Kohitere Boys Training Center

Kohitere Boys’ Training Centre in Taitoko Levin: Normalised and pervasive violence, with many experiencing severe corporal punishment, sometimes inflicted with weapons and to the genitals, staff encouraged peer-on-peer violence through a king-pin system, sexual abuse, misused solitary confinement, normalised racism and cultural abuse, boys punished with extreme physical training and inhumane tasks.

Abuse in Care report

NameKohitere Boys Training Center
AddressCD Farm Road, Private Bag Levin
Formally known asWeraroa Boys Training Farm Industrial School
1903
Weraroa State Farm
1906 - 1939
Later known asKohitere
01/09/1965
Care type(s)Training Center
Boys Home
Date opened1950
Date closed1985
GenderBoys
Ages14 - 17
Capacity111 plus 12 Secure
Run byDepartment of Social Welfare
PrincipleMr PT Wolfe
Assistant PrincipleJW Chambers
IW McCardle
Psychological ServiceMr Bryan Wright

Kohitere

Experimental Woolshed, Levin. Image courtesy of www.flickr

Media Links

Weraroa State Farm.

During the First World War between 1,500 to 2,000 objectors and defaulters were convicted, or came under state control, for their opposition to war. Some of these religious objectors ended up at Weraroa State Farm in Levin
Weraroa State Farm (Former) Hokio Beach Road and 29, 65 CD Farm Road, LEVIN
Boys tending a garden crop in front of Guy House at Weraroa Boys Training Farm on Kimberley Rd, Levin
The Training Farm was closed at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, RNZAF repurposed the site as Levin Air Base, where new recruits undertook basic training.
The Boys' Training Farm at Weraroa in Levin was a government institution for children opened in 1905. It housed boys with behavioural problems – identified as 'delinquents' – although neglected and orphaned boys also ended up there. Occupational training was an important element of the institution's regime. These boys are threshing hay in 1912.

Film

The story revolved about why young people, predominantly Māori teenagers, in the mid 70s and into the 80s, became wards of the state - Mitchell Manuel.
Kingpin was the second of a trilogy of films from Mike Walker about troubled New Zealand youth. Filmed at, and inspired by residents of Kohitere Boys Training Centre in Levin, the bros-in-borstal tale follows a group of teens who are wards of the state.
Mark II follows the adventures of three teenage youths who go on the road and travel around the North Island in a classic Mark II Zephyr.

More information

Cauldron of Violence - https://www.abuseincare.org.nz/
Kohitere Boys' Training Centre - https://www.konae.org.nz/find-your-record-holder/kohitere-boys-training-centre/
Kohitere Boys Training Centre - clan.org.au
Download pdf
History of the Boys' Training Farm in Levin, New Zealand. Download pdf
Weraroa State Farm (Former)

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