By SIMON COLLINS
An unusual attempt to stop people getting hooked on alcohol, drugs and gambling is under way in a remote Northland settlement at the Whangaruru Harbour, north of Whangarei.
Recovering addicts, local school students and their families are paddling on waka ama (outrigger canoes) and learning other aspects of their culture to give them a sense of "where they come from."
Running the project are cousins Carmen Heteraka and Aaron Clark, who say European ways of dealing with addictions have until now ignored the "spiritual" dimension.
Billboards now dot the Whangaruru area declaring: "The potential to be alcohol and drug-free."
The emphasis is on the words "to be," stressing that people can be something, and the links to the land, the sea, their ancestors and God.
"To teach them about self-esteem, we have to teach them to know themselves," Mr Heteraka said.
When they go out on the waka ama, the young people learn tribal lore. .
They say karakia (prayers), and they also learn how pulling together makes the waka move much faster than if they paddle out of step.
Luke Simich, principal of the local Punaruku School, said the project also helped to run school holiday programmes and sports tournaments, and helped get funding for local teachers to attend courses on "learning the skills for growing" - a programme aimed at building students' self-esteem.
"Every teacher that comes to this school has to go on that course, even if we have to pay for it. That is a commitment we have made," he said.
He said one result of the changes was that 80 per cent of parents now attended parents' nights at the school, whereas a community meeting at another school in a nearby district recently drew no parents at all.
Surveys have found that 18 per cent of Maori aged 15 to 45 smoke marijuana, compared with 15 per cent of the general population.
Twelve per cent of Maori aged 18 and over, and 11 per cent of the general population, gamble at least once a week.
The "Community Action Project of Whangaruru," or "CAPOW," is one of five projects initiated in 1997 by the Alcohol and Public Health Research Unit at Auckland University with funding from the Ministry of Education, which was concerned about increasing school suspensions of students for using marijuana.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from New Zealand
Claimants want Children’s Minister to front up kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face)
High Court decision to set aside summons issued by Tribunal will be appealed.