THE RAW TRUTH REVIEWS

Reading this book is like following a river of love. The art of holding wairua for people emerges as a theme over and over again. RAW is not only growing wairua between people, but they are also holding wairua for those who cannot, just now, hold it for themselves.

RAW is a book that brings forward, and pays attention to, the voice of women who are often without voice…. Indeed, I think one of RAW’s great strengths is listening closely to the RAW women’s voices, inside and outside, to find the right path, the right model, and the right combination of support, culture, love and structure to enable these women to transform their lives.

The RAW book is a beautiful and profound story that combines deep tradition with completely futuristic models of thinking and approaches to personal change. However, it is also hard, and perhaps this is its greatest gift. These women’s lives are not edited for acceptability or politeness. They are as they are, and prison is as it is. In this time of justice reform my hope is that this book becomes part of this conversation and, in particular, how we re-create prisons as more than a circuit-breaker, but a place to heal, recover, dream and prepare for a new life

The RAW Truth, by Natalie Pearce, is a gritty and honest account of the work of the RAW foundation. RAW (Reclaim Another Woman) was set up by fashion designer Annah Stretton, and mental health nurse Rebecca Skilton in 2013.

Their aim seemed in some ways simple – to re-integrate women who have been in prison multiple times, who seemed destined to continue on a path of crime, drug abuse, domestic violence and poverty, back into mainstream society.

But many organisations had tried and failed. Why would RAW be different? These women had been born into the lifestyle that led them to crime – it was their normal. How could RAW change that normal?

Like a lot of organisations, they made mistakes, and plenty of them.  The RAW Truth is the story of their mistakes – and their successes. There is no sugar-coating the mistakes – but what makes RAW work is the willingness to learn from them.

This book is not an easy read. It shares the stories of women that were born into lives that parallel the movie “Once Were Warriors.” Their interviews are not edited or sanitised to make them more palatable for mainstream New Zealand. Interwoven into these stories is the story of the genesis and metamorphosis of RAW as an organisation.

The initial idea was a one-on-one mentor system, which although it seemed a good idea at the time, really failed on many different levels. For every two steps forward, there were often three steps back.

Then there was the brief attempt to include men into the programme. With each of the four male prisoners released to RAW, it was only a matter of months before they re-offended and were recalled to prison. The male pilot only reaffirmed to Annah and Rebecca that RAW had to focus on women.

The success of RAW is a combination of many different learnings. The team learnt that education is the key to a successful life. They learnt that women coming out of prison are exiting a very structured life, and to start off on the outside, they need continuing structure. They learnt that ex-prisoners were used to using drugs and alcohol to cope with pressure, and they had to learn strategies to deal with stressful situations.

RAW is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it’s the best thing New Zealand has at the moment to solve a massive problem that most of us either don’t know about or pretend doesn’t exist. The RAW Truth will shock, and possibly appall some readers. It will also introduce you to a group in society that slowly, one woman at a time, finally has hope for the future.

This is a book like few others I have read in the past decade or more – it tells the stories of New Zealand women, many but not all of them Maori, who have lived in, and survived, the most appalling, heartbreaking circumstances. They were bashed, abused, treated as slaves, sexually violated, were drug users and sellers, were alcoholics; and for many of them prison was a safe haven where they could escape their lives of horror. And it was in prison that they met up with the RAW programme, a hard-nosed rescue project aimed at bringing women back into the world of happiness and self-belief. No-nonsense businesswoman and fashion designer Annah Stretton, together with her mental health nurse sister Rebecca Skilton, have battled bureaucracy, lies, failure, and their own initial lack of understanding, but in four years they have now created a system that works. More and more of the women are responding extraordinarily.

Now, author Natalie Pearce, has produced a book – The RAW Truth – tracing these almost unbelievable tales of tragedy, and the ultimate triumphs that are the results of two women who will not quit. Natalie’s stories, told from lengthy interviews with more than a dozen of these remarkable women, and with Annah and Rebecca, will raise hackles of outrage, they may make you weep – frequently – and they will certainly introduce a hard focus on a section of life most of us never dreamt existed. Superbly illustrated, and told with no apologies for all the horrible realities it reveals, it is one hell of a read.

It left me in shock and disbelief that this sort of hardship is happening right here in our own backyard and yet somehow it has totally escaped mainstream NZ.  How could a life full of violence, addiction, poverty and crime be acceptable, and worse still, be seen as perfectly normal for them?  How did a small country get to have such a gap between the normal I know and the normal I uncovered in this book?

It is so inspiring to read how far the RAW model has evolved from day one and how many lives they have touched and changed.  The fact that it is my mum and Aunty driving all this GOOD work makes me an immensely proud daughter and niece.

If you read one book this year – read THE RAW TRUTH – you won’t be disappointed!

A new perspective has been shone on what’s under the surface of women and crime in New Zealand.

RAW is built on a solid foundation of authentic kindness.  With the added benefits of extreme determination and a business flavour, they are powerfully lifting the gloomy fog that weighted down our women with incredible potential.

Sprinkled with never before told stories of remarkable women who have served time behind bars, The RAW Truth is a book like no other.  It is sure to open your mind and your heart.  After flipping the first page I couldn’t put it down.