- Kei nga ihoiho o nga maunga whakahi, kei nga waiwhakatere taniwha, Nau mai, tahuti mai ki Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei. Kia a koutou katoa. Welcome to the Hui ` Maori current fees for Aotearoa. E taro ake nei ` born into a gang... - To him, that was like a family. - ...and battling addiction and depression. - All I see now is just this traumatised emotional boy just covering it up with drugs, coping through it with drugs. - In a special report, we look at how gang life impacts the mental health of rangatahi. - Many gang whanau face multiple prejudices. Criminal histories will be part of that. Racism will be part of that. Poverty is part of that picture as well. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2022 - Tahuti mai. For those born into a gang, many are exposed to a way of life which leads to psychological trauma and mental health challenges. They are a section of our society heavily impacted because of the antisocial lifestyle they live. And in Aotearoa, their mental health issues have largely been ignored, with no data to see how extensive the problem is. Reporter Ruwani Perera explores the difficulties gang rangatahi face in accessing mental health services through the tragic death of a young man and the people who loved them. This item is made with the support of the Mental Health Foundation. - For some, gang life is a path they choose. (ENGINE REVS) But for rangatahi born into gangs, there's very little choice in the matter. - That's all he knew, and that's all he wanted to be, was a mobster. - (MAN YELLS) (PEOPLE BARK) - And it's that exposure to drugs and violence at a young age that can result in the loss of precious lives. (PEOPLE BARK) Like this mob tangi for 24-year-old Bonus Atkins who took his own life. - It was the hardest moment of my life. (WEEPS) - Mental health challenges and suicide amongst gang whanau has been described as a hidden contagion. - Gangs may well be some of the most vulnerable people in our community when it comes to mental health, compromises and self-harm. - 'Bonus Atkins was a young man in distress with nowhere to turn.' Do you think the system let him down? - Definitely. If it wasn't for my family, I'd be where he is. Be with him. (PEOPLE BARK) - Sieg (BLEEP)ing heil! (GRACEFUL MUSIC) - Jade Taare couldn't help but fall in love with patched Mongrel Mob member Boehner seconds. - He had the biggest heart. I knew a different side of him from what everyone else knew. Cos I just saw the emotional side of them. He was a sook, a sookiebubba. - The pair came from two very different worlds. - We weren't brought up around drinking or even drugs, you know. Totally different upbringing to him. - Jade hoped she could show Bonus there was another way to live. - You don't have to act gangster around here. You don't need that. I love you how you are. - But for Bonus, born into the Mongrel Mob, gang life was his whole world. - To him, that was like a family. His heart was with them, you know. - And with gangs comes drugs. Bonus was hooked on smoking P since he was 14. - That was, like, his Band-Aid for things that he had seen, you know, growing up. But he thought the P was making it better. - While in prison, Bonus had stints of sobriety but struggled to bat his addiction on the outside. - All I see now is just this traumatised, emotional boy just covering it up with drugs, coping through it with drugs. - Struggling with her own meth addiction, Jade decided to end their relationship to get clean. But the pair remained close and Jade watched helplessly as Bonus sunk deeper into depression. - He was like, 'Oh.' (SNIFFLES) 'Something's going on in my head, babe.' (WEEPS) 'And... 'And I'm scared.' And that's when he said, he was like, 'I just wanna go to sleep, and I just don't wanna wake up.' - In his final Facebook post before he took his life last year, Bonus ` a father of two ` wrote about the effect using meth had on his mental state. - 'Every time I smoke it, I'm pushing youse all away even further 'It's the most dangerous drug in the world. 'It will eventually take over your mind, body and soul and drive you to suicide.' - Bonus is buried here at Taruheru Cemetery in Gisborne. He rests next to his older brother, who committed suicide in his a prison cell in 2015. The loss of his brother hit Bonus hard, and Jade says he tried to get help. - He knew that there were organisations out there, but he didn't know how to get there. - Jade says despite an earlier suicide attempt, Bonus received no treatment during his time in jail nor after his release back into the community. - I'm, like, shocked. The whole time I was with him, the only thing he had to do was go to probation. There was no, like, 'Oh, babe, I've gotta go see this therapist or counsellor.' 