The influence of cultural identity on willingness to pay values in contingent valuation surveys

Current New Zealand resource management legislation requires local government actively recognise and take into account Māori values in resource management planning. This means the decision process and participants must interact with evidence based on Māori epistemologies. The Māori world-view is holistic in nature in that it embodies historical, environmental, and spiritual values, as well as modern experiences. Concerns arise for Māori communities when planners and developers utilise economic tools such as willingness to pay surveys to determine the total value of a proposed project. Other concerns are caused by surveys that ask a participant “are you Māori” and fail to recognise the diverse realities that exist for Māori. This paper draws from a survey of 700 respondents to identify the extent to which current conventional Contingent Valuation methodologies can measure changes in the environment where the response is culturally influenced. The influence of culture on willingness to pay decisions will be investigated using a measure of Māori identity. These cultural indicators involve assessing an individual's commitment and involvement in Māori cultural issues including: Te Reo (Māori language), whānau, other Māori, whakapapa (genealogy) and tikanga (Māori world view).Māori, Indigenous, Culture, Natural Resource Management, Well-being, Values, Contingent Valuation, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Political Economy,

Challenges to psychology in Aotearoa

Maori people are putting up with a lot right now. If governments can transfer $20 billion in the past ten years for hand outs and write offs to Pakeha people who have endured little, then they can do a lot better than the$150 million they’ve transferred to our people that have endured so much for 150 years. The big issue is still the Treaty, and the need to re-negotiate this nation’s management. The challenge is to design a political system that is based on Maori ways of doing things rather than Pakeha ways of doing things. To achieve this requires relinquishing colonial patterns of thinking and the certainty that pakeha people and their ways are superior to Maori. For psychologists the issue is their role in maintaining Pakeha economic and political power. It may well be that psychologists provide lousy value for money from the Maori point of view, but provide excellent value for money from the government’s point of view

Report on the bicultural symposium at conference

Kia ora koutou. I decided to submit the current paper as a way to say thank you to the large group of people in attendance at the bicultural stream at the national conference in late August that was held at Waikato University. It was their continued presence and participation that served as a catalyst and motivator for this paper. I'm conscious that while there was a large number of people in the symposium, there were other streams occurring at the same time, so I thought giving an overview of the success of the symposium would be a good way to let people know who the symposium went. However, before talking specifically about the symposium, I'd like to give mention to other events of the day..

Developing a kaupapa Māori evaluation model – one size fits all?

Health statistics in Aotearoa (New Zealand) highlight that Māori, the indigenous people Aotearoa have poorer health than non- Māori. In response to the statistics a number of Māori health providers have established services that address specific areas of need in their regions. Initially there were minimal accountability requirements of providers. However, changes in the health system now mean that groups wanting to establish a new service must provide accountability measures before, during and after the funding has been allocated. As a result providers need to develop a rationale behind their decisions and assess the measure of change that has taken place as a result of the service or programme to ensure continued funding. The requirements reflect the dominant Western paradigm in which health promotion is understood to be about producing specific quantifiable behaviour changes in individuals. Māori health providers on the other hand have tended to take a holistic approach to health. Thus they have found themselves in the position of trying to show change within a paradigm where measurements are not easily taken. This has created frustration amongst Māori providers who face losing their funding because of an inability to report measurable outcomes using a framework that does not apply to their culture

Ngā kanohi hou – identifying and exploring the issues: Experiences of an intern

The current paper reflects upon the discovery of an intern from the post graduate diploma in community psychology programme (PGDipPsych (Com). The PGDipPsych (Com) is currently facilitated through the University of Waikato School of Arts and Social Sciences, Psychology Department. This journey of discovery is presented from the perspective of a Māori student who is employed in a mainstream public health organisation. The perspective of a person who is new to the workforce, and the “real world,” who views the surrounding environment with a pair of fresh eyes. This paper highlights the importance of the internship period as it supports the student who moves from a structured environment with a strong emphasis on theory, towards a competitive, semi structured environment that is driven by deadlines, budgets and contracts. Factors identified are the demands of Māori communities on Māori health researchers, supportive versus competitive environments, the benefits and drawbacks of being based in a mainstream health organisation, and the future direction of Māori health research. It is hoped that the current paper will encourage further discussion about the future direction of a diploma programme such as the PGDipPsychCom for Māori graduates of a New Zealand tertiary institution

The Price of Mauri: Exploring the validity of Welfare Economics when seeking to measure Mātauranga Māori

