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[guitar music]
JONNIE BLACK: When anything happened, when someone bullied us,
or when a fight escalated,
then, you know, you’d just go in as well.
And the thing is, when you’re bullied or when an argument starts,
it starts to heat up very, very quickly
and then you automatically, just because the way that you, you know, think about it,
you automatically attack back.
As soon as I got introduced to the programme,
it actually gave me a chance to stop and think about it,
and instead of just lashing out straight away,
I’d be able to walk away, think about it, and then deal with it later,
rather than dealing with it and getting in trouble,
which I found that happened a lot.
YVONNE DUNCAN: Until you can actually raise the consciousness of students,
and let them see what is happening in the conflict,
how they’re behaving, and how other people are behaving,
then they have the ability to change and make positive choices.
BLACK: I was 14 at the time, when I got introduced.
The coordinator at Mount Roskill Grammar School was the one that introduced me.
At the time, I didn’t even know what mediation was.
At the start, I was very reluctant.
I kept to myself, I held back.
Just 'cause I didn’t understand the program as such
and in the beginning I didn’t want to be there.
But as soon as the training ended,
I was actually more involved than I thought I’d ever be.
STUDENT ACTOR: Kia ora, I’m John and this is Daniel
and we’ll be your mediators today.
So, mediation is just students helping other students
to resolve their own problems.
Also, we’re in a neutral position,
so we don’t take sides or judge.
BLACK: The process worked quite perfectly, actually,
because when you set the ground rules in the beginning,
it actually gives them an understanding that
“this is what we have to stick to.”
What we say at Mount Roskill
is that if you don’t work to solve the problem,
then we’ll refer it on to a guidance counsellor
or the deputy principal that’s in charge of the mediation service.
And 9 times out of the 10,
they don’t want to go up to the office and get in trouble.
CHRISTINA BARRUEL: At all levels,
we do say that mediation deals with,
well, at primary in particular, we say “small stuff conflict,”
but it deals with, not the huge, big issues
that are, are not appropriate for students.
So at primary level,
we say that mediators deal with little things.
They deal with relationship problems.
They deal with name-calling, sharing, ownership...
all those little, small stuff, conflict-type issues.
MEDIATOR STUDENT: What is your problem?
STUDENT 1: I don’t want Kabir to play with me
because I was, I was playing with my own friends.
MEDIATOR STUDENT: What was your problem?
STUDENT 2: I wanted to play with Jescaran.
MEDIATOR STUDENT: How did you feel about that?
STUDENT 1: Cross, angry. [sighs]
MEDIATOR: How did you feel about that?
STUDENT 2: Angry.
MEDIATOR STUDENT: Do you have any solutions to help?
STUDENT: Jescaran could say sorry and then could start a new game.
DUNCAN: What you’re providing here is a language,
a common language that everyone knows,
they can use in mediation.
They’ve got the words,
the way to express their responses to conflict.
BLACK: With the mediation that I’d done at school,
it encouraged me to do it outside of school
and take it to a profession, a paid profession,
and that’s why I decided to go to Teacher's College
and also do a minor in Conflict Resolution.
I also want to keep that Māori aspect of my life [Black lecturing in the background]
within the conflict resolution side.
That’s why I've chosen to do Māori teaching.
Yeah, in the near future,
I do want to look at being an international mediator
and going overseas and getting a Masters in International Mediation.