Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to explore whānau Māori, community workers, and some state agents, experiences of youth justice systems operating in Aotearoa, with a specific f ocus upon Ngā Kōti Rangatahi, or marae-based youth courts. The methodological standing of this thesis is Kaupapa Māori. It captures the pūrākau of the rangahau collaborators and it aims to empower them and the wider Māori community to engage in rangahau that privileges their ways of knowing and being. The Kaupapa Māori approach was also found to be ref lective of the Māori identity of the kairangahau. This thesis is also informed by Critical and Indigenous criminological theories. This thesis engages in a qualitative analysis of whānau Māori, community, and state perspectives of Ngā Kōti Rangatahi and the wider youth justice system. The f indings of this rangahau revealed five key themes, whanaungatanga, identity, support, marginalisation, and community. Rangahau collaborators spoke to tikanga as being essential to this process however acknowledge that at present it is implemented into the youth justice system in a tokenistic manner and is therefore ineffective. Moreover, rangahau collaborators spoke of the community as holding the answers and for youth justice matters to be removed from the justice system and into the community.
