Research

Maybe even connecting Māori families back to their whenua and educating them the brilliance of what their tipuna before them have left for them and have fought for many years. It gives the rangatahi for today a purpose and to know that they are not alone. Tikanga is the rongoa that is needed for today's mischief youth. A compulsory hikoi for our youth to visit their maunga, their awa, to settle both feet on their whenua and recognize their importance to continue the fight of justice and to whakamana their inner being. I also predict that this could be a way to reduce the out of control suicide rate in Māori.

Māori and Pacific cultures need to make it more safer for urban Māori and Pacific people to find their way back to their marae without discrimination. I need to feel that it is okay not to know my own culture or language.

The problem is they [Māori] have lived with 6 and 7 generations of land being taken away, being oppressed, being held down. If I could have a wish, it would be to remove the ancestral burden that they feel they can’t succeed and if there’s anything to do to remove that hurt, I would like to see that healing and that their right to the land, their authority, be respected. To take away the hurt so they feel free to participate and engage. I think a lot of people like that feel they can’t engage or participate fully.

We were supported in our whanau, hapu and iwi groups which had established systems of manaaki, accountability and justice. We have endured a hammering and now feature in the highest negative statistics. Reconciliation and restoration is required.

Conversations with young Māori men about their identity. In NZ there’s a historical amnesia about the ways communities have interacted with each other across time and place. Can't have a bicultural aspect of NZ, and sanitise that narrative. Whereas if we can have an understanding of different communities history in NZ. One of the troubling things about the communities I belong to, an unwillingness to engage in inter-community solidarity. A greater awareness of how we share histories. A more social offering.

People who ‘rule’ the country and make the policies should be genuine. For example, companies tend to talk about the Treaty, but if you go to their management board, they [Māori/Pasifica] don’t have a view as they don’t really have a voice due to them being less in numbers at the corporate level.

We need to have more Māori working at the [xx health]. We need to look at our environment, and see how we incorporate [Māori culture] from environmental perspective. Do we have marae, how do incorporate karakia, waiata, how do we incorporate [things] from a tikanga perspective. It’s important to have Māori in all levels of the system. I sit at the leadership table of about 15 people, I’m the only one [who is Māori]. If you have more Māori, it becomes the collective response rather than just one person having to bring it up all the time.

Change our governments, get rid of what we’ve got in power. First and foremost, we need to unite all the iwis. All Māori need to unite first, at the moment they’re all inter-fighting as well. They need to unite so we can work together as a country. I’ve seen the pain in our groups, the worst is Black Power, they see the white man is our greater enemy. But the white man needs to understand the culture. I’ve seen the racism from both sides on Facebook, it’s horrid.

In the Far North, 40% of our population is Māori, but the Council, the top tier doesn’t reflect that. The conversations doesn’t deal with it.

The only way to fix the system is to get Māori in on it – give us the money and genuine leadership to do these things. Not just tick the boxes.

To me, it seems like when I’m on Zoom call, and they were being Māori led, there was a much higher level of trust and deeper conversation and trust than when Māori were not on calls. if translating that onto wider society, to transform, to bring Māori to lead spaces.

New proposed health reforms, is going to be half Māori on the top, to try. Because it hasn’t worked all these years. They’re very much aware, they want to do a complete overhaul. At least there is an awareness that things need to change.

Our bicultural practices are not right. Māori are still at risk. They are at the highest level for suicide, obesity. There’s a lot of work to be done. Māori colleagues need to be fully accepted further up.

We have a template already in the community and that is maraes at their best [emphasised]. How do we release maraes to do that work? We support each other’s mana. Use manaakitanga. We give people space to share in wairua. We need to listen deeply rather than trying to provide the answer.

The Crown put in place what the Crown should do but does not support tangata whenua to bring themselves up so that Māori can provide for Māori[participant] When working in [Trust] would work with [Iwi]. Takes a lot of resources to run these. We would get it from trusts and charging and koha. But it should have been part of the offering for newcomers. But I always thought Crown should be contributing to the experience. The experience that newcomers coming into the area needed to have when they come.

