Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere,
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the contract setting out rights and conditions for Māori and non-Māori to come, live and share the land. Te Tiriti has always been about honouring the agreement as we live and evolve as a country, sharing power.

As indigenous people across the world continue to fight for their rights and freedom, tangata whenua Māori struggle from the impact of colonisation. History is written to advantage the privileged. 

Legislation upon legislation was introduced to speed up the assimilation of Māori, especially within the health sector.

The Nurses’ Registration Act 1901 impacted on Māori tapuhi. Prior to the enforcement of the Act, tapuhi were providing care to communities using traditional Māori medicines travelling to wherever the communities needed help. Following the introduction of the Act Taphui were considered unskilled, not capable of providing care, and were branded illegal.

The assault of the 1907 Tōhunga Suppression Act was an intentional effort to suppress tohunga (Māori experts) by removing the use of rongoa (traditional medicines) and tikanga (traditional and spiritual health). Further legislation was passed to allow Māori nurses to train and go into the districts as “ambassadors” to enforce the use of western medicine.

Māori nurses who did train under the western medical model were further alienated when their name was entered on the registration. Māori nurses were discouraged from using their Māori names. Each Māori nurse was strongly encouraged to change her name to a more acceptable English version, or they were merely recorded as a number. Māori men, who once played an important role in childbirth, were not permitted to be nurses or midwives.

The process of colonisation entrenched intergenerational disparities in health and negatively impacted the outcomes for Māori across all sectors of society. The impact of these health inequalities reflected today in our shorter life expectancy, include reduced access to Primary Health Care, less treatment and greater risk of misdiagnosis and mistreatment – and all continue today. Such inequalities are unacceptable, unfair, and unjust in a developed country like Aotearoa New Zealand.

As a Māori health professional, it is soul destroying to have to enforce the policies and practice that continue to negatively impact on Māori health outcomes. As a Māori midwife, I saw the disadvantaged young mothers and whānau, and the policies that impose privilege to some and not to all. I could not be the observer, I wanted to be part of the change.

It is not fact that, “Māori are far better off now than what they were prior to the coming of the British” or that we bear the scars of histories abuse.

This talk and action by the new Government is tantamount to circling back and reenforcing colonisation. The time for Māori and non-Māori to rise up again has arrived.

The peaceful marches on 4 December gave renewed hope. Māori and non-Māori katoa sent a powerful message of unity and the aspiration for a te Tiriti future.

Kia kaha to a restful summer and enjoy spending time with whānau.