'I've gotta go to this place,' that had something to do with mental health. Nothing. And we were together for, like, yeah, two years. But none of that talk. - Bonus' story is all too common amongst gang whanau who live on the edges of society. - There can be a particular issue for whanau ` gang or otherwise ` that don't have access to adequate health care, mental health resources, adequate social support. - Dr Armon Tamatea is a clinical psychologist and a senior lecturer at Waikato University. He's done extensive research into gang communities in Aotearoa. - Unresolved trauma or difficulties regulating emotions as a consequence of history of a trauma, for example, one way to cope with that is through uses of substances, which can affect how we feel about things and how we think about things and can help suppress negative feelings and introduce positive experiences. The issue, of course, is when we move into the space of addiction, when we can't do without that. - Often the mental health of gang-affiliated rangatahi will go undiagnosed and untreated. - Many gang whanau face multiple prejudices. Criminal histories will be part of that. Racism will be part of that. But also poverty is part of that picture as well. And all of these are stressful situations to deal with. And when they all co-occur in the same whanau and the same people, those are very difficult circumstances to have to contend with day in, day out. - It's only since his death that Jade has realised just how desperate Bonus' situation was. - All these stories he'd tell me, and they didn't link up till after he had died. (SNIFFLES) You know. And I'm like, '(BLEEP), you really did have something going on.' You know, 'You were fighting some, like, deep shit in your head.' (WEEPS, SNIFFLES) - Two weeks after losing Bonus in such a tragic way, Jade attempted to take her own life as well. - I went out to go and hug my mum when she was hanging the washing. I just told her that I loved her. - Her survival has spurred Jade on to expose the difficulties gang whanau face in getting the specialist help they urgently need. - Because we're just losing too many whanau, and especially our Maori people, our own people, you know. But if someone went through exactly what I went through but they don't have family, that don't have that sort of support, what's gonna happen to them? - Coming up ` the high rates of suicide amongst gang members in our prisons. - From our perspective, one death is one death too many. - And we meet the people at the grassroots working with their communities in suicide prevention. - I think it's the deep grief that brings us together, and it's working. VOICEOVER: Having trouble shopping for a music lover? Hmm... Tricky! S.N.T.A. can help. Unce unce unce! That's my jam! Ask S.N.T.A. to help find a tech gift from Spark's select range. Oooooh! (AMBIENT MUSIC) - Auraki mai ano. It's not only in the community where rangatahi gang members struggle with mental health challenges. Statistics show that things worsen for them once they are incarcerated, with those serving prison sentences at a higher risk of suicide than the general public. In part two of Bonus Atkins' story, reporter Ruwani Perera heads to the Tirupati to look at some of the initiatives helping to combat the devastating rates of suicide both inside and outside of our jails. - The very first time I met him was at the beach. It just looked like there was just this dark cloud around him. - Jade Taare was in a two-year relationship with patched Mongrel Mob member Bonus Atkins. Bonus committed suicide in August last year, aged 24. It wasn't the first time he'd tried. Bonus' first attempt came after his brother took his own life in jail in 2015. - He loved his brother, you know. The state he was in before he died, he was in that exact same state. Just dark. - The number of inmates taking their own lives in our prisons is about 10 times the suicide rate for the community. In the last five years, 38 people have taken their lives while in prison. Almost half of those suicides were people who belonged to a gang. - An all too common story. It's tragic wherever that happens, especially with young people. And often whanau are at a loss as to what contributed to that, let alone learn how to have intervened earlier. - 'Clinical psychologist Dr Armon Tamatea has worked as an adviser for Arapa Poutama ` 'Department of Corrections.' Do you think incarceration makes mental health, already underlying conditions, worse? - I think the short answer would have to be yes, not least because prisons aren't designed for care. Security and containment are a strong part of what prisons are about, as opposed to growth and wellness. - But that is set to change. This is Ara Poutama's radical new prison build, Hikitia ` a 100-bed dedicated mental health and addiction facility set to open next year. - I think it connects well to Hokai Rangi and the vision that we will be more humanising and healing. - What do you say to critics who might say this is a really soft approach in terms of incarceration and treating prisoners? - I really strongly believe that this will have a more profound impact on the things that we are hoping as a department to achieve, which is safer communities and reduced reoffending, in addition to improving outcomes for Maori. What we've perhaps tried in the past hasn't always been successful, so the time is right to do something innovative and new. - Corrections Director of Mental Health and Addictions Emma Gardner says it's the first year of a prison sentence and time in remand were self-harm and suicide are more likely to occur. - 90% of people in Ara Poutama have either in the past or right now had a mental health or addiction problem in the last 12 months. 