Māori youth development

Introduction to youth development

The central purpose of youth development is to empower young people to play an assertive and constructive role in the strengthening and regeneration of their communities. Young people are one of the most important resources and for this to happen we need to develop their individual potential for them to lead fulfilled lives. Youth development is promoted through a range of activities, experiences and services that support youth to develop social, ethical, emotional and cognitive competencies.

In Aotearoa New Zealand rangatahi Māori are affected adversely by the social conditions in which they grow up, the intersections of impacts of colonisation on well-being, and their experience of discrimination.

Josie Keelan states that “much of what is written in the field of youth development presented in Aotearoa New Zealand is from a very Eurocentric or North American viewpoint with a little bit of Australia thrown in for good measure”.¹ Meanwhile, when the literature and discussion does address indigenous youth populations, it has tended to focus on pathology – suicide rates, teen pregnancy rates, poor educational achievement and high unemployment.

A positive approach

As a response to the ‘pathologising’ of issues, the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (2002) provided a framework to devise national, regional and local youth development activities and services that focus on postive youth development. The Strategy states that a “positive youth development approach is consistent with a kaupapa Māori approach. A restorative process is required for many young Māori who are disconnected from their whānau, hapū and iwi. The approach needs to support initiatives to reconnect young Māori with their whakapapa links and encourage kaupapa Pākehā (mainstream) institutions to be more responsive to the needs of young Māori.”²

In this topic you will be introduced to Māori youth development, consider some of the issues in that discipline, and look at the how the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa could be put into practice, guided by Mana Taiohi.

Issues for Māori youth development

In her research, Felicity Ware states that “Māori youth are distinguished by concurrent membership in at least two distinct groups. As Māori, they are an essential part of whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori communities. As youth, they share common characteristics and experiences with other young people. Membership in each group influences Māori youth experiences, viewpoints and development. The ability to simultaneously navigate both successfully is a key challenge.”³

Factors that have affected Māori society broadly have also influenced the development of rangatahi Māori, and therefore require some special consideration.

Colonisation

Read the excerpt 'Colonisation and health inequalities’ (pages 4–5) from ‘Understanding Health Inequities’ by Papaarangi Reid and Bridget Robson.⁴ (This is section 1 from the book Hauora: Māori Standards of Health IV – A study of the years 2000–2005, edited by Bridget Robson and Ricci Harris.)

Although Reid and Robson are addressing the impact of health inequalities, their statements regarding the impact of colonisation can be considered more broadly to include the ways in which rangatahi Māori are impacted. Colonisation is a deliberate and continuous process, but it is not inevitable. It is not confined to our past either, as seen by the confiscation of Māori rights to the foreshore and seabed in this century, for example.⁵

Colonisation centres around the creation of a new history where indigenous knowledge and beliefs are labelled as myths, legend or superstition. It is based on the dehumanisation of indigenous populations, dependent on the belief that the colonisers are superior (genetically, biologically, culturally, socially, intellectually) – and the colonisers assume that gives them the right to all the territory and resources of indigenous peoples.

Colonisation dislocated Māori from their homelands and marae, disconnected them from their cultural institutions and social support structures, and then replaced these with western frameworks.⁶ “This has resulted in a breakdown of culture and identity, difficulties with mainstream institutions, widespread alienation of land, a weakening of tribal structures, and a loss of language, tikanga (customs), and support systems that were once based within whānau and around marae.”^{3 7} The unequal outcomes (e.g. social, health and educational achievements) for rangatahi Māori are a result of this, and should be viewed as a result of historical and contemporary breaches of indigenous rights.

Cultural Revitalisation

In the 1970s and 1980s there were various Māori-led initiatives to develop iwi Māori in terms of tino rangatiratanga, economic self-reliance, social equity, and advancement of the culture – the latter has been attempted through the revitalisation of te reo and re-establishing links to the land and marae. Therefore, Māori youth of today grow up in an environment that is more conducive to their cultural identity. They also have an essential role in continuing this revitalisation so youth development approaches should be able to facilitate the capacity and capability of rangatahi Māori to do this.

Globalisation

Ware states: “Technological expansion and the rapid societal change associated with globalisation are creating new challenges for each generation and for indigenous cultures. Today’s Māori youth are living in an exciting time with new expanding opportunities, an increasingly diverse society, as well as increasing stress. Māori youth no longer fit previous stereotypes; they are drawing their influences from internationl forums and integrating these with local trends.”^{2 3}

She goes on to state, citing Mason Durie, that “this new environment of plenty poses serious challenges to Māori youth”.⁸

Task: Why these issues matter

Why do you think it is important for you – as someone who works with young people in this country – to understand colonisation and globalisation?

How do these things impact youth and their whānau, hapū and iwi? What examples can you come up with? As one sample of globalisation’s impact, how are the interests of young people and our local youth culture influenced by certain sports franchises from the United States of America?

Principles, aims and goals

The Youth Development Strategy (Aotearoa) was released by the Government in 2002 and provides both government and non-government agencies a framework by which they can devise and a plan for national, regional and local youth development.² It actively promotes positive youth development, and has strong connections to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, and strength-based approaches.

In the strategy, youth development is about ‘moving beyond [X] towards [Y]’, as illustrated in the diagram below:

The principles of youth development

The Strategy is based on a youth development approach that has six key principles:

1. Youth development is shaped by the ‘big picture’.
2. Youth development is about young people being connected.
3. Youth development is based on a consistent strengths-based approach.
4. Youth development happens through quality relationships.
5. Youth development is triggered when young people fully participate.
6. Youth development needs good information.

