Utilising matauranga Maori to improve the social functioning of tangata whaiora in Maori mental health services

Maori mental health services under the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) have been utilising Matauranga Maori as a key community based intervention since the closing of the kaupapa Maori inpatient service (Manawaanui) in 2003. Kapa haka has been a central component in the provision of the marae based recovery programmes. The following paper is a review of the development and progress

Stories of Māori women leaders in New Zealand

Maori women form the backbone of Maori communities and have long worked within political, health, social, legal, religious and educational community environments to enhance the status and wellbeing of Maori communities. Traditionally, Maori were seen as maintaining roles of balance, harmony, and leadership in te ao Maori (the Maori world). This study sought to explore the life experiences of Maori women leaders and how these have been influential on their roles as leaders in Maori communities. Thirteen women were identified by Maori in their communities as leaders and were interviewed using purakau (traditional Maori narratives) as a method for life story narrative research in kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) interviews. Using a research analysis framework based on purakau and the four words which comprise its whole, pu (source), ra (light), ka (past, present, future), and u (from within), four important research findings emerged. First, their source of leadership began from their ukaipo (early childhood nurturing and protection) and was sustained by their connections to whakapapa (genealogy, descent) and guided by whanau (family) expectations. Second, particular experiences which led to enlightenment were important in sustaining and guiding their roles as leaders through the development of moemoea (visions, aspirations) for their communities. These experiences involved wairua (spirituality), matauranga (education) and experiences of racism and discrimination. Third, future aspirations in their roles as leaders were strongly influenced by past and present experiences in their specific social, historical and political contexts. Fourth, the individual attributes these women brought to their roles as leaders enhanced their roles in Maori communities. These attributes were nurtured and encouraged from generation to generation in Maori communities particularly through traditional Maori narratives such as whakatauki (proverbs) and purakau. These findings were interpreted to show how Maori leadership has evolved to meet the needs of Maori communities, and how Maori women have been actively involved in meeting and advancing these needs. As a result, this study provided insights into how leadership in te ao Maori was developed and can be used to encourage leadership in future generations

“Our stories could kill you”: Storytelling, healthcare, and the legacy of the “talking cure” in Patricia Grace’s Baby No-Eyes (1998) and Georgia Kaʻapuni McMillen’s School for Hawaiian Girls (2005)

The notion of indigenous intergenerational historical trauma, developed by Native American engagements with trauma studies, has influenced bicultural or multicultural healthcare systems in New Zealand and Hawaiʻi. Beliefs that indigenous storytelling facilitates healing underpin these discourses, a premise shared by postcolonial trauma scholarship addressing Pacific literatures. This article questions underlying – and romanticized – arguments that Māori and Hawaiian storytelling heals. It analyses how storytelling is re-envisioned as a potential rather than realized space of healing in Patricia Grace’s Baby No-Eyes and Georgia Kaʻapuni McMillen’s School for Hawaiian Girls. It contends that the legacy of the “talking cure” obscures issues of responsible telling and listening, intergenerational respect, and silence in Māori and Hawaiian iterations of health and well-being. By reframing storytelling as a precarious, even dangerous, route to well-being, these readings demonstrate how Pacific literatures might contribute to culturally nuanced appraisals of oral rites and their relationship to colonial trauma