62% of them will have had a mental health or addiction challenge. So it's a very, very significant and important need for the people who we support. - Tuta Ngarimu was a former member of the Mongrel Mob for 30 years and has also campaigned for the welfare of whanau in jail. - I don't think there's much changed over the years because our whanau are still killing themselves in there. - This is him in 1987, protesting on the steps of parliament after a three-month hunger strike as an inmate at Paremoremo Prison, arguing for better treatment of inmates. - What I wanted was 24-hour access for our kaumatuas into the jail, you know, when they felt like they needed somebody to talk to. I have heard there's a lot more trauma in there. You know, that's tragic. It's a tragedy. - Transforming outcomes for whanau is what Tuta's NATI 4 Life ` working with his community in the area of suicide prevention. - This is where you can get the support if you need it. - These days, his mahi centres around the role methamphetamine plays and the poor mental health of whanau ` working alongside those who have also developed strategies to curb the high rates of suicide and self-harm. - We're seeing a lot more whanau now that are dying by suicide that have had some kind of meth issue, and a lot of them, you know, are not just dabbling but five years or more in addictions. And you can understand that world because they kind of, like, lose everybody in that world until it ends up just them sitting in their room by themselves. - That would be the only downfall for us at the moment, is definitely the funding side of things. - Yeah. - Or just even getting someone to listen. - With little resource, Tuta says they've come up with their own solutions for their people. - We've got to really depend on whanau-led, hapu-led initiatives because they're whanau that have that lived experience. And another, a good thing about that too is it's got to tikanga Maori alongside that. And also what underpins all of that, there's kaumatua and pakeke support there. - For Jade Taare, it's the strong whanau support that she's received that's kept her clean and off drugs. - It's been over a year now, and I'm in a way better place than what I was a year ago. - She wants to raise awareness of the struggles gang rangatahi, like Bonus, face accessing the mental health support they so desperately need. - That's kind of why I'm speaking out on it ` for everybody that's struggling. - And despite still mourning the man she loved, Jade is hopeful for her future. - It's gonna be OK. I didn't think better days would come, but they really do. - Nga Ruwani Perera tera purongo. And it was made with the support of the Mental Health Foundation. Akuanei ka korero au ki a Debbie Ngarewa-Packer ` kaiarahi takirua o Te Pati Maori. Kiwis definitely do Christmas differently. Sitting with your friends and your family outside with your jandals on, nice barbeque going. Getting your house spruced up ready for Christmas, it's really good, you wanna impress your family show off what you've done. Nice deck, bit of furniture, good barbeque. There's a lot of, lot of products we've got that can make your house look mint for the season coming and I guess for your family and friends as well. If you really want to get the most value, Bunnings is the best place to come. Hands down. BUNNINGS WAREHOUSE Whatever you're doing for Christmas, we're here to help. - Hoki mai ano. New statistics released at the end of October by the coroner's office show Aotearoa's suicide rate has dropped for a third consecutive year. However, Maori continue to be disproportionately affected. Deputy Chief Coroner Anna Tutton released the figures to June 30 this year, which reveal 538 people died by suspected suicide, down from 607 in 2021 and 628 in 2020. However, the provisional rate for Maori is 15.9 per 100,000, and that's compared to 10.2 for the general population. To discuss this, I'm joined by Pati Maori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Tena koe. - Tena koe. - Yeah, are you disappointed that those results for Maori are still not... you know, they're disproportionate? - I'm disappointed because it shows that we've got a long way to go in the fact that, you know, we're continuously using the same structure, the criminal justice system, as a substitute for mental health, and it can't be. And I think if we were to discuss, you know, what are the issues that are happening for our rangatahi, what are the issues that are happening within whakamomori, then we need to be able to, first and foremost, steer the mental health system and its inequalities and its failings for our people. - Yeah, so when we when we are having a drop in the general public, but we aren't for Maori, what does it tell you about our approaches and the way that we're tackling suicide or mental health? - Well, I think it's sort of saying to us that the mental health system still believes that it's superior. It's got this superiority complex, and it thinks it has all the answers to fix tangata whenua. So we can throw huge amount of resourcing, superior resourcing at it, but it can't achieve real change like, we see our Whanau Ora