Māori culture: Resources for physiotherapists
These resources address aspects of Seeing the ‘patient-as-person’. They have been collated to assist you to develop your understanding and practice in this component of Person and Whānau Centred Care.
Resources
Māori cultural practices. Health Quality Safety Commission NZ. (Length: 9.01 mins). This is a video of Māori whānau telling their stories about engaging with health care services. In it, Māori customs and rituals, kai (food), karakia (prayer), and waiata (songs) are mentioned, and that Māori ways of working take account of the whole person.
Mauriora Health Education Research. Foundation course in Cultural Competency (Māori). This online course has been developed for NZ health workforce, and provides a basic understanding of cultural competency and health literacy for a NZ health context. This course is free (you need to register). Māori healthcare & the Treaty of Waitangi (2017; Length: 3.02 mins). This video provides a brief introduction to Māori society, the Treaty of Waitangi, and how the breaches of the Treaty links to current Māori health and social indicators.
Te Hiringa o Te Reo programme. Whitireia Polytechnic. This freely-available language resource is for learning Te Reo Māori (basic, beginner's level). It allows you to learn at your own pace. Start anytime from January onwards. Includes workbook and recordings.
Te Whanake: online resources. Te Whanake: Māori language online. This website offers resources for learning and teaching te reo Māori, including textbooks, study guides, CDs, teachers' manuals, dictionary. Different levels available (beginner to advanced). Free resources are available under "Free resources" tab including dictionary, podcasts, online activities, animations, TV programmes, forums. Other resources are available for purchase.
Health and wellbeing for Māori. Goodfellow Unit. This series of interviews with Tāmati Kruger (Ngai Tuhoe) was recorded in 2018 in the context of developing a resource on dementia care for Māori. Discussion points are also provided.
Rangatahi Tu Rangatira. Resources on this site include Tikanga Māori Values, which provides suggestions of how to incorporate tikanga Māori values into group activities; and Ngā Taonga Tākaro (Traditional Māori Games),which provides information about selected ngā taonga tākaro (traditional Māori games), including the whakapapa of the activity.
Hangaia te mātāpuna o te mōhio: Learning foundations for Māori adults. S. May. (2009). Education Counts; University of Waikato. (Education context). This report summarises three research projects that explore how success for Māori adults in the learning foundations of literacy, language and numeracy can be built on the foundations of Māori culture and identity. It gives a brief overview of a kaupapa Māori research approach, and provides links to the three research projects.
Student Voices collated in themes. Poutama Pounamu: Education Research and Development Centre. (Education context). Collated student narratives in themes, including 'Being able to resist the negative stereotypes about being Māori'; 'Being strong in your Māori cultural identity'; and 'Developing and maintaining emotional and spiritual strength'.
Opinion pieces about identity. e-Tangata. A range of opinion pieces about identity, some addressing Māori identity.
10 things I wish my friends know about being Māori. T. Browne for That's Us campaign (13.09.2016) Human Rights Commission. This blog contributes to a much-needed conversation as part of the Human Rights Commission That’s Us campaign to combat racism.
Hana Tapiata shares her lived experience. Being Māori. (Length 3.56 mins). Hana Tapiata talks about 'looking Māori' versus 'being Māori': What if instead the narrative was about how each of us embody 'being Māori' rather than 'looking the part'. You're one of 'those' Māori. (Length 2.28 mins). Hana Tapiata talks about 'being one of 'those' Māori', who are articulate and well presented. She challenges the assumptions that Māori don't want to better and develop themselves, to pursue excellence and meet their potential.
Ihumātao: Everyone was there, e hoa. T. Tibble. (06.07.2019). Newsroom. In this essay on her experience at Ihumātao, Wellington poet Tayi Tibble writes that "there’s a specific sort of shame in pulling up to Ihumātao in an Uber."
The Hui process: A framework to enhance the doctor-patient relationship with Māori. C. Lacey, T. Huria, L. Beckert, M. GIllies, and S. Pitama. (2011). The New Zealand Medical Journal, 124(1347). This article reports on the Hui process, a framework that is used in medical education at the University of Otago, Christchurch, to guide clinical interaction with Māori that has been derived from engagement and relationship building principles of Te Ao Māori. To access the article, click on the "Download full-text PDF" link.
Meihana Model: A clinical assessment framework. S. Pitama, P. Robertson, F. Cram, M. Gillies, T. Huria, and W. Dallas-Katoa. (2007). New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 36(3), pp. 118-125. (Psychology context). This article presents a specific clinical assessment framework, the Meihana Model, to guide clinical assessment and intervention with Māori individuals and whānau accessing mental health services. The model encompasses the four cornerstones of Te Whare Tapa Whā, with two additional elements.
