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Health Justice – The mana of our mokopuna

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

This week, reports came out of tamariki in Ōpōtiki left alone after armed police raided their homes and arrested their parents. A kuia and her daughter-in-law strip searched for no clear reason. Other tamariki were left at school with nobody to collect them.

The police minister vehemently denies it, but Māori parents know all too well that these stories aren’t made up. Too many of us have too many similar stories to believe otherwise.

No mokopuna should ever have to go through the trauma of seeing their parents arrested to then be left to suffer alone. 

This Government’s ‘tough on crime’ approach is not only ineffective but is also producing a new generation of traumatised tamariki and rangatahi. 

Dame Whina Cooper said, “Take care of our children. Take care of what they hear. Take care of what they see. For how the children grow, so will the shape of Aotearoa.” 

That couldn’t be more relevant than now. 

How we treat tamariki and rangatahi, and especially how we treat the mokopuna of those we believe to have done social harm, is one of the most significant reflections of the moral sensibility of a society. 

And how do we see Māori, African American, Palestinian, Aboriginal and First Nations tamariki and rangatahi being treated? They are criminalised, put into abusive state care, and traumatised through over-policing and an injustice system. 

This all reflects pure dehumanisation. It shows a racist ruling class that believes that it is ok to trample on the mana of mokopuna. More than that, it shows a government whose definition of justice causes further intergenerational trauma through force and fear.

It is a dark week, where the Treaty Principles Bill has been introduced early in a cowardly attempt to avoid the mass hīkoi happening down the motu. 

In this darkness, there are so many lies spread about who should make decisions and what equality means. After all, the Treaty Principles Bill says, in essence, that the colonial government can do what it likes irrespective of what actually works for tangata whenua – like boot camps or Oranga Tamaraiki. 

That’s why it’s important to remember that contrary to whatever the Government will try to have you believe, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is all about justice. It’s about hapū and iwi doing what they know best to make the world safe and prosperous for their whānau and mokopuna. Part of that is dealing with social harm through our own tikanga.

As health workers we must think more broadly about health justice broadly, we see the physical, emotional, and mental toll of racism, colonialism and dispossession first hand. 

So, to re-focus us we need to return again to the words of Whina Cooper.

“Take care of our children… For how the children grow, so will the shape of Aotearoa.” 

What shape do we wish to see? Can’t we see that how we care for our children is how we care for our future? Don’t we wish for justness that upholds the mana of our mokopuna? 

I know what kind of Aotearoa I believe in. It is own time to be courageous and shape Aotearoa.


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There are benefits to sharing power with one million Māori

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

It’s not unusual in any political cycle that indigenous people are used as political fodder. Internationally, nationally and regionally, indigenous people are blamed for increasing violence, homelessness, poverty and draining state resources particularly in justice, welfare and health.

It becomes easy for ordinary people to believe this because the perpetrators of lawlessness and violence, relentlessly splashed all over the media, are disproportionately images of people of colour. At the heart of these political games are people, children and mokopuna who are already prejudged by parts of society because they look a certain way or are born into a particular class of people.

Shifting the burden of responsibility is easier to do because it is harder to admit that we have failed as a country and we have failed to support our indigenous people.

In Aotearoa, a year into the Coalition Government, attacks on workers, unemployed and Māori are clear to see. From the Treaty Principles Bill and the Māori Wards referenda to the scrapping of Fair Pay Agreements, benefit sanctions, and the war on health and safety legislation, this is a right-wing Government bent on stoking racism, eroding worker rights, and helping the rich get richer.

The assault on our rights is overwhelming, but it has also heightened the consciousness of those who want a more just world. Yet, though we say it all the time, we have to acknowledge that even though this coalition is absolutely terrifying and hateful, no Government of the past few decades has made truly transformative change that benefits the health of our people.

We can’t wait for more promises from politicians or experts to tell us what we already know. We know what it would take to be truly valued in the work we do, and we know what it would mean to live in a society that upholds equity, human rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We all know what Māori health inequities look like.

