CASE STUDIES
Restorative Justice
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Author of case study: Marcela Torres
Geopolitical location of space:
Whanganui
New Zealand
Extant? Yes
Architect:
Original architect unknown
Start date: November 2020
The Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust (established in 1999) is a nationally accredited provider of “the Court referred and victim focused restorative justice programme.” In 2012, they decided to take the principles of restorative justice into the community and established the Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust, a charitable non-government organisation working towards New Zealand’s first Restorative City.
Yes, in this space they hold restorative conferences and interviews with prisoners and survivors. However it is important to differentiate between the two organisations working on this site:
First, there is the Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust, which operates a centre of restorative practices in the city of Whanganui. The mission of the centre is to implement restorative practices in the community in order to:
Second, there is the Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust, a nationally accredited provider of restorative justice programs. They manage cases referred to them by the Court and their work is focused on victims. They work in collaboration with the police, courts, and the Ministry of Education, and are run by community-based groups that are contracted to the Ministry of Justice.
Yes, in November 2020 they moved into a new office, where they have arranged spaces for safe listening. Before this, they were working out of a police station, which one of the centre’s administrators described as “not suitable for [restorative practice] use”.
The Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust works on cases referred to them by the Court, including prisoners and survivors. The Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust works with any member of the community, including schools and their students.
It is a private office space belonging to the Whanganui Restorative Justice Trust and operated by the charitable non-governmental organization, i.e. the Whanganui Restorative Practices Trust.
The office space contains two rooms where restorative justice conferences take place. One is a boardroom, which has a big screen to interview prisoners and survivors who live in different parts of the country.
The other room is smaller with a round table and chairs, and a ceramic centrepiece depicting people sitting in a circle holding hands, adding a symbolic element to the conference room. One of the organisation’s administrators (Jenny) described it as “not an especially interesting room.” She also added, “one of our trustees is the Deputy Principal of a girl’s school, and they have a dedicated room where they hold restorative conferences.”
All the spaces are very neutral and neat, with white walls and very little decoration. The furniture uses a combination of blue and grey colours with honey-coloured wood. The spaces have natural lighting; the spaces use blinds or stained glass to ensure privacy and confidentiality.
Population of Whanganui: 39,400 (Jun. 2019)
The office space is located in the middle of Whanganui. The small city is part of the International Learning Community (ILC) established in 2014, and it is the “first city in New Zealand to work towards a Restorative City” (Restorative Practices Whanganui).
The centre was previously located in a community police station in a suburb of the city. The new space is much bigger and it has provided an opportunity to arrange the space according to the centre’s needs, as well as to become more visible to the community.
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