providers, our Maori providers, our Maori healers, our rongoa, our kaumatua, our whanau, because they are still using Western ideas. And I think that's the pushback that we have to see. It's the only reason why our people are being let down the system. And I think that's the mamae that I feel for our whanau, is that we have to watch the system land everyone else right, but our own people, because it's refusing to bring through our own models. We're still relying` - What would Te Pati Maori do? What would you do, Te Pati Maori, to capture a greater group of Maori, to bring them in on, you know, a hauora journey? What would be a policy? - Yeah. Oh, easy. Look, I think the first thing is that we'd look to the wisdom of our matauranga Maori for solutions. We would be focussed more on that for our healing. We would be addressing the fact that we have, I guess, you know, the fact that mental health in Aotearoa can't access our people, and our people can't access it cos it doesn't recognise it, and it's a cocktail for disaster. So we would focus more on being able to talk and engage immediately our whanau, our kaumatua and stop, stop treating, again, our whanau in a manner that` And if I can just elaborate, you know, we need to stop treating rangatahi in gangs as the problem instead of the symptom of the wider failings. - Mm. - And I think that's where we would go. We would be brave to address the wider issues and not just scratch around the surface. The most important thing ` we wouldn't be so arrogant to think that the existing system just needs a rejig and can make it happen. It needs a continuous overhaul that recognises matauranga Maori. - When we are... You know, reflecting on those two stories that you saw earlier on in the programme, you know, there's a huge need for support inside of prisons where we have, I mean, I think the number was about 38 over the last five years while inside prison. So how do we get to those whanau, that whanau? - And we've seen this. In fact, we saw this in the public health response in COVID. I mean, therein lies some really perfect modelling. As long as we keep talking about rangatahi and gangs without ever talking to our whanau, as long as we keep talking about Maori without Maori, we're only gonna further entrench trauma in our whanau and our communities. The models are being done. The is that we actually need to reconnect with our whanau, our hapu groupings, our iwi groupings, rural, urban, you know. And I guess that that's really the war cry, I guess, is let's at least just go out and do what we saw happening in Covid. Let's let our communities be resourced to tautoko. And I think there was a korero that said, you know, we need to be able to have our kaumatua and our boys inside, our whanau, our wahine in remand, to be able to access that tautoko. That's sad. - So, you know, this government is building what they call 'Hikitia'. - Mm. - I think it's 100 beds for mental health and addiction in Waikeria. Is that the kind of kaupapa that you'd support? - Oh, look, I... The reality is that as long as our people are caught in systems like that, we're only going to be able to address part of the issue. The reality is it's much wider. It's not about just focusing on how we capture our people when they're inside the system. It's about having tautoko wrapped around the whole whanau inside, outside, and more importantly, being able to have a tautoko that they recognise and can relate with. - Mm. Now, I understand that you were lucky enough to be in the Patea Maori Club and perform the poi at the Rugby World Cup. How was that? - Oh, it was fabulous. I mean, it's a lifelong dream. Most of our whanau know that. I wasn't born naturally with a right and a left arm, so my wrists are, you know. So, it's been fabulous being up there with a lot of our OGs, with our aunties who were part of the original. It was fabulous vibes, you know, to be... You know, we can relate to that as a party, eh. A lot of people didn't think that we could come back, no different to our wahine in that team, and it was just the best experience ever ` the vibes. And yeah, it's just dreams come true. It was just really awesome. The game was awesome. The whole thing, you know. - What do you think` - I like that korero that your poi might not know you, but you... You may not know your poi, but your poi knows you. (CHUCKLES) - Do you think the, um... You know, what has that win done for wahine in that sport now? - Oh. Yeah, good question. I think, most importantly, it has shown a couple of things ` is that, first of all, never underestimate our wahine and give them the tautoko that they deserve, and our wahine coming through. Most importantly, though, this was also a campaign driven off matauranga Maori, off wa poi, of kaupapa that showed, in fact, we belong as tangata whenua in kaupapa like this. - Kia ora. - And credit to those wahine. - Tena koe. - So super proud. Tena koe. - Mm. - Ko Deb Ngarewa-Packer tera. - Kia ora. - We leave you tonight with something uplifting. The new waiata by the Tuari Brothers ` E Tama. Kua hikina Te Hui, e hoa ma. (GENTLE LAUGHTER, BIRDSONG) (EASY-GOING MUSIC) (TUARI BROTHERS' 'E TAMA') - Ko te reo te take. - Na Te Puna Whakatongarewa Te Hui i tautoko.