The film the Mongrel Mob didn't want you to see

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A still from the Ross Kemp documentary.

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Maori culture has been linked to criminal gang behaviour in a documentary on the Mongrel Mob, part of an award-winning British series on the world's most notorious gangs.

The Mongrel Mob episode will not be aired in New Zealand, something which has been widely debated. TV1 is screening the third series of Ross Kemp on Gangs but says it could not buy the episode because it was never cleared for international distribution.

However, it is understood that before Mob members would agree to be filmed, they signed a contract with the British producers preventing the show screening here. Canterbury University associate professor of sociology Greg Newbold was involved in the documentary's research and production and he understood there was such an agreement.

He said the contract would have been signed because Mob members did not know how they would be portrayed and they would have wanted to protect themselves against bad publicity.

The programme, which has appeared on UK television and is available on the internet, has sparked debate around the anti-social consequences of Maori identifying with a "warrior" culture.

It comes less than two years since New Zealand scientist Rod Lea controversially found an over-representation of a so-called "warrior" gene in Maori men. The gene was supposed to predispose people to risk-taking and antisocial behaviour.

Mongrel Mob members spoken to by host Ross Kemp British soap opera star turned journalist attribute their blood lust to a Maori fighting tradition.

Kemp explores the history of the gang, which was formed in Hastings in the 1960s. He follows members into clubhouses around the North Island, and examines their feud with the Black Power gang.

He interviews victims, including the mother of 16-year-old Colleen Burrows who was brutally kicked and beaten to death by Mob members in Napier in 1987.

Members also boast about putting women "on the block", stabbings and other acts of violence.

Newbold told the Sunday Star-Times the Mob glorified "some of the worst aspects of traditional Maori and the warrior culture".

"They do have this concept of aggressiveness, fearsomeness, and bravery and belligerence which are general features of Maori culture."

Mongrel Mob members identified strongly with their warrior ancestors who in prehistoric times "were not bound by the rules of warfare... slaughtered prisoners at will... raped women... many were taken as slaves and those who were not, were killed and eaten", Newbold said.

He compared Maori war-time tactics to those of the crusaders in the 11th century.

"They were not specific to Maori, but it was certainly there and was very, very brutal. And the Mongrel Mob, I think they glorify that aspect of their culture as much as they know about it."

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples agreed that gang members tended to grasp on to violent aspects of their culture, but this was common in marginalised groups around the world.

Gang members also tended to have a limited understanding of the culture and their Maori heritage, he said.

Any suggestions anti-social or criminal behaviour was somehow inherent in Maori were "rubbish", he said.

He had been working to educate gang members about their culture and about "core values" that would help all Maori care for those around them and prioritise family.

Newbold said "the brown middle-class who are tending to revive Maori culture and to some extent rewrite Maori prehistory" would find the links offensive, but they were based on well-researched fact.

Other social issues among Maori such as prevalent domestic abuse, alcoholism and violence had historical cultural roots, he said.

"Almost every time you hear about a child that's been beaten to death they are Maori that's not new. It's a bloody sad truth. They can keep arguing the point but it's not going to change until people acknowledge it. Everyone who's involved in this kind of work knows it... But very few people are prepared to say it because you are called a racist."

Sharples said: "Greg Newbold is talking rubbish. In pre-European times Maori did not whack their babies and there was no alcohol. What I've looked at is the impact of colonisation on Maori and the bringing in of fatty foods and flour and all these kinds of things into a group that did not fit in the mainstream.

"It's natural that the group should be over-represented in negative and low socio-economic statistics."

Statistics New Zealand figures show Maori accounted for more than 43% of apprehensions for violent offences in 2006, while comprising less than 14% of the population.