Since the 1980s New Zealand has pursued neo-classical or market-based policies with a particular fervour. Market-based options are seen by resource management decision makers as essential frameworks for efficiently allocating resources, an approach that continues to support the view of the inherent dominance of Western knowledge. This is particularly concerning, given that Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), have an important role to play in New Zealand resource management and perceive their own knowledge systems have been marginalised. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore the validity of welfare economics when seeking to measure quantitatively Mātauranga Māori or Māori views of the environment through the contingent valuation method. A contingent valuation study is carried out using three separate samples drawn from the general Māori population in Auckland city, a hāpu/sub-tribe indigenous to the Auckland isthmus, and drivers of motor vehicles in Auckland city. Data collection modes include a postal survey and face-to-face interviews. This thesis challenges the validity of political-legal ethnicity constructs to measure Mātauranga Māori. The search for a central tendency will lead to biased, misleading and inaccurate results. The thesis also challenges the validity of contingent valuation to produce true economic measures and to measure and identify Mātauranga Māori. Despite advances in analytical techniques, economic efficiency measures are always deficient, given the difficulty of capturing and anticipating all impacts and valuing them appropriately. Mātauranga Māori is derived from a Māori epistemology and should be considered or analysed with primary reference to this body of knowledge. Economic analysis is only one important cog in the machinery of resource management policy. Given that an economist's contribution to local and regional resource management is most valuable when focusing on the economic efficiency of the proposed resource allocation, it is appropriate that other perspectives such as Mātauranga Māori be considered

Indigenous psychologies globally – a perspective from Aotearoa/New Zealand

Discusses indigenous psychology from a global perspective and then from the perspective of Aotearoa/New Zealand

An evaluation of the cultural supervision prototype undertaken within the Department of Corrections, Hamilton

Disproportionately high rates of offending and recidivism among Māori are well documented. As part of its attempt to better meet the needs of Māori offenders, the Department of Corrections is developing cultural supervision for staff in the Community Probation Service, the Public Prisons Service and the Psychological Service. The aims of cultural supervision include improving staff members’ knowledge of Māori cultural values, providing support for staff in managing complex cultural issues, and ensuring safe practice and culturally appropriate behaviour. During 2002, the Māori and Psychology Research Unit was contracted to conduct a survey of current practices in relation to cultural supervision and a process evaluation of a prototype of cultural supervision being trialled in the Waikato among probation officers (Hamilton Area) and sentence planners (Waikeria Prison) (Karapu, Masters, Robertson, Trynes, & Waitoki, 2002). Findings from the survey indicated that most staff had informal cultural support or advice available to them. Usually, this was in the form of Māori colleagues within the Department. Less commonly, support was sought from Māori in other organisations, from knowledgeable non-Māori within the Department, kaumātua and kuia, and whānau members. About a third of Corrections staff were receiving some formal cultural supervision, most of whom regarded it positively. Among other staff, both Māori and non-Māori, there was a high level of interest in cultural supervision, and a view that it would be beneficial to their professional practice. Overall, staff felt that the support and advice currently available to them was inadequate. Findings from the evaluation of the prototype suggested that while many of the participants viewed cultural supervision as important for their job, fewer considered that the supervision they were receiving was meeting their needs. Some experienced non-Māori staff seemed to be resistant to the idea of cultural supervision, feeling that they already knew how to relate to Māori offenders. Māori staff were generally enthusiastic about cultural supervision but wanted it to focus on their personal safety as Māori within a “mainstream” institution rather than on their practice. However, both Māori and non-Māori staff generally felt that the cultural supervision sessions provided a safe environment. The prototype appeared to be a good beginning and the model should be stronger when modified in the light of experience

Out of the pan and into the fire: Precariousness among women and children escaping domestic violence

Domestic violence can leave women in a precarious position in regards to basic needs such as health, housing and income. It can make their participation in education, social and community life extremely marginal and seriously undermine their ability to parent in the way that they would like. Women in certain tight-knit communities may be ostracised if they speak out about the violence as they get blamed for bringing shame on to the community. Drawing on information collected over a number of studies, we discuss the myriad ways in which women resist violence and attempt to keep themselves and their children safe. We outline the strategic decisions women make in the face of precarious circumstances and reveal the various ways so-called helping agencies too often fail to help. Of particular concern is the way certain state agencies act in oppressive and controlling ways, in effect holding women responsible for the violence visited upon them and their children and requiring women to jump through the hoops to prove themselves as worthy. We offer our thoughts on what is needed to support of women and their children that will enable them to flourish

Creating whanaungatanga: Kaupapa Maori support in the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato

Attendance at university has been recognized by some as a competitive environment that does not cater for the co-operative philosophy followed by many Maori. Within the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato there have been efforts since the Departments early days to place emphasis on the Maori cultural experience, but there were few Maori students and no Maori staff back then. Now, in 2004, the Department has a team of Maori staff and courses with Maori content at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Yet the environment that the students move in is still competitive. Grades are based on individual assessment through undergraduate level. At graduate level the emphasis on group dynamics comes to the fore. The availability and accessibility of Maori staff at different levels in a Kaupapa Maori programme provides one of the strategies of support for maori students at Waikato. This paper discusses the issues around managing, delivering and providing opportunities so that Maori students studying psychology feel supported for the duration of their time at Waikato University