E te rau o piopio e te papa Pihopa, tenei matou ka muri aroha ki a koe, e te rangatira ki au te moe. E te ti, e te ta nau mai, ki to tatou whare korero Ko Mihingarangi tenei, e mihi atu nei, nau mai, tahuti mai ra. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei ` He was a talented young man who died after a brutal attack, but four years on, the whanau of Stephen Dudley feel they're still no closer to justice. His parents speak out about their frustration. Our son was effectively beaten to death. It wasn't a schoolyard fight, as they tried to downplay it from the get-go, once again. They call him the hangi master, and he's using the traditional earth over to cook high-end cuisine. Now, the world's best chefs are learning his techniques. Growing up in a big city in the UK, you don't often get a chance to dig holes in the middle of the city and bury meat. It's beautiful to be able to use these kinds of traditional methods and put a spin on them. Copyright Able 2017 Karahuihui mai. Four years ago, Stephen Dudley went off to rugby practise but never came home. The 15-year-old schoolboy was involved in an incident where two teenage brothers repeatedly punched him to the ground. His parents, Mona and Brent Dudley, have been fighting for justice ever since. But they feel they've been poorly treated by the criminal justice system, largely ignored by those who excused the two brothers' brutal behaviour. Their fight for justice is now over, with the call to re-open the case having been turned down. Kei a Ruwani Perera nga taipitopito korero. This is Brent and Mona Dudley as we've never seen them before ` relaxed, smiling, enjoying family time with their teenage sons Aaron and Laith. How many? Three. Crap. But their pain is never too far from the surface. They've gone through so much, and feel they've been dealt a raw deal by the justice system. Four years on, they're speaking out about the latest chapter in their ordeal. We've never got anything from a legal perspective, so this is all we have got, that people are aware of what we consider is a complete injustice. After the death of their son Stephen, they left Auckland, returning home to the Far North to rebuild their broken lives. We struggled just seeing the same uniforms and the same boys. We lived in the same community that our son died in. We could never actually distance ourselves. Constant reminders. Yeah, it was all around us. There were parts that would just be too much. The Dudleys' world was shattered when their 15-year-old son Stephen was fatally assaulted by two boys following rugby practise at an Auckland school in 2013. The boys, who were brothers, punched Stephen at least 10 times. Stephen had never laid a finger on them. Faced with manslaughter charges over Stephen's death, these would later be down-graded to charges of assault with intent to injure for the older brother and common assault for the younger brother, who was Stephen's age. Pleading guilty to the lesser charges, the brothers would eventually walk free, discharged without conviction, with their identities protected because of their young age. In the eyes of the law, these boys didn't do anything wrong. We never had a very good communication with the crown prosecutor, and we certainly feel he didn't have our best interests at heart. No. In saying that, we were in a pretty, emotionally, in bad way. It was determined that Stephen's undiagnosed heart condition was the cause of his death, not the repeated blows to his neck and body. Our son was effectively beaten to death. It wasn't a schoolyard fight, as they tried to downplay it. It was just a verbal argument that all boys have, not until the older brother ` who was a lot older and a lot bigger ` had come in from behind and king-hit our son from behind. That's not a schoolyard fight. I don't know what people warrant a schoolyard fight, but that's a brutal attack. Because of his pre-existing heart condition, Justice Winkelmann had to ignore the fact that Stephen had died when making her verdict. It was difficult for Brent to hold back his emotions when the brothers were discharged without conviction in 2014. His actions led to my son's death! And you're sentencing me and his family! Mr Dudley, I understand it's upsetting, but if you` You've got to be joking! This guy beat my son to death! Brent says the younger brother played a minor role in the attack and believes it was the older brother's actions that led to Stephen's death. This boy could have easily diffused the whole situation. He didn't. He opted the other one, make a big name for himself from behind, king-hit our son from behind. Stephen never saw it coming. Never saw it coming. And then has carried on with his rugby career after doing that, effectively ending our son's life. No, there's been no justice at all. How difficult was that for you? Still robbed. Absolutely guttedly robbed. The Dudleys believe that a plea bargain cost them the right to a fair hearing. When we were told, we were told, 'We're not going to do this, because we can't guarantee that we're going to get his conviction, 'so we're just going to drop it down to this.' They informed us, and that decision has been made. But then in May this year, a