Takiari believes he would be in jail if he hadn’t become involved in Nga Matai Purua, a community organisation in Melbourne dedicated to preserving and sharing the heritage of Maori people through performing arts and cultural workshops.

“My mother actually put me into this group because she saw the huge disconnection I had from my culture, me not knowing my identity, who I am,” he says. “Nga Matai Purua for me is home. If I didn’t have the support and people in it, I wouldn’t be here having this interview, I would be locked up.”

Takiari, now 21, is a youth ambassador at Target Zero, an alliance of organisations that aims to prevent young people from Melbourne’s west from getting caught up in the criminal justice system.

Currently, children as young as 10 can be arrested, charged and jailed in juvenile detention.

Last week, the Victorian government abandoned its promise to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, following a drop in Labor’s primary vote and a series of high-profile violent crimes.

Crime Statistics Agency figures released in March showed a 22.5 per cent increase in the number of offences committed by 10- to 13-year-olds in the year to September 2023 and a 29.4 per cent increase in the number of offences committed by 14- to 17-year-olds.

The 2022-23 Youth Parole Board annual report found 64 per cent of young Victorians in custody were victims of abuse, trauma or neglect as a child.

Takiari believes young offenders need positive mentors, not prison sentences.

“That was one of the big issues navigating through my childhood. I was going through a lot of stages where problems would have been solved easier if I had someone like a mentor,” he says.

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Boudene Hauraki, the community engagement lead for Target Zero, said the project aimed to address the over-representation in the criminal justice system of First Nations and multicultural young people and young people in residential care.

Target Zero is working with schools, police and parents to deal with some of the complex factors around the criminalisation of young people, including homelessness, drug use, mental health issues, police profiling, migration settlement challenges, family violence and disengagement from school.

“We’re really thankful to have Kaea share his story because these are the unheard voices,” Hauraki says.

One of Target Zero’s initiatives, Project 100, involves working with a school in the western suburbs to bring its suspension and expulsion rate down to zero.

“If we can help the schools to keep young people in school, then that’s a lot,” Hauraki says.

“We want to see young people have a good start in life and not be put into prisons because we know that doesn’t work.”

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