As nurses, we know Māori are unlikely to live as long as non-Māori. We also know that by the time many Māori reach the hospital, their illness is advanced and sadly, the clock already began ticking for them before we even triaged them.

There is one common question I’m often asked by non-Māori members and colleagues, who like me are sick of seeing so many tangata whenua die of things that could have been prevented or treated if caught earlier.

That question is: “what’s the best way to address Māori health inequities”?

In my view, the answer does not lie in the medical or the clinical.

The answer lies in sharing power (and responsibility) with Māori at all levels from the boardroom table to the frontline, backline and sidelines, inside and outside our union.

The Māori population is now at its highest – one million – and at the rate my whanau, hapu and iwi are going, it will only rise.

From the people of Ngai Tahu in the South Island to the people of Ngapuhi at the top of the North Island, Māori want the genuine partnership guaranteed to them in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They want to be in control of their own destiny, they want mana motuhake.

Māori have proved they can fix themselves when power, and that includes resources and spaces, are shared with them and when they are not micromanaged.

In the 1980s, the Māori language had almost become extinct until Māori created the kōhanga reo movement. Forty years later, the language has been saved – tens of thousands of Māori are speaking it. And hundreds of thousands of non-Māori are benefiting too.

At NZNO, we are still on the journey of sharing power, resources and spaces with Māori. The position I hold is a clear example that we have started that journey. But it must not stop there.

We must let Māori fix themselves. Tangata Tiriti or non-Māori in Aotearoa can do that by sharing power, resources, spaces with Māori at every level of our mahi.

Sometimes that means tangata Tiriti stepping aside to let Māori talk rather than talk for them.

What’s good for Māori, can only be good for this nation because when the most disadvantaged in our society are empowered, everyone in that society benefits.


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It’s about life

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

On 28 February CTU’s youth wing, Stand Up, organised a protest at Parliament against the Government’s all-out assault on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Te Taiao, and workers. Of all the powerful kōrero from that rally, one stuck out prominently because of its strength and its relevance. It came from Action Station director Kassie Hartendorp (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa) who hit home exactly what the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora means.

“Te Aka Whai Ora was about life,” she said.

It was about the simple but horrifying fact that Māori die seven years younger than Pākehā. All Te Aka Whai Ora was intended to do was find ways to close that gap so our mokopuna get seven more years with their kaumātua; So we can have seven more years to keep deepening our reo and tikanga; So we can have seven more years living with Ranginui above us, Papatūānuku beneath us, and growing in the universe that our tūpuna fought so hard to deliver us into.

We know in health that equity literally is the difference between living and dying. How can they justify this, knowing that it means people dying too young? This Government intentionally attacks any policy or structure that aims to create equity because they maintain their power through racism and division. And if that means death so be it. They will continue to trample on Māori and as they do they will blame us for the outcomes of the injustice they have created.

But they won’t just blame Māori. They’ll blame women for not being able to earn enough. They’ll blame young people for not being able to keep a job. They’ll blame nurses for not being able to keep up with the demands of tangata whaiora. They’ll use their power and control to try to convince us all that we are responsible of our own exploitation and oppression. Or, of course, they’ll wheel out their favourite tactic: saying that the real reason workers have no power is because Māori are trying to take it.

Yet more and more, people are understanding that this is not the case. The Toitū Te Tiriti movement has seen unprecedented shows of solidarity from Pākehā and tauiwi because people are seeing the restoration of tino rangatiratanga not as a threat, but simply as a matter of justice and equity. As Angela Davis said, “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” People are standing up and saying they do not accept the idea that Māori are powerless on their own land. They do not accept that Māori will die seven years before Pākehā. And they will not accept the erosion of workers’ rights, nor the destruction of the earth.

This struggle concerns all of us. You must understand that this Government will continue to do all in its power to dismantle everything we have fought so hard for, including the structures that protect you at work. If you see the injustice and cannot accept this reality, then you have a role to play. Together we have the power to change the world. We simply must take the next step and show true leadership, unlike those in Parliament. That means getting organised, talking with each other, and taking our struggle to the streets.