renewed sense of hope for the family ` They got the inquest they fought for. Finally, all the evidence would be there for all to hear. The coroner's findings revealed new details, things that weren't covered during the trial, and finally, the Dudleys were given a full picture of exactly what happened to their son. For the first time, I think both believed that, yes, someone is listening, someone has heard us. Stephen's voice will be heard. Someone cares. We were tremendously grateful to the coroner for holding this inquest, because that did help. It helped us. It was that one part. The only time that we felt that Stephen had a voice and that he could tell his whole story. It was the first and only time. From there, the Dudleys' lawyer Nikki Pender took the coroner's findings to the Solicitor-General, the Government's chief legal adviser, asking to re-open their case and better reflect the seriousness of the offending. A few weeks ago, the Solicitor-General told Brent and Mona that the conduct of the Crown in Stephen's case was 'proper, independent and fair.' There would be no review. The case was closed. We're just that used to being kicked. Every time we get something, we get kicked down, and this was no different. The family have now exhausted all legal avenues in their search for justice for Stephen. Is it like grieving all over again? Because now, effectively, that's it for you guys, isn't it? Pretty much, as far as the legal side things is, yeah. They've closed those doors on us. People say that 'Oh, you've got closure.' I wouldn't use that word. No. Closure? Their fight may be over, but for the first time since Stephen died, Brent and Mona are able to celebrate the good things in their life. And it's their kids who've always been at the heart of everything they do. We see Stephen everyday on the faces of his siblings. We're pretty focused, eh? We've got some exciting things on the horizon. And we're really looking forward, and there are things that one day will benefit our children. We're still sort of thinking how we can in some way or another leave a legacy for Stephen. As to how we go about that, we still haven't made up our minds. It never gets any easier, eh? You just learn to manage it better. Piri tonu mai ra e te iwi. After the break I speak with the new minister of Whanau Ora. Peni Henare joins me next. According to the Maori Party, it's the best thing since fried bread, but the New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has called Whanau Ora bro-racracy and a 'waste of taxpayers money.' The new Whanau Ora Minister Peeni Henare will have to find a balance in the new coalition for the whanau-first initiative that he's now in charge of. So, what can we expect to see from Whanau Ora over the next three years? Hei matapaki i tenei take kia tahuri ake tatou ki te minita mo Whanau Ora, ki a Peeni Henare. Tena koe. Kia ora. So how do you find a balance in your coalition? Most of your colleagues like it, and then you've got Winston. I don't think it's a case of Winston and NZ First hating it. It's about making sure that it's a system that's robust and actually meets the needs that it was designed to help and to aid with. That's the first step in this process that we've embarked on, which is about making sure there's a comprehensive review. And the review isn't as much about Whanau Ora itself, but also about what's lacking across the social service sector, not just Whanau Ora. If we can get an ability to reflect back to other social agencies and social sector services, what they're not doing for our whanau, then I think that'll be good. How do you do this review? Who's doing it and how do you do it? What kind of questions do you ask? We're currently designing our terms of reference. We've gotta get a group of reviewers who can bring integrity and mana, but also the smarts, and I've made it pretty clear to the officials that we want one that's inclusive and not simply 'Ma tenei tangata, ma tenei tangata,' but we won't those with a wide range of experience who can bring integrity to the review process. And we're currently doing those terms of reference. A while ago, Whanau Ora was criticised for lack of oversight and soaring administration costs. How confident are you that that's not happening at the moment? I don't think it's burdened by expensive administrative costs at the moment. What we do hope the review will do, however, is look at whether or not the commissioning agency model is working. Are you saying the last government changed that? That they righted the soaring administration costs? Have they been fixed now? No, I think the administration costs are a reflection of exactly what task was in front of Whanau Ora. We know all those statistics aren't very good. We needed it to get to more people, to more places, which meant you had to have bigger administrative costs that came with it. What we're hoping to look at is the commissioning process, whether or not it is the right one. Whether or not we need more, we're not too sure. We know there's a Pacific Island component of that. Yes. That not many people know of, so let's highlight those things. And you're right, because it has reached thousands and thousands of whanau Maori