Sir Graeme Dingle and Jo-anne Wilkinson on life together, adventures and charitable work - Ask Me Anything with Paula Bennett

Sir Graeme Dingle and wife of over 30 years, Jo-anne Wilkinson.

A leading New Zealand mountaineer and explorer turned philanthropist wants us to rethink how we treat young offenders.

Sir Graeme Dingle is best known for his more than 200 mountaineering firsts, including in 1968 when he and Murray Jones became the first to climb all the European North Faces in one season.

He was also the first person to cover New Zealand’s Alps in winter, and spent two years circumnavigating the Arctic, and has received numerous accolades as a result of his feats.

However, Dingle has detailed in his new book, The Promise of One Tree Hill, how his real greatest achievement is setting up his charity, The Graeme Dingle Foundation, alongside his wife of more than 30 years, Jo-anne Wilkinson.

The two joined Paula Bennett on her NZ Herald podcast, Ask Me Anything, to discuss their charity work and how it came to be.

Dingle said he was initially motivated after seeing the movie, Once Were Warriors, and wanted to address the issues in society.

“We said, well, you can build a wall around your house and pretend the stuff doesn’t exist, but let’s do something about it.”

After making that promise to each other on One Tree Hill, it took about two years to set up the foundation and the various outdoor education schemes and mentorship programmes that came with it.

“There were too many charities out there that were winging it and not proving their outcomes,” Dingle said.

“We didn’t want to duplicate stuff that was going on. We wanted to make a real difference in one space, and we discovered that space was kids who were skidding towards the edge of the cliff, but hadn’t yet fallen over it, and we thought that we could make a difference there.”

Wilkinson said that they have about 24,000 kids in the program.

“Positive youth development is, if you like, the way we approach things. So it’s in the primary schools, it’s all of school. Every year of their primary school, that positive values, attitudes, behaviours, give it a go, respect integrity.

“So you can ask a six year old in one of our classes, ‘what does integrity mean?’ - he said, ‘doing the right thing when no one’s looking’.”

Despite the high success rate of their programs, government funding is limited, and fundraising can be difficult.

“In an economic environment like this, many, many charities are struggling, and we’re not different,” Wilkinson said.

Dingle said that it’s “frustrating” that, despite the success of these programs, the funding isn’t there for it. He took a swipe at the Government’s approach to crime, including introducing youth boot camps to deal with young offenders.

“At a time when we’re saying, ‘let’s get hard on crime’, is there any logic in that that?”

Both husband and wife want people who see stories about young offenders on the news to reconsider how they view them.

“Don’t think about punishment, think about how you can help that young person,” Dingle said.

“You don’t know what their background situation has been and it’s getting to the root cause that’s going to solve the issue for each young person as opposed to punishment,” Wilkinson added.

Listen to the full episode for more from Sir Graeme Dingle and Jo-anne Wilkinson about advice for those considering running charities, their many adventures together, and how navigating the Arctic played a role in deciding their wedding date.

Ask Me Anything is an NZ Herald podcast hosted by former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett. New episodes are available every Sunday.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.