Māori thing: my dream was that all New Zealanders I would like to participate or have a connection with a marae. Spend time and understand what happens on a marae.I really want to do it. I said do we have a marae? My step-mother-in-law said you can go to x marae, but how do I go there.

You can’t just turn up [to a marae], you need to learn the protocols and so on. The biggest stumbling block is money. I can’t pay people to come here to talk to the group. I’m working on that.

I think that among young Māori – they are looking to ways and places to enact justice. I think the answer is a smorgasbord of things – in a marae – that’s the forum I know – you can korero on the same level. In a whanau – you can korero with support.

A safe haven for those kids, a bed. Instead of them walking on the street. Just put marae everywhere, so these children have somewhere they can feel safe.

Our bicultural practices are not right. Māori are still at risk. They are at the highest level for suicide, obesity. There’s a lot of work to be done. Māori colleagues need to be fully accepted further up.

Having the town provide more services for Māori and diverse cultures alike.

I’ve got lived experiences about that. Most of my life I’ve worked in Māori mental health. As a user of mental health services, I was shoulder tapped by a person, who wanted me to design Māori mental health services. I didn’t even know how to run a computer. He said I can teach you that, but you need to design Māori mental health services. For Māori by Māori, in a mainstream government run organisation. I got shoulder-tapped, and I helped to design Māori mental health services and addiction services. Then to do the same thing in [xxx] DHB. That came from a base of power sharing in a mainstream health organisation. Kaumatua and kuia were paid salaries that were similar to psychologists. Lay people and elders to ensure that the service was according to tikanga Māori. It was non-Māori recipients along with non-Māori working in the services.

If you look at the medical council register, 1% of NZ people who get paid to be doctors happen to have Māori whakapapa. The fellows at Otago, when they made it more possible for Māori or Pacific to enter, they thought they were doing the right thing, when you let the same proportion of people in as the NZ population, but that’s not closing the gap. Matu Ratia [talked about] closing the gaps. It took off in Australia.

Participant: there’s a presumption of guilt. Especially with young Māori men. Prisons are full of Māori men. If you’re Māori, there’s more of a chance to go to jail for the same crime. Participant: we just trusted him [ie they trusted [xxx] when the accusation was made]. The sense of belonging: this is what was stopping it. This took 2 years, even to negotiate it, [Justice said] “you accept this” and the terms were unfathomable and he wanted employment. There’s not a lot of Māori men who can come and kaikorero to [xxx]. There’s very little male support in the whanau structure, the dad’s not present.

The workshops I go to – they’re telling us what to do – they’re mostly white, well-educated running the workshops, they try to get us to change to their way of thinking. They send us Māori girls to talk. If you talk to Māori women, just tell them the truth. These women – they’re bankrupt, they’re unmarried mums, they’ve been bashed. They need to talk.

I worked in the mental health unit in [xxx] hospital and I’ve seen not good things for our [Māori] people. How they were handcuffed and brought in [bent over]. I can speak, I’ve been in the system. By law, we have to take our medicine, if not mental health patients are treated more harshly than those in prison. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

We would have to raise the standard of living for Māori so they don’t feel that anyone from the outside is there to take it away from them. They have very little at the moment, that’s why they feel territorial they think anyone from the outside is there to take what little they have away. So raising their standard, that would help them to embrace other cultures. If we’re still living in poverty and a cycle of disconnection, then we’re not going to get that inclusion.

Get it right for Māori and it’ll be right for all New Zealanders.

Kura – our schools have so many gaps. All systems are failing our people left right and centre. Education, health, justice. I feel for our new whanau that have come to our countries, It’s like we’ve been fighting for years and we’re such a large body and it must be so hard for other communities who come here. Kura not meeting the needs.

We know the police target Māori, are we doing anything about it? I think people just don’t care.

How do we engage Māori as Māori? We look at Māori history and what we can do to bring it in for social justice. We went to different symposiums to try to shift the thinking away from mainstream because it wasn’t working for our kids.

They [our children] go to Oranga Tamariki, they will give them a warning first time, and second time, then it goes from there. So education at all levels, and both sides [Muslim and Māori culture]. I’m learning Māori culture. It’s also about how to pass on that education.