and other whanau as well. When they did review it, Mason Durie, who is the mastermind, if you like, of Whanau Ora, he said that while some goals were being met, there's still no integrated whole-of-government approach, so how are you gonna get that? We've had very clear directives about powers higher than me about a new way of doing things, about being able to work across sectors, and I've got good relationships with ministers right across the executive, and we've been already discussing how we can do this across the social development, health and education and get a better integrated system. But as much as that system needs to change, I think some of our own perceptions of Whanau Ora need to change. I had a discussion last night at the Te Reo Maori Awards about why aren't we measuring te reo Maori though Whanau Ora? Sure, navigators might be doing it, but we've always talked about how colonisation removed the connections we had with our whanau and with our whakapapa. Te reo can fix that. So perhaps Te Matawai will work with Whanau Ora. That's the integrated system that you're talking about. It isn't simply government, but Te Matawai, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Awanuiatangi, all of those institutions can work together to get Whanau Ora. To be fair, I think Professor Mason Durie wasn't really talking about groups like Te Matawai, who are probably already on board. with a Whanau Ora concept. I think he was referring more to things like MSD, to Oranga Tamariki, things like that. So when John Tamihere, who's the head of Te Pou Matakana, goes and knocks on their doors and says, 'I need these numbers. I need these figures. 'I need to know why this isn't happening,' he doesn't come up against a brick wall. Most definitely. Is that what you're talking about? Most definitely. Of course, there's a systematic change that needs to happen in government, in the bureaucracy of this country. But also, I think our perceptions of Whanau Ora since its inception haven't evolved and haven't changed, or have actually missed aspects of what is truly Whanau Ora. So you'll be talking to your colleague Carmel Sepuloni, and you'll be saying to her, 'I want you to have a conversation with your CEO and your senior management 'about this concept of Whanau Ora.' Which is why one of my other potae is the associate minister for social development. Her and I are already working very closely together. Social investment, what does that mean for our people? Whanau Ora. Better outcomes. Is the money being prioritised where it should be? We're having those discussions now, and I can tell you they're in good spirits. More funding? You called for more funding from the opposition benches. Is there more funding? When will they get it? We know that in this new regime there's been tight financial restraints put on everyone because of the commitments we've already made within the 100-day agenda. Of course, we want more resources for that, but I can tell you the purpose of the review, first and foremost, is to make sure that what we have got, we're getting outcomes we deserve and our people deserve. And then we're going to be looking at how we can work across those streams. Currently, Whanau Ora, we know, sits with Te Puni Kokiri and comes through the vote Maori, but why shouldn't it come through other votes or have its own? You talked about your role associate social development minister. I want to talk about this inquiry into state abuse. Yes. Do you believe that inquiry needs to be independent of that department? Yes, that's what I believe, and I know that the establishment of the inquiry and its driver and minister Martin is getting off the ground as we speak. You've probably spoken to others on it, but that's certainly something I'd imagine would happen, given if you're going to look at something, it is better to have an independent review of that, instead of those who are already in the hen house. Ka pai. Pehea o whakaaro mo te po tuku taonga reo Maori? Miharo te kiti atu i te tini o to taua whakatupuranga e hapai ana i te kaupapa. I nga tau ki muri ko te nuinga he kaumatua, he kuia, me whakanuia ka tika, but it was a fantastic opportunity to see our generation and younger generations celebrating te reo Maori, cos we are the future for te reo Maori. Ko wai e toa? Ko Tatere tetahi toa, engari ko te taonga nui ki te atu ahau i nga po ra, ko te taonga i tuku nga tu ki a pau te mara. Mo wa nga mahi nunui mo kaue mo te reo anake, engari mo tatou te iwi Maori. Ka pai. Tena rawa tu koe. Thank you for coming in this morning. Kia ora. Kia mau tonu mai ra te titiro. After the break, we meet the man they call the hangi master. Auraki mai ano ki Te Hui. As we head into the Christmas season, many will be starting to dust off their hangi stones and pull out their spades in preparation for feeding the whanau en masse. While most will stick to traditional fare like chicken and pork, there's one man whose transforming the way we think about hangi. He's using the traditional Maori oven to cook up all sorts of earthly delights. No Rewa Harriman me tana puku te waimarie ki te tutaki i a ia. Cooking traditionally like this is literally a life's work for Rewi Spraggon. It doesn't