Taaniko Nordstrom

Reconnecting prisoners to their whakapapa and cultural identity through photography

Former Air New Zealand cabin attendant Taaniko Nordstrom, originally co-founded Soldiers Rd in 2013 to just recreate vintage style Māori portraits. After a while, she started to notice the positive impact this had on men, women, children and whanau of all cultures and backgrounds, but particularly for Māori, and wondered if it might have an impact on people in prisons. Soldiers Rd has since partnered with NZ Corrections in the ground-breaking pilot Behind the Wire- Rangatahi ki Rangatira which aims to transform prisoner’s cultural identity and self-perception as an innovative way to approach prison recidivism rates.

In Aotearoa, Māori are significantly over-represented in the prison population and underlying themes behind this include a lack of understanding around identity, heritage, tikanga, whakapapa and kawa. Through Soldiers Rd, prisoners are asked to write a letter to their ancestors and then have their photo taken in traditional outfits. The photos are then displayed in a temporary gallery in the prison. "Using out photography and using images of us looking like our ancestors for people that really needed the reminder of the mana which in English would be of the essence that each of us has - even those that have made mistakes," Taaniko told Stuff.

Soldiers Rd have taken this idea overseas to Australia, the US, Europe and India.

Taaniko will be speaking at An Evening at Parliament with Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, a special Festival for the Future satellite event to be held at Parliament, on Thursday, July 29.