Improving Māori health through clinical assessment: Waikare o te Waka o Meihana. S. Pitama, T. Huria and C. Lacey. (2014). New Zealand Medical Journal, 127(1393), pp. 107-119. This paper describes the further development and a new conceptualisation of the Meihana model (2007) and the Hui process (2011), which together form the indigenous health framework in the University of Otago, Christchurch undergraduate medical education programme. To access the paper, click on the "Download full-text PDF" link.
Te Waka Oranga. An indigenous intervention for working with Māori children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury. H. Elder. (2013) Brain Impairment, 14(3), pp 415-424. This paper describes the development of an indigenous intervention, Te Waka Oranga, using whānau knowledge systems to enhance recovery outcomes for children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury.
Te Waka Kuaka and Te Waka Oranga: Working with whānau to improve outcomes. H. Elder. (2017). Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 38, pp 27-42. This paper describes an approach using the two tools of Te Waka Kuaka and Te Waka Oranga in which whānau resources to the fore in a culturally defined way to promote whānau healing in the context of brain insult or injury.
Tuakana-teina e-Belonging report. C. Rawlings and K. Wilson (2013). Ako Aotearoa. (Education context). This is a research report into a pilot project of Tuakana-teina e-Belonging, an online mentoring space for Māori students at the Open Polytechnic “It is a ‘space’ for Māori, by Māori, with Māori, and an opportunity for Māori learners to use the principles of peer mentoring to develop culturally relevant support that not only meets the students’ learning needs, but their cultural needs as well.”
Organisational views on health care access for hauā (disabled) Māori in Murihiku (Southland), Aotearoa New Zealand: A mixed methods approach. L. Hale et al. (2018). New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy. 46(2), pp. 51-66. This paper reports on the findings of a survey of health care providers serving hauā (disabled) Māori, and provides insights and suggestions to health organisations, such as physiotherapy services, on how they can improve their service accessibility to hauā Māori.
Māori Health Review. A publication by Research Review. This is a bimonthly update that features the latest research in the Māori health area, and an A-Z guide of Māori health topics to help locate relevant research literature.
Taku kuru pounamu. L. Pihama, H. Greensill, D. Campbell, R. Te Nana and J. Lee. (2015) Te Kotahi Research Institute, University of Waikato. This ebook contains a selection of whakataukī that reflect that children are central in the Māori world. It is also downloadable as a pdf. It was developed from the research project 'Tiakino Te Pā Harakeke', which explored the mana of te pā harakeke - the collective values that nourish all whānau members.
Do family and whānau mean the same thing? L. Hayden. The Spinoff. (Length: 7.23 min). In this episode of Kaupapa on the Couch, Leonie Hayden looks at what family means in different cultures, and the effects of colonisation on whānau and whakapapa.
Butterflies. P. Grace. (1987). Penguin. This short story by Patricia Grace speaks to cultural differences and the impacts of these on people’s perspectives.
Relating Māori and Pākehā: The politics of indigenous and settler identities. A. Bell (2004). PhD thesis, Sociology. Massey University. This thesis investigates the ongoing impact of settler colonisation—and the resulting positioning of peoples as ‘indigenous’ or ‘settlers’—on the contemporary identities and relations of Māori and Pākehā in Aotearoa New Zealand.
He Kākano Ahau. K. Kutia. (October 2019). RNZ. In this podcast series, Kahu Kutia (Ngai Tūhoe) challenges the assumption that to be urban and Māori means to be disconnected from your culture.
Matariki: the Māori New Year
The meaning of Matariki. (04.07.2019) Re: news. (Length: 2.56 mins). In this video astronomer Toa Waaka is interviewed about the meaning of Matariki.
A Matariki story. (06.06.2016) The Wireless NZ. (Te Reo with English subtitles; Length: 2.26 mins). This video tells a story of why Matariki is celebrated.
Matariki: Māori New Year. P. Meredith (2006) Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. The star cluster Matariki (the Pleiades), visible in the pre-dawn winter sky, signals the Māori New Year.
Dr Rangi Matamua - Matariki Presentation 2017. (2017) Ngai Tāmanuhiri (Length: 1.11.11). This video is of a presentation by Professor Rangi Matamua (Tuhoe) about Māori astronomy and Matariki to a Ngai Tāmanuhiri Iwi event.
Some people may find some of these resources challenging or confronting. If you need help to process these feelings, you may want to engage in a professional relationship (e.g., professional supervision), or seek support from a counsellor (e.g., call or text 1737 for the NEED TO TALK service).
If you know of other freely and publicly available resources which address this component of Person and Whānau Centred Care, please contact us with the details. Please also contact us if any of the links do not work.
Page updated May 2022