matter what he's cooking, he says it always tastes better in a hangi. Nice. Beautiful. We can do anteing, from cooking lasagne in a hangi to cooking octopus, to cooking goat or whatever. Cooking hangi has been a labour of love for Rewi, a skill that was passed down through the generations. Anyone can cook, but when you cook with your grandfather's rocks that are 100 years old, that have cooked for tens of thousands of people, that's a story. A story that Rewi wants to share with the masses. Wherever you go in the world, you want to eat food from that place. For us as Maori, we've had it, but for everyday manuhiri that comes here, they haven't had the opportunity of eating our food. Now we have it. (CHUCKLES) Taste of Auckland is one of the country's finest food festivals. It's where the top restaurants and chefs in the city showcase their latest creations. Amongst Auckland's finest cuisine is the hangi master. We're doing 14 hangis in four days. It's pretty hectic. We start early, finish late. That's a huge pressure, but all the contents of the food is different. We be cooking octopus in the morning and goat in the evening, or we might be doing mutton later in the evening. So they're all different timings. For us, that's a great challenge. It might be a traditional method of cooking for Maori, but for some, it's a first. Growing up in a big city in the UK, you don't often get a chance to dig holes and bury meat, so it's beautiful to be able to use these traditional methods and put a spin on them. Rewi is working with six top chefs who've all come up with unique menus to cook hangi-style, including UK-born chef Will Michel from The Sawmill Brewery. We're doing a miso and seaweed marinated goat. We got some whole goats and broken them down to shoulders, legs and belly portions. We wrapped those in miso and seaweed for a couple of days, really season that meat and marinade them up, and we've got that in the hangi with some taro cake as well. We've shredded down the taro and wrapped them in banana leaves, so that will steam off and set with all starch in there. The 2014 MasterChef winners Kasey and Karena Bird are going with more traditional Kiwi flavours. The dish we've come up with is we're doing lamb rack with mussel salsa verde and a hangi potato salad. We're actually going to put wine in the hangi instead of water, which is pretty fancy. We don't really get to do that at home. It's been awesome. You get to do something a little bit different. And also because the portions are a little bit smaller, and it's just a taste to capture all those flavours. The object is trap all the steam. When you're stuck in an industrial kitchen all day, you've got ovens, gas, everything is easy, doing a hangi, digging a hole, making a fire really connects you to the food a lot more, and it's a nice challenge to think what's gonna work in there, how it's going to cook. I've got no idea. I'm a little bit nervous. It's down now, and it's coming out at 11 o'clock, and I've got no idea what it's going to look like. It's a good sign when it's that hot. Oh, yeah. Look at that, bro. Done. Shot, bro. Awesome. Rewi says it's not an easy way to cook, but it's tasty and authentic. And for him, the evolution of hangi comes from the kai and the flavours, not by losing the process. At the end of the day, this is a conventional oven that our old people cooked with for a thousand years on. You can cook anything in it. I'm doing stuff like smoky hokey pokey, which is fast, hot, but eventually, I want to infuse that in ice cream, and it's better than salted caramel. You've got the smoke, the earth flavour, hokey pokey, which is a real Kiwi thing, but to put it in a hangi, that's crazy stuff, and to have that in our ice cream or on desserts is exciting. Not only is Rewi building a successful business, he's also keeping this traditional cooking method alive. Every community had a hangi master. Whether it's your brother, your uncle, your dad, everyone had it. So hangi master is acknowledging the skillset that they had and acknowledging them. And keeping our culture ` this part of our culture ` alive. A hangi is what your old people did, what my old people did. Sweat, tears and everything involved in the hangi. For me, doing the hangi has to be done properly. A tradition that will continue to connect the generations. He taonga tuku iho. When you pick these stones and hand them on to the next generation, that's meaningful. It's powerful, but it's a bit of you going into it. You're passing that on to your mokos. That knowledge comes with it. You don't just hand someone a stone. You hand them the knowledge with it. That's pretty much what I've been given, and luckily. A real gift. Namunamua, te wai marie hoki, Rewa. Well thanks for joining us today, hui hoppers. We'll post links to the show on our Facebook page and on Twitter @thehuinz, and you'll find all our stories on the Newshub website. Next week is our final episode of the year, so make sure you join us. Ka riro ma Reriti Moehau me tana waiata a Manu Tui hei whakakapi i ta tatou hotaka mo tenei wiki. Pai marire ki a tatou katoa. (Reriti Moehau's 'Manu Tui') Captions by Tom Pedlar. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017