NZNO's Blog

The resurgence of colonisation in Aotearoa

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Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

The theme for the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) was “Enhancing indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination in the context of the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples: emphasising the voices of the indigenous youth”. 

UNPFII is an expert body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with a mandate to provide advice on indigenous issues to ECOSOC, and through the UN agencies supports programmes to raise awareness and promote integration and coordination of activities relating to indigenous people. The UN activities and actions promote and respect the United National Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The notion of UNDRIP was started many years prior by indigenous advocates across the world. The specific actions of colonisation could be seen in the patriarchal oppression that denied women of their rights, the oppression of indigenous language, cultural rights and protection of lands and territories and rights to self-determination.

Protection of our pre-existing rights has seen our rangatira travel overseas many times since 1840, including when they presented to the League of Nations in Geneva in 1920. So, it is not surprising that many Māori were instrumental in the drafting of UNDRIP, including Dr Moana Jackson who was frontline as the elected chair of Indigenous Peoples Caucus in 1990.

During the drafting of UNDRIP and UNPFII some governments were  nothing short of intentionally obstructive, so it was a triumph when the UNDRIP was adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007 with the majority of 143 States in favour. While it was passed by the clear majority; Canada, USA, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand voted against.

Eventually Aotearoa New Zealand would ratify UNDRIP in 2010 and begin to implement policies to give voice and choice to Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa. However, UNDRIP as a UN instrument is always under attack by the ill-informed or those intentionally trying to inflame power imbalances. The struggle for human rights is not easy and it is evident in the current debates both locally and internationally that discussions of human rights and the obligations of those rights are quickly distracted by challenges around “special rights” or “privileges”.

This year’s forum was no different I imagine from 2007. The aggressive and hostile treatment of Government on indigenous people was appalling, with many groups reporting that merely being indigenous seems to be justification enough for such punitive treatment. It always used to feel that things are worse overseas but when reflecting on changes since the 2023 elections and change of Government, these actions are just as violent here.

The 2023 election saw a new Government that has declared war on these Māori rights. They have developed legislation to challenge the rights to self-determination set out in the nation’s founding document Te Tiriti o Waitangi and reflected in the Declaration. They are developing a new set of ‘Treaty principles’ that remove any reference to Māori and publicly challenged the status of Māori as an Indigenous people.

They have disparaged Māori language and have mandated agencies to remove Māori language or diminish its use in names and government documents. This list of attempts to oppress Māori continues, but what is encouraging as we have seen nationally and at the UNPFII, is the uprising of the youth.

There is a new generation of hope in the power global voice of the youth, determined by struggles of the past and that builds on an indigenous future.

Caught between a rock and a hard place

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Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

Many of us feel we are caught between a rock and a hard place right now for different reasons. While the saying has different shades of meaning, I am aware of the frustrations of many of our members who want to act in the right way but are being forced, by circumstances created by others, to decide between two negative scenarios that potentially can prevent them from acting in accordance with their principles and values. The phrase is used as a heartfelt expression of real concern and frustration.  Bailey Zimmerman sang….

Between a rock and a hard place.
Is this where it mends or it breaks?
How much more can we take?”

A recent leaked communication from Te Whatu Ora regarding managing its 2023/34 budget put Clinical Nurse Managers (CNMs) and Associate CNMs between a rock and hard place. They were directed to “address personnel related costs…given that they have room to do this given the significant progress made on workforce shortages, such as filling nurse vacancies”.

The missive directed to have more nurses off the floor on annual leave, a ban on double shifts, not sick leave cover (except night shift and subject to CCDM). No context was provided in the letter i.e. how many nurses had left, how many work areas were still understaffed, how many areas still (after 20 years) don’t have CCDM, how many shifts under target there are, and how many vacancies could be removed if unfilled. Do CNMs decide to comply or push back? How do our senior nurses do that in a way that keeps their patients and staff, let alone themselves, safe? The pressures are huge, and relatively thankless when the senior nurses are still struggling to get pay equity relativity.

