A Maori meeting house, built in Tokomaru Bay, and now residing in Chicago’s Field Museum, is the venue for a local high school’s learning experience in dealing with at-risk student violence.
A Maori ritual that was used to resolve conflicts and bring about peace between rival groups in New Zealand is now being tested at Ruatepupuke II meeting house at the Field Museum in Chicago, reported The New York Times.
Cheryl Graves, is a community organiser who trains intervention groups and officials from Fenger High School. After 10 years of using conflict intervention techniques she feels little has changed and too many students were still ending up in prison after episodes of school violence.
According to Maori tradition, conflicts are resolved by disputing groups taking turns to give formal speeches and ending with mutual singing and hugging each other.
Because at-risk students often find communicating difficult, Ms Graves hoped that the visit to the 125-year-old meeting house would throw light on other ways to help these adolescents develop new attitudes to life.
The Ruatepupuke meeting house, which was built in 1881, had some 10 years later fallen into disuse, become dilapidated and was then sold to a curio dealer. It was subsequently sold to the Field Museum where it was finally restored and opened to the public in 1993.
A Maori ritual that was used to resolve conflicts and bring about peace between rival groups in New Zealand is now being tested at Ruatepupuke II meeting house at the Field Museum in Chicago, reported The New York Times.
Cheryl Graves, is a community organiser who trains intervention groups and officials from Fenger High School. After 10 years of using conflict intervention techniques she feels little has changed and too many students were still ending up in prison after episodes of school violence.
According to Maori tradition, conflicts are resolved by disputing groups taking turns to give formal speeches and ending with mutual singing and hugging each other.
Because at-risk students often find communicating difficult, Ms Graves hoped that the visit to the 125-year-old meeting house would throw light on other ways to help these adolescents develop new attitudes to life.
The Ruatepupuke meeting house, which was built in 1881, had some 10 years later fallen into disuse, become dilapidated and was then sold to a curio dealer. It was subsequently sold to the Field Museum where it was finally restored and opened to the public in 1993.
