Health and Wellbeing

Western Ideals• Individualism• Independence• Secularism• Future orientation• Self-motivation• Internal LoC/R• Self-esteem

Indigenous Ideals• Sociocentrism• Interdependence• Spiritualism• Past-present• Other-Motivation• External LoC/R• Humility

Conceptions of Self

• Deepest, most basic and fundamental determinant of views of self, other and world;

• Basis for value systems, structures, institutions

• Beneath conscious awareness

• Basis for construction of cultural value systems, structures, institutions

Self-Contained Individualism(E.E. Sampson)

thoughtsfeelings

memoriesdesires

motivationsintelligence

disorderstalents

Languaging Self-Contained Individualism and Violations of the Ideal

thoughtsfeelings

memoriesdysfunction

motivationsintelligence

disorderstalents

Languaging Self-Contained Individualism and Violations of the Ideal

Ego diffusion Schizo-

delusional

co-dependent paranoid

Boundary issues

dysfunctional

Psychotic

Geertz, C. 1973. The interpretation of cultures. New York. Basic Books.

“The Western conception of the person …is…a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world’s cultures.”

Indigenous Conceptions of Self:Ensembled Individualism

.

ko au

Wairua

Whanauhapuiwi

Ao Turoa

Tupuna

• Western typologies of health and wellbeing, child and family welfare, psychology & psychopathology, justice, education, organisational principles, risk assessment, outcome measurement, selection and evaluation make sense where self-contained individualism is the ideal.

• Maori and other Indigenous conceptions of health and wellbeing, child and family welfare, psychology & psychopathology, justice, education, organisational principles, risk assessment, outcome measurement, selection and evaluation make sense where ensembled individualism is the ideal.

Milne Report• “…they do not know how the Maori mind

works, they don’t.”• our minds, our whakaaro, our way of

thinking is not the same.• it’s (psychology) a preconception of

Western thought. …what really concerns me is that we’re looking at hinengaro, Wairua….Maori have different understandings and at different levels…”

Milne Report (ctd)

• “Psychology is actually dangerous for us”

Milne Report (ctd)

• Ako Pakeha atu, ka puta Pakeha mai” “Given Pakeha teaching, it will be Pakeha

learning (thinking) that emerges”• Maori become brainwashed in training” • Maori who go in to do the mainstream

psychology training, get their whakaaro stuffed up…and then they can’t find their way home.”

Types of Child & Family Welfare Systems

• Threshold/Child Protection Systems

• Family Support Systems

• Community Caring Systems

Threshold Systems: Foundations• Individual right & responsibilities primary

• Immorality Psychopathology Dysfunction

• Moving from ‘substantial risk’ to ‘risk of harm’

• Narrow, coercive entry systems- criminalisation of child abuse & neglect

• In crisis; numbers increasing; budget blowouts

Threshold/Child Protection Systems• Focus on child protection & risk assessment

• 1st response = assessment of risk

• Standardisation of instruments, tools, timelines; less discretion for workers

• More time spent on compliance, less with families

• High levels of worker burnout & turnover

Threshold Systems: Features• Families meet minimum standards of

dysfunction to qualify for intervention

• Parents/Families as villains, children as victims

• Dual mandates – to care for & control families -more time investigating, less time helping

• Professionals as experts

• Not convincingly demonstrating effectiveness

Family Service Systems• Healthy families vital for social cohesion• Framework of child, family, community

welfare• Family violence, abuse seen as symptomatic of

family difficulty• Local service providers preferred over national

standardisation • Local discretion in decision-making, • Use of ‘intermediate’ systems• Emphasis on prevention and support for

families

Community Caring• Families/Whanau basic unit of society• Child development is shared community

responsibility• Transforms family functioning from private to

community concern• Family abuse linked to social oppression; no

blame model• Emphasis on supporting families; long term

relationships• Use of extended whanau, community helpers• Less professional involvement

Rebel

Defying or resisting some established authority, government, or tradition

ReclaimRestoration, as to productivity, usefulness, or

moralityTo bring into or return to a suitable condition for

use

Youth Presentation