Just as recently, a historic rally of internationally qualified nurses (IQNs) was held in Palmerston North where nurse representatives asked for help to get jobs for the many nurses who have come from their homelands to work in Aotearoa, on the understanding that there are thousands of job vacancies. The issues are multiple from coming in on visitor visas instead of work visas, CAP courses that may not uphold the Nursing Council standards required for registration, not being able to get a job once registered, and having to live hand to mouth with little income and relying on the support of their communities. They cannot return home as they don’t have the funds to do so. The Government, Nursing Council, and employers must work together to help these nurses and do right by them.

RNs going to work in every sector are being forced to decide who gets care and who doesn’t. This is an everyday ethical dilemma. Those who make workforce decisions based on budget rather than quality and safety are responsible if harm comes to a patient when there are not enough nurses to do the job in a timely manner that meets the professional, ethical, legislative, and cultural standards of practice that guides their practice.

NZNO members have a choice. We can decide between a rock and hard place to try and make things work, or we can say no! Decisions made by others about us, without us are not ours to own. The responsibility of decisions that impact on quality and safety in health care lands back on their doorstep.

We don’t have to accept being between a rock and hard place. Our wins in court over contract breaches and the right to strike when all else has failed to address unsafe staffing and work conditions demonstrate our recourse options. We can also mindfully commit to stand up and join our colleagues on the picket lines, join the campaign for nurse-to-patient ratios in every sector throughout the health system, and report staff and safety concerns consistently until our voice is heard. It was great to see so many of you unite at rallies across the country at yesterday’s Day of Action. Be part of the change we want to see. Get involved. Kia kaha.

Maranga mai!

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Every life matters

Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

In a world where calls for a ceasefire are debated while innocent people continue to die – and those who try to help, the aid workers, nurses, doctors and more, die alongside them – what does it mean to us, so far away on the other side of the world?

What does it mean when we are told that weapons are made and delivered by the same regimes that call for a ceasefire. You have to wonder which side is up. War cannot happen if there are no weapons, and there are other ways to settle disputes.

Every life matters.

The struggle to respect, protect and support life belongs to all of us. This is fundamental to us as health professionals. We all have our own struggles but in this country we are expected to ‘harden up’ and get on with it.

Mike King (comedian and founder of I am Hope’ foundation) thinks otherwise. His sincere hope is that Kiwi “stop pretending we have our shit together”. He further says that having a suicidal thought doesn’t make you mentally ill, it makes you human. If you haven’t left your house at least once in your life thinking ‘what’s the point’ then you need to get out of the marshmallow you’re living in.”

Why? Because we are failing our children. Our children are our future. Suicide is the third leading death category for our kids aged 28 days to 24 years (one in five of our mokopuna, but much worse for our 15- to 19-year-olds and young men). Serious thoughts of suicide and attempted suicide occur more often in areas of high deprivation and under the current government, deprivation is set to grow. This is avoidable, unfair, and unjust. This is a major issue, and it belongs to all of us.

Yet, right now, in a bid to cut costs and honour the election promise of tax cuts, the current Government is slashing and burning the Suicide Prevention Office, set up to work with the many public health and community groups working towards eliminating suicide.

It’s also proposing downgrading the drug-checking services function leading to a loss of people working in mental health and addictions. Further, the national telehealth service is struggling to recruit enough qualified clinical staff to operate the 24/7 phone lines for triaging people with mental health problems, while also supporting police and ambulance services. In the next four weeks, more than half the shifts are understaffed. Why? Poor pay and conditions.

National promised pre-election that there would be no cuts to front line health services. Yeah, right. The currently proposed cuts will end the lives of our most vulnerable. Yet this Government is ignoring the facts. It is cheaper to prevent harm than to try and fix it when it happens. We cannot stand by in silence. We must act.

Mike King’s patai (question) is, will we climb out of our marshmallows, rise up (Maranga Mai!) and be counted? Will we take off our masks and be more vulnerable in front of our kids, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to take off their masks and reach out and ask for help before something tragic happens.

Jess Glynne reminds us all: “Don’t be so hard on yourself, no. Learn to forgive, learn to let go. Everyone trips, everyone falls. So don’t be so hard on yourself, no.”

We need to start talking to each other, and our children – today. If you need to talk – free call or text 1737 any time or Lifeline – 0800 543 354.

If your need NZNO help call 0800 28 38 48.


