ROLE MODEL: Te Arawa kaumatua Anaru Rangiheuea (left), with Judge Louis Bidois, offers a guiding hand to a troubled boy. PHOTO/BEN FRASER
ROLE MODEL: Te Arawa kaumatua Anaru Rangiheuea (left), with Judge Louis Bidois, offers a guiding hand to a troubled boy. PHOTO/BEN FRASER
IF, AS the African proverb says, it takes a village to raise a child, in this country marae-administered justice goes a long, positive way towards sorting out off-the-rails youngsters.
Anyone who thinks it's a soft option hasn't attended a Nga Kooti Rangatahi (marae court) sitting.
The Bay of Plenty has three marae-based Rangatahi Courts, which sit regularly in Rotorua, Tauranga and Whakatane.
Former Rotorua lawyer turned district court judge Louis Bidois presides over each.
Of Ngati Rangiwewehi descent and with years of defence counsel experience, he's tailor-made for the job.
One of his brother judges describes him as the marae courts' "poster boy"; he isn't wrong.
Straight talking, tell-it-like-it-is Judge Bidois tempers cultural empathy and compassion with the kind of common sense solutions that are frequently out of the ambit of the Youth Court proper or the higher courts. It's his personal mission not to impose sentences that set young lawbreakers up to fail.
Image 1 of 8: Te Arawa kaumatua Anaru Rangiheuea (left), with Judge Louis Bidois, offers a guiding hand to a troubled boy. Photo/Ben Fraser
He's realist enough to know they don't always work but if there's a solution to be found within the offender's whanau or wider marae whanau, he opts for it.
On the marae, the offender is everybody's child - kaumatua and kuia (male and female elders) step up to take culprits under their wing.
When the Rangatahi Court sat on Rotorua's Taharangi marae last week, the mother of one young fellow (we'll call him James) talks about how her son had gone off the rails.
A youth advocate says the teenager's a shy, emotional person with big dreams, but lacks self-esteem and motivation.
Senior Te Arawa kaumatua Anaru Rangiheuea was immediately on his feet telling the boy he'd be there for him.
If anyone needs a guiding hand it's this lad - his potential is huge, we hear.
Kuia Kahu Ehau advances an option. How about he spends time with educationalist and Te Arawa Lakes Trust chairman Sir Toby Curtis and his team?
There's a concerted around-the-table effort to launch James on his way. The judge suggests tertiary education study.
He'd been told James did remarkably well at school until a behavioural hiccup led to stealing.
His legal advocate, Wiremu Te Are, says James has been trying to keep away from gang influences.
"He's sensible enough to want to keep his distance," the lawyer says.
"You need to step away from the gangs and be respected as a person," Judge Bidois tells him.
He stands James down until September 1 so efforts can be made to find an appropriate punishment.
"We need to look at some sort of intensive mentoring, fostering relationships with kaumatua ... he comes before us with aspirations, we need to provide for him, not mock him," the judge says.
This judge with the gift of finding outside the square solutions isn't often stumped when youngsters come before him but confesses later that James was an exception.
"Basically he's a good kid but he needs motivation and help - it will take someone like Anaru Rangiheuea to get him back on track, that's what's so neat about Rangatahi Court, it's certainly not a cop-out."
The sitting's second and final offender of the day is much more easily dealt with. "Jess" was a binge drinker who turned to shoplifting.
Jess confesses that, initially, she found it tough going, but tells the judge she'd knuckled down and is positive she'll do well out in the real world.
Her mother talked of how Jess is now happy to stay at home and not moan about wanting to go out with her mates.
Judge Bidois notes how much more confident Jess has become.
"It was impressive the way you came up to me out there [outside the wharenui] usually they [offenders] run a mile from the judge - well done."
A police officer tells Jess she'd be a great leader. She beams.
Judge Bidois discharges her, saying he doubts if there'd have been such a happy outcome in a conventional court.
Before she leaves kaumatua Basil Johnson, a Pakeha and former long-serving cop, offers to lend her a book telling of her links to her ancestral maunga (mountain).
It's Judge Bidois' turn to beam.
"That's the sort of thing Rangatahi Court's all about," he enthuses, "I absolutely love to see success."
- James and Jess aren't these youngsters' real names. Their ages mean their identities are automatically suppressed.
