I could not believe my eyes when I read the article in the NZ Herald. It led me to the conclusion that in future judgements, a case may be made for “cultural shame” as a way for a sentence to be reduced, possibly by quite a lot if the “mana” was broken enough.
Stephen Henare and Margaret Dixon virtually bled the Parengarenga 3G (P3G) Trust dry to pay for gambling and luxuries, such as a corporate box at rugby league games.
[…] the Court of Appeal said in an appropriate future case the courts may be able to “explore the possibility of treating whakama as a unique mitigating factor when sentencing a Maori defendant.”
So, Henare took the case to New Zealand’s highest court with an application for a second challenge to his sentence. His sole intended ground of appeal was the effect of whakama, a form of cultural shame for Maori, should have been recognised as a personal mitigating factor in his sentencing.
[…] “Our mana has been stripped, our tikanga value is gone … We as a whanau, we are broken,”
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