22 November 2008
Wardens keep students on track
18 August 2006
By Vicky Crawford: Te Waha Nui Online
The experience of catching a train from Britomart filled with energised school kids used to be daunting. But that was before the Maori Wardens of Waitemata entered the scene.
They call it the “animal train” — it’s the 3.08pm from Britomart station and it has a mean reputation.
Kids running on the tracks, bullying, tagging, vandalism, stand over tactics, this train has seen it all. The ‘A’ train travels along the western line picking up hundreds of teenagers from more than seven different schools and returning them to their homes in West Auckland.
It’s a potent mix. Put together teenage hormones, interschool rivalry and an absence of parents and teachers — the potential for trouble is high. Enter the Maori Wardens of Waitemata, tough young men and women whose job it is to ensure everyone gets a safe ride home.
Distinctive by their size and black uniforms they can be heard telling people to move down the aisles, clear off the doors and get their tickets out. The 12 wardens who work the school run and the weekend late nighters are trained to mediate conflict and prevent trouble before it begins.
Troublesome teens might be split up from their mates or in more serious cases a call will be made to their school or whanau. It’s an approach that appears to be working – the wardens say the crime rate has dropped by 85 per cent since they joined the network in 2002.
Joseph, a year eight student at St Peters College, knows he’s safe when the wardens are on board. “If someone’s annoying you, you can tell them and they’re big and stuff and they’ll tell them not to,” he says.
Team leader Bumper Taumaunu, 27, remembers what it’s like to be a cheeky kid and he knows the importance of building a relationship with them. “I’ll crack a joke with the bullies or try to identify what’s wrong.
It might be that they’ve got a problem at school and I can talk to someone for them,” he says. Train passenger Chrissy Duggan says putting wardens on the trains was a “stroke of genius”.
“The kids were berserk before, smashing bottles on the tracks and pushing each other at the stations,” she says. “They are pretty well behaved now considering there are so many of them.”
Maori warden Andrew Randell says there have been a couple of times when the conductors have had trouble with young kids trying to take their wallets and pull their hair. The wardens cruise the carriages and offer back-up and support so the conductors can focus on their job to collect the tickets.
A positive spin-off has been the intercultural exchange that goes on between the Maori wardens and the conductors who are often new immigrants to New Zealand. Chairman of the Waitemata Maori Wardens Jack Taumaunu negotiated the original contract with Tranz Metro and he is clear about his team’s mission.
“We’re not the police. We don’t have batons, we don’t have guns, it’s not our role to pepper spray people, our philosophy is to help these kids.” he says.