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IQNs not the long-term solution

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

There has been some media focus recently on Internationally Qualified Nurses (IQNs) being exploited by recruitment agencies taking advantage of monetary incentives offered by the Government.

These agencies are bringing IQNs into the country without first securing them employment  which leads me to reiterate what I’ve been saying in the media. We uphold the importance of ethical recruitment. We have serious concerns about the recruitment agencies that are incentivised to flood Aotearoa with nurses, particularly from India. These nurses are often unable to be employed despite completing New Zealand’s competency assessment programme and holding NZ practising certificates (APCs).

That many recent IQNs are not being employed is through no fault of their own. IQNs are not always professionally or culturally suitable for employment in positions where local experience is required. It puts a strain on the system with training, culturalisation and finding effective support for them once they’re in jobs. The levels of support required to upskill them costs too much, so often they’re left to drown in the deep end.

It has been revealed to me recently that these agencies are also exploiting loopholes in the system to bring nurses into Aotearoa via the UK’s National Health Service. If not already illegal this kind of activity should surely be shut off as it is in my opinion tantamount to fraud.

This cannot continue and Te Whatu Ora has recently assured us that the $10,000 incentive to agencies has been closed But will the funding now be diverted to growing our own workforce where it should have been in the first place?

It’s time we realised IQNs are not the solution to the nursing shortage in Aotearoa even in the short term. Our focus should be on strategies to attract New Zealanders rather than IQNs to take up nursing study with the aim of building a strong workforce that is culturally competent and responsive.

We are aware of the harmful effects of international nurse recruitment which according to the International Council of Nurses some associations in poorer and developing countries equated with a form of neo-colonialism. IQNs are needed in their home countries as much as they are here, and this is another reason why more effort and resources need to be put into growing our own workforce.

The Government now needs to consolidate the situation with the existing number of IQNs in the country to ensure they get jobs along with appropriate training and support and this means we need to freeze the recruitment of IQNs and discourage recruitment agencies from bringing them out.
It needs to divert any possible funding into broadening the number of nursing students and then training them, keeping them, and giving them good jobs afterwards. That would be the long-term solution to this nursing crisis.


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Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

Anne Daniels, President
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

Treasury recently stated that our health system will either need to be cut back or taxes will need to be raised to fund it.

I thought……WHAT? Didn’t the new coalition government promise no cuts to the front line? Aotearoa has an ageing population and levels of inequality where many cannot enjoy the opportunities of living in a wealthy country. The poem What will matter (abridged) by Michael Josephson suggests we all need to….

Live a life that matters
Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

And so we all should. But what happens when the very government that shapes the environment in which we live and work makes every day an ever-increasing struggle where our individual and collective choices are being dismantled and everything, we have fought so hard for, including the structures that protect you at work” are being torn apart?

My recent blog on injustice identified similar issues. So why are we involved in this escalating struggle with our current government? One commentator recently said the coalition government has taken a match to the hopes and dreams of Māori (and Tauiwi), resulting in a bonfire that is burning them down as quickly as possible without using due process and without remorse.

Our government’s processes, behaviours and policies must be called into question. The role of government and its officials is to serve the public interest with ethical awareness and ethical actions, and to act for the common good. These ideals seem to have been thrown out the window along with both the baby and the bathwater without any concern to the harm that may land on those standing below.

What does it mean for us as NZNO members and for those we care for?

Politics and governmental decision-making affect us all in terms of funding, resources, and our ability to do our jobs to the professional standards we must uphold. Further it has the potential to increase our current struggles, the lack of nurses, poor work-life balance, the lack of protection from accountants whose only bottom line is the dollar.

OUR bottom line must be the provision of safe, evidenced-based care, where and when it’s needed, going forward. Only then will we realise a healthy nation instead of an increasingly sick one.

So, we must “Maranga Mai!” – Rise up together all the while remembering…

If in our hearts we do not yield,
We will overcome.


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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.


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(In)Justice

Anne Daniels, President
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
― Martin Luther King Jr

Last year, I had the privilege of attending most of the NZNO Regional Council Conventions. During the day we discussed member engagement and what motivates members to get involved by going to meetings, rallies, protests, and taking on an advocacy role such as being a delegate, or health and safety representative. The answer was anger at injustice. Anger overcomes fear. Anger motivates a person to find out how to right the wrong. Anger motivates a person to become part of the solution through action.

