Associate Professor Jane Bolitho believes every person should be approached with compassion and acceptance, no matter what they’ve done. It’s a belief system without which she couldn’t do her restorative justice work.
“There’s a concept in psychology called unconditional positive regard, which is the idea that you see every person who comes towards you as having inherent value, regardless of what they’ve done.
“Even the most shocking, evil acts are viewed as acts—they are not the person themselves. When you attend to someone with unconditional positive regard, there is hope for the human condition.”
Jane, who became the University’s Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice in January 2021, moved from Sydney to take up the role. She was drawn to Aotearoa New Zealand because of the innovative way restorative justice is conceptualised here.
“Historically, restorative justice has been used to address criminal incidences of harm, which is a very reactive approach. In Aotearoa, a lot of the innovative work being done is proactive, and is focused on preventing harms and crimes before they occur. That’s a gold standard approach.”
Aotearoa is also distinctive in the way restorative approaches are used in a variety of spheres, rather than just in the criminal justice system. This includes addressing adverse events that have taken place in the healthcare system.
One of the most notable examples is the surgical mesh project, in which a restorative approach was used to address the harms caused by the mesh’s use in Aotearoa. The project was a collaboration between several different organisations, including the Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice team.
“What was absolutely incredible about the surgical mesh project is they took the concept and philosophy of the restorative approach and used it to address all the different harms that people suffered as a result of these devices.
“Restorative [justice] is a mechanism that works with, not against, emotion. It’s okay to be sad, it’s okay to be angry, it’s okay to be grieving. To have that validated by people in the medical sphere, or even by other people in the family or community, can feel really powerful.”
Restorative approaches in Aotearoa work alongside the principles of hohou te rongopai (peacemaking from a te ao Māori world view). Ongoing work is taking place in the health space to explore how restorative practices and hohou te rongopai can work to address healthcare harm.
Jane originally trained as a psychologist, then spent 15 years working as a criminologist at the University of New South Wales. Her research involved visiting the homes of survivors of crime and conducting in-depth interviews to determine what they needed from the justice system after the crime had occurred. At the same time, she was spending time with offenders and their families to understand what was behind their offending.
“I saw the potential for restorative [justice] to work not just for the victim, or just the offender, but to work for everyone, including the families. There are a lot of justice innovations but, for me, I see restorative [justice] as the most powerful mechanism.”
The Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice was created in 2014 and became a Centre in 2020. This, Jane says, is a significant achievement that signals the University’s commitment to the longevity of the Centre’s work.
The Centre works in partnership with seven government sponsors who represent a variety of sectors. A key part of the Centre’s work, Jane says, is being responsive to the issues in these sectors, and working closely with the communities involved.
As for why restorative approaches work so well, Jane says that is the million-dollar question.
“There are many researchers working around the world to try and figure out exactly why it does work. There are complicated technical answers to do with memory, trauma, and neuroscience, and then there are less complicated answers around the human need for connection, for validation, for acknowledgment, and how a circle space works to attend to this.”
One of the key aspects of restorative approaches is the listening circle, in which those affected by the harm come together to discuss the event and its ramifications in a safe, facilitated space.
“Coming together face to face in a circle gets rid of a lot of the hierarchies you often get in the legal system. It strips back those layers, and people can see each other as they really are.
“It’s about people using their own words, in their own time. It’s not mediated through professionals such as a lawyer or psychologist. That’s the really powerful part.
“Again and again in our research, we hear the same words from participants after restorative [discussions]: ‘I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I walked out of the room a different person.’ The restorative process shifts the event from something that’s been on replay in someone’s mind to something that’s no longer controlling their life.”
Ultimately, Jane would like to see restorative approaches opened up to everyone in an equitable, transparent way.
“I’d like to see universal access to restorative [justice]. My grand vision would be that you don’t have justice by geography, where rural and regional communities are less likely to have access to these innovative approaches.
“There is also a strong commitment from restorative practitioners in Aotearoa to incorporate mātauranga Māori into our work. The priority is to explore tikanga Māori models of restorative, mediation, and dispute resolution.”
The Centre has a number of emerging projects that are applying restorative approaches to a range of issues. The aim, Jane says, is to use restorative principles to address all the big issues in the world today.
“There are grand challenges—the inequities in society, the historical and ongoing impacts of colonisation, effects of religious persecution, racism, gender and sexual violence. They’re huge topics, but they’re ones we want to tackle.”