Tracey McIntosh
Ngāi Tūhoe
Prof Tracey McIntosh, MNZM, has a commitment to addressing issues that concern Māori and draws on a critical Indigenous studies framework. She is Ngāi Tūhoe and a sociologist by training and a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Te Wānanga o Waipapa at the University of Auckland. She is the Chief Science Advisor for the Ministry of Social Development and a Commissioner of Te Kāhui Tātari Ture: Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Prof McIntosh was the former Co-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence. In 2012 she served as the co-chair of the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty. In 2018-2019 she was a member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) which released the report ‘Whakmana Tangata: Restoring Dignity to Social Security in New Zealand’ (2019). She was also a member of Te Uepū Hapai i te Ora- The Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group which released the report ‘He Waka Roimata: Transforming our Criminal Justice System’ (2019) and ‘Turuki! Turuki!’ (2019). In 2022 she was a member of the Advisory Commission into the Incarceration Rates of Aboriginal Peoples in South Australia. She is a Strategic Advisor to the Commissioners of the Royal Commission of Abuse in Care.
Racism, Slow violence and prison abolition
To seek an end of incarceration as the primary means of addressing social, economic and political problems means a need to dramatically reduce reliance on incarceration and to build the social institutions and conceptual frameworks that would render incarceration unnecessary. It is about reflecting what needs to be present and not just thinking about what needs to be absent to ensure a just society and a just justice system. Decarceration is not a simple call for the immediate tearing down of all prison walls, but entails an array of alternative non-penal regulatory frameworks. It means addressing the slow violence of racism, poverty, blunted opportunities and a commitment to mauri ora; to human flourishing.
