title: Ngā Tohu o te Ora: traditional Māori healing and wellness outcomes

authors: Ahuriri-Driscoll, Annabel

abstract: The Ngā Tohu o te Ora (signs of wellness) research project was developed to investigate outcomes associated with rongoā Māori, in order that this traditional practice might enjoy increased support as a funded service. The primary aims were to: 
1. Identify wellness outcome measures used by traditional Māori healers, and 
2. Develop and test a framework of traditional Māori wellness outcome measures. 
Secondary aims included integrating the wellness outcomes framework with the Pūrākau framework (developed by the authors in a previous HRC seeding grant), and disseminating research findings among healing, health service delivery and research communities. 10 Work towards Aims 1 and 2 were undertaken in two distinct stages in the research: identifying wellness outcomes and weaving them together in the form of a framework comprised Stage I research activities (June 2008 - December 2009), and testing the use of the framework by Whare Oranga constituted Stage II (January 2010 - July 2011). Recognising the importance of meaningful engagement for both research 'success' and healer benefit, emphasis was placed on ensuring high quality relationships between the research team and participating practitioners/Whare Oranga throughout; this constituted an implicit process aim. Several further aims emerged from engagement with healers, within which healers and research team members discussed potential service-oriented benefits that the research project would work towards. These included: 
• Enhancing the capacity of Whare Oranga to provide service information to funders that might support their wider understanding of rongoā Māori, with a view to securing additional contracts; 
• Providing newly established or developing Whare Oranga with tools and frameworks to support and strengthen their entry into health service provision in their local communities; and 
• Articulating clearly defined, assessable and progressive steps toward targeted domains of wellbeing for use by practitioners and their clients.

text: Ngā Tohu o te Ora: traditional Māori healing and wellness outcomes The Ngā Tohu o te Ora (signs of wellness) research project was developed to investigate outcomes associated with rongoā Māori, in order that this traditional practice might enjoy increased support as a funded service. The primary aims were to: 
1. Identify wellness outcome measures used by traditional Māori healers, and 
2. Develop and test a framework of traditional Māori wellness outcome measures. 
Secondary aims included integrating the wellness outcomes framework with the Pūrākau framework (developed by the authors in a previous HRC seeding grant), and disseminating research findings among healing, health service delivery and research communities. 10 Work towards Aims 1 and 2 were undertaken in two distinct stages in the research: identifying wellness outcomes and weaving them together in the form of a framework comprised Stage I research activities (June 2008 - December 2009), and testing the use of the framework by Whare Oranga constituted Stage II (January 2010 - July 2011). Recognising the importance of meaningful engagement for both research 'success' and healer benefit, emphasis was placed on ensuring high quality relationships between the research team and participating practitioners/Whare Oranga throughout; this constituted an implicit process aim. Several further aims emerged from engagement with healers, within which healers and research team members discussed potential service-oriented benefits that the research project would work towards. These included: 
• Enhancing the capacity of Whare Oranga to provide service information to funders that might support their wider understanding of rongoā Māori, with a view to securing additional contracts; 
• Providing newly established or developing Whare Oranga with tools and frameworks to support and strengthen their entry into health service provision in their local communities; and 
• Articulating clearly defined, assessable and progressive steps toward targeted domains of wellbeing for use by practitioners and their clients.

year: 2012

title: Māori students and issues of hybrid identity: The response of one inner-city state school

authors: Johnson, Diane

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: As a result of a more liberal national migration policy than was the case in the past, school communities in Aotearoa /New Zealand are increasingly multi-cultural, with both students and teachers coming from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In these global village environments, managers and governors strive (with varying degrees of success) to acknowledge, value and accommodate the heritage of new-migrant groups and to address the particular educational needs, interests and aspirations of the individuals within them. While it is extremely important to be inclusive of those students who are newly-arrived in the country, another imperative is, of course to protect and enhance, within an increasingly global educational perspective, the special status of indigenous Māori students, particularly those in mainstream education, as they explore and shape the hybrid identity (part indigenous / part global citizen) that will undoubtedly characterize their lives in the 21st century. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some identity-building strategies which one central-city, state, single-sex secondary school has initiated to support its indigenous students. While the strategies discussed must be considered as part of an ongoing, evolutionary process, indications are that the approach adopted is having a significant impact on the personal, social and academic development of Māori students.

text: Māori students and issues of hybrid identity: The response of one inner-city state school As a result of a more liberal national migration policy than was the case in the past, school communities in Aotearoa /New Zealand are increasingly multi-cultural, with both students and teachers coming from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In these global village environments, managers and governors strive (with varying degrees of success) to acknowledge, value and accommodate the heritage of new-migrant groups and to address the particular educational needs, interests and aspirations of the individuals within them. While it is extremely important to be inclusive of those students who are newly-arrived in the country, another imperative is, of course to protect and enhance, within an increasingly global educational perspective, the special status of indigenous Māori students, particularly those in mainstream education, as they explore and shape the hybrid identity (part indigenous / part global citizen) that will undoubtedly characterize their lives in the 21st century. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some identity-building strategies which one central-city, state, single-sex secondary school has initiated to support its indigenous students. While the strategies discussed must be considered as part of an ongoing, evolutionary process, indications are that the approach adopted is having a significant impact on the personal, social and academic development of Māori students.

year: 2008

title: Beyond 'just' flood risk management: the potential for-and limits to-alleviating flood disadvantage

authors: O'Hare, Paul

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: The threat of flooding poses a considerable challenge for justice. Not only are more citizens becoming exposed to risk, but they are expected to play increasingly active roles in flood risk management. However, until recently, few efforts have charted broader understandings of disadvantage relating to flood risk exposure. Drawing upon social science scholarship that has long been sensitive to concerns related to justice, we deploy and develop the notion of flood disadvantage as a means to assess the challenges to more ‘just’ flood risk management. We contend that the concept of flood disadvantage offers a useful lens to appreciate the constraints of technical approaches to flood risk management, in particular, its limited ability to incorporate complex social elements such as how individuals have differing vulnerabilities and sensitivities to flooding and uneven abilities to engage with risk agendas. The notion highlights the compounding interactions between flooding and other social disadvantages across multiple public policy areas and scales. We argue a fuller acknowledgement of the socio-spatial-temporal dimensions of intersecting disadvantages can help sensitise technical risk analyses that tend to see people and communities as homogeneous entities in a given spatiality. In doing so we can better reveal why some individuals or communities are more vulnerable to disasters or are slower to recover than others. Finally, we outline the challenges in turning more ‘just’ flood risk management from an abstract notion into one that could inform future practice.

text: Beyond 'just' flood risk management: the potential for-and limits to-alleviating flood disadvantage The threat of flooding poses a considerable challenge for justice. Not only are more citizens becoming exposed to risk, but they are expected to play increasingly active roles in flood risk management. However, until recently, few efforts have charted broader understandings of disadvantage relating to flood risk exposure. Drawing upon social science scholarship that has long been sensitive to concerns related to justice, we deploy and develop the notion of flood disadvantage as a means to assess the challenges to more ‘just’ flood risk management. We contend that the concept of flood disadvantage offers a useful lens to appreciate the constraints of technical