The aims and goals of the strategy

The aims and goals set out in the Strategy are stated in a manner that focusses on youth in general. Keelan has restated these aims and goals in a way that reflects Māori youth development¹:

Aims

• Aim 1: All young Maori people have opportunities to establish positive connections to their key social environments
• Aim 2: Government policy and practice reflect a positive Maori youth development approach.
• Aim 3: All young Maori people have access to a range of youth development opportunities.

Goals

• Goal 1: Ensuring a consistent strengths-based approach.
• Goal 2: Developing skilled people to work with young Maori people.
• Goal 3: Creating opportunities for young Maori people to actively participate and engage.
• Goal 4: Building knowledge on Maori youth development through information and research.

Māori youth development practices

Ara Taiohi is the national youth sector organisation which seeks to provide a national voice on youth organisation interests. It is the organisation that represent those who work in the youth sector, particularly those in youth worker roles. The Code of Ethics for Youth Work in Aotearoa New Zealand is a key document that reflects the organisation’s “commitment to youth-led, relational practice”.⁹

This Code of Ethics outlines three youth development strategies commonly used by Māori historically. These are:

1. Pūkengatanga: This is when an elder (pūkenga) works as a mentor to a young person, teaching them directly, and taking them to hui and important events.
2. Whare Wānanga: These are formal, structured learning situations to pass on specialist skills and knowledge to chosen participants.
3. Urungatanga: This is an approach without formal teaching. Participants are included in a situation and expected to work out solutions for themselves without formal guidance.

Ara Taiohi has taken these principles and sought to incorporate them into a framework for youth development in Aotearoa in the 21st century.

Te Kete Kupenga

The Kete Kupenga framework was developed as a kaupapa Māori and Treaty-based framework for youth development principles. They have visualised this framework as a loose diamond weave.¹⁰

It has four strands that are represented loosely woven together in an intricate knot:

• Te Ao Māori (the Māori world)
• Taiohi (young people)
• Kaimahi (people who work with young people)
• Mātauranga (knowledge or research)

The knots themselves represent “key points of whakapapa in those intersections, such as events or publications”, and the spaces between the woven strands represents wairua, time and place.

Task: Visualisation of the framework

See if you can draw a representation or diagram of the Kete Kupenga framework to show how the strands are linked. Label the four strands. You can see a photo showing the diamond weave formed by two crossing double-strands on the page ‘How we developed Mana Taiohi’ at the Ara Taiohi website (this photo is also used on page 19 of the Code of Ethics).¹⁰

From this framework, new principles of youth development for Aotearoa New Zealand were developed with input from hundreds of young people and those who work with young people. These principles are known as Mana Taiohi.

What is Mana Taiohi?

Mana Taiohi is a framework based on nine principles that informs the way people work with youth in Aotearoa New Zealand. These principles exist in a holistic and interconnected way. They work in relation to one another and if any one principle were to be removed, all are weakened.

The principles of Mana Taiohi centre on the concept of Mana – the authority inherited at birth through our tūpuna (ancestors) and whakapapa (genealogy) as well as what we accrue throughout our lifetime.

Principles of Mana Taiohi

The first is the overarching principle of Mana. The mana of every young person gives them the right to have a say in the decisions that affect their life. The remaining principles are roughly grouped according to the Mana the young person already has, or the Mana a youth worker can enhance in that young person.⁹

Mana young people already have:

The 24 clauses

A Code of Ethics provides the expectations of what is ethical practice. It provides best practice guidelines and accountability for workers, and provides assurances for clients or other stakeholders about what kinds of behaviour and actions they can expect from those that work with them.

There are 24 clauses for practice in the Code of Ethics for Youth Work (3rd ed.), which are based on the nine interdependent principles of Mana Taiohi.⁹

You can see an overview of the clauses, and their alignment with the principles of Mana Taiohi, on page 23 of the Code of Ethics.

Task: Mana Taiohi videos

Go to the Mana Taiohi page on the Ara Taiohi website and¹¹:

1. watch the short video (1:44) about Mana
2. then, click through the pages for the other eight principles and watch the short video that accompanies each definition.

Task: The 24 clauses

Choose one of the Mana Taiohi principles and read through the clauses that link that principle to practice. For each clause under that principle, think about how you can integrate or tie that clause into your interactions with young people or your role at work.

You can find the clauses that relate to each Mana Taiohi principle by scrolling down to the bottom of one of the webpages you were looking at in the previous task and clicking on ‘VIEW THE CLAUSES’. Alternatively, you can read all about the clauses in section 2 of the Code of Ethics (see pages 22–45).⁹

Explore further

These resources were referred to throughout this topic. If you wish to read more from these sources, you can access electronic copies for free:

• Josie Keelan’s book Ngā Reanga Youth Development: Māori styles (published in 2014 by ePress Unitec)¹
• Felicity Ware’s research paper Youth development: Māui styles (2009, Massey University)³

Here are some additional resources that you might find useful:

Hei Tikitiki – Māori Rites of Passage & Youth Development Research Project by Te Ora Hou Aotearoa Incorporated (2010) is available via Whānau Ora Research.¹²

The Ministry of Youth Affairs developed a youth development activity kit titled E Tipu E Rea: A Framework for Taiohi Māori Development (available as both a Word document or a PDF) in 2002.¹³

In this assessment you will first answer questions about Māori and Pasifika youth development practices, and then you are asked to design an activity for a youth group that utilises tikanga Māori or Pacific cultural values.

You will learn more about Pasifika youth development in the next topic. You may choose to partially complete Assessment 1.5 now, or you could wait until you have completed Topic 11 first. In the meantime, read all the assessment task instructions carefully to make sure you respond to every point. Task 2 of Assessment 1.5 is similar to your previous assessment.

Revisit the last two topics to remind yourself about tikanga and mātauranga Māori. Are you confident you have a good basic understanding of the principles of tikanga and kawa, and of the Māori youth development practices that we have covered in these topics? What else do you need to research to increase your confidence?