Justice assumes that society has a responsibility to treat people fairly. Society confirms concepts of justice in its legal frameworks. There is an inter-relationship between law and justice, which means that one does not automatically override the other. Laws are modified over time, and it’s thought that when they are applied, justice is increased.

But does it? What if the law is unjust? What if there is no law to provide justice? Right now, in New Zealand, laws are being repealed and changed which will result in injustice in our society and lead to an increase in poor health outcomes for those we care for. So, what do we do about it?

It is said there is power in the people to create change. The history of protests shows this to be true. The Kia Ora incident (1984) is an example of one person starting an action, and seeing it finish with the power of the people behind her. Naida Glavish, a telephone operator was instructed to stop using “Kia ora” when greeting callers. Glavish refused and was stood down, with the whole affair attracting much public interest. She was later given back her job when the Postmaster General, who initially supported the Kia ora ban, changed his mind, and persuaded the Prime Minister Robert Muldoon to overturn the prohibition. This incident was considered key in the movement to revitalise the Māori language. The power of the people overcame the injustice.

On Waitangi Day 2024, I was asked to attend a hikoi in Dunedin to protest against the current Government’s policy to review te Tiriti o Waitangi, our country’s 180-year-old founding document, which will “unravel decades of indigenous progress” I have attended and led many protests in my time, but this hikoi was the first where there were so many people participating, I could not see the end of the march. The power of the people was palpable. Māori and non-Māori came together to fight injustice. I knew that this was just the beginning. Justice will be served.

So, it must be for NZNO members. Exhaustion, fear professional and personal responsibilities cannot hold us back from standing together and acting against the injustices perpetuated against us and those we care for. Inaction perpetuates injustice and consequent suffering, negates change, and is done to us, without us. We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. Every member everywhere must heed the call of our Maranga Mai! Strategic Plan 2023-2025, and act locally, regionally, nationally. Together we stand, divided we fall. We cannot wait for ‘someone else’ to do it for us. Each one of us has the power to make a difference. But we have unstoppable power when we act together in “unionity”.

NZNO represents more than 60,000 members. Together, we are a power to be reckoned with. This year the Membership Committee (made up of regional council representatives) will work with other NZNO groups to reach out to ask every nurse, everywhere to raise their voice and do the mahi. This year we will fight the injustice of being told to do more with less, putting ourselves and our patients at risk. Nurse-patient ratio legislation will protect us from these injustices but together we will have to fight on the picket lines, and in the halls of power. Marvin Gaye sang “Picket lines and picket signs/Don’t punish me with brutality/Talk to me, so you can see/Oh, what’s going on.” I will see you all there, Every nurse, everywhere.


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Toitū Te Tiriti

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

Across our history there have been many hikoi, each one as significant as the next. These shows of kotahitanga and peaceful action were used to raise issues and promote dialogue as partners in te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The Coalition Government’s current priority to “review The Treaty of Waitangi” and Māori policy has sparked a new wave of kotahitanga action. Responding to these concerns over Government policies related to Māori, Kingi Tuheitia called for a hui-a-motu to unify the nation. This was held late last month and with thousands of Māori and non-Māori in attendance and represented another significant milestone in our history.

Waitangi Day is expected to be one of action and unity like no other. This year a rōpu of Māori nurses will be travelling to Waitangi to send the wero that colonisation is a social determinant of health. It is not by choice that we are over-represented in poor health outcomes; it is a construct of colonisation and legislation. We will challenge legislation that continues to enable racist funding that sees our Māori and Iwi provider nurses being paid significantly less – and data and statistics that continuously report our negative health with little action. Not one more policy should be developed without Māori. 

This kaupapa is important for all New Zealanders, not just Māori, because if we have even one community in need that is neglected by this Government, it undermines the entire nation. We all need to stick together to oppose David Seymour’s proposed Treaties bill.

In the photo: Whina Cooper seen here on the Auckland bridge was joined by thousands in her land hikoi to Parliament in 1975.

Here are some other significant historical hikoi that took place in the recent past:

On 13 October 1975 Whina Cooper led the land march to Parliament. Along the way on her journey, she was joined by others until approximately 5000 people arrived at Parliament to present a petition signed by 60,000 people to Prime Minister Bill Rowling protesting the continual loss of Māori land through sales or confiscation. Her message was “not one more acre”.

This represented a significant milestone in Māori history forever captured in the famous photo as Whina and her mokopuna start their journey from the country gravel road to the smoothly paved steps of Parliament. The moment was symbolic as the journey was long, unknown challenges, but with an unwavering determination and action of tino rangatiratanga which galvanised Māori and non-Māori alike.

The Foreshore and Seabed Hikoi in April 2004 began in Northland. As they marched the support increased until they arrived in Wellington on 5 May 2004. The hikoi was against proposed legislation to vest ownership of New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed to the Crown a breach to Te Tiriti of Waitangi.

The hikoi on 29 July 2019 called for a halt to Oranga Tamariki removing tamariki from whānau and Iwi. And removal of Oranga Tamariki legislation which entrenched and enabled such violent and traumatic uplift of a newborn baby from Hastings Hospital.  As we saw in the Hastings baby uplift case.

Unity is strength! Toitū Te Tiriti!! Uphold the Treaty.


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Get up, stand up. Don’t give up the fight!

Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

Late in 2023 NZNO CE Paul Goulter outlined NZNO’s priorities for 2024. First and foremost is achieving Pay Parity for nurses working outside of Te Whatu Ora. Consequently, on 8 December NZNO raised a Pay Equity claim for Primary Health Care members involving more than 500 employers. We are standing up and fighting the roadblocks in our way.

Heading into 2024, the NZNO Board has prioritised member health and safety. Paul Goulter recently said, “We need to ensure that nurses and health care workers work in safe workplaces and that they are unafraid to press for their rights.” Specifically, we will be standing up and fighting for our right to safe staffing through legislated nurse-to-patient ratios underpinned by CCDM.

Health and safety is everyone’s business, including Government, employer and employee. The Government’s job is to provide legislation and policy. A guiding principle of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is that workers and others need to be given the highest level of protection possible from workplace risks.

Employers and employees need to uphold legislation and standards in practice. The employer must engage with the workers and enable them to identify and manage risks (physical or mental) in the workplace. Employers must “ensure there are sufficient health care and support workers on duty at all times to provide culturally and clinically safe services” (Health and Disability services (safety) standard 2.3.1). But we all know that is not happening.

Research tells us that appropriate levels of nurse staffing is critical to patient safety. The CCDM system matches staff resources to patient care need supporting a better working environment but is yet to be fully funded or implemented after 20 years of asking.

The lack of Government or employer commitment is telling – every time a nurse writes an unsafe staffing incident report. My request to Te Whatu Ora and the Ministry of Health to provide numbers around reports of unsafe staffing over the last five years was declined because “it would take too long and too much resource” to provide me with an answer.

Te Whatu Ora is required to “follow the National Adverse Event Reporting Policy for internal and external reporting… to reduce preventable harm (HDSS 2.2.4). Therefore, Te Whatu Ora and the government are legally required to resource data collection and reporting. We will not let this go.

Health and safety representatives (HSRs) around the country have consistently reported unsafe staffing, met with managers and escalated their concerns. HSRs have submitted increasing numbers of Provisional Notices of Improvement to WorkSafe over the last three years but an external review found there are “some instances of known harm where WorkSafe appears to be taking little or no intervention” (Pennington, 2023). This is why we need nurse patient ratio legislation to fund and implement safe staffing (and CCDM) across the whole health sector.

Meanwhile HSRs are making a difference. In December 2023 alone, the Waikato District Nursing Service used health and safety process to gain an increase of eight RN FTE. The HSR said that after asking for years “the Executive now knows we mean business”.

Wellington ED HSRs working with the CCDM facilitator, identified a gap of 67 FTE through Trendcare data. Health and safety caught the attention of media repeatedly through actions taken by member HSRs, e.g. Auckland (Nico Woodward), Gisborne (Christine Warrender), Waikato (Janferie Dewar) where there are chronic failures to safely staff workplaces.

2024 will see us all “Get up, stand up. Stand up for our rights!” (Bob Marley and the Wailers).


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Toitu Te Tiriti

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.