Bi-cultural Practice in Correctional Psychology, Innovation and Collaboration

Heffernan R¹, Botha R², Edwards T², Webb M²

¹Victoria University Of Wellington, ²Ara Poutama Aotearoa (New Zealand Department of Corrections)

Biography:

Dr Roxy Heffernan is a Lecturer in Forensic Psychology, with a background in correctional rehabilitation, psychological programme design, and the development of theory to guide holistic and strength-based interventions. She has collaborated with Ara Poutama to develop a way forward for bi-cultural practice. The research team includes Dr Ryan Botha, Tarsh Edwards, and Mate Webb, who collectively have experience in the design and delivery of rehabilitation, risk assessment, research, and Kaupapa Māori cultural supervision, and expertise in Psychology and Māori knowledge.

Aotearoa New Zealand, like other colonised nations, has a regrettable history of suppressing indigenous knowledge. NZ has seen the downstream effects of colonisation and marginalisation in the over-representation of indigenous Māori in a range of negative statistics, including all aspects of the Justice System (e.g., victimisation, arrests, convictions, imprisonment). In response to this, NZ Corrections’ current stratgegy (Hōkai Rangi, 2019) was developed. This strategy adopts a humanising and healing approach to service delivery and aims to elevate Māori knowledge within Corrections. This can be challenging in a space that is largely dominated by Western based practice principles and understandings of what constitutes evidence. Collaborative research commenced in January 2022 to provide guidance to Corrections’ Psychology and Programmes Teams to elevate a Māori world view within Psychological practice. In order to do this, we needed to understand the challenges (and potential solutions) for practitioners. The first phase of this project involved a survey and interviews to explore the perspectives and experiences of rehabilitation practitioners, analysed via thematic analysis. The next phase involved the development and refinement of a framework to support staff to collaborate bi-culturally. This presentation will outline the key themes and insights gained from the first phase and then share the framework, which is based in the metaphor of a waka hourua (double hulled canoe). It is hoped that this framework will influence practice through the development of interventions, trainings, and initiatives which contain a more equitable balance of indigenous knowledge, both at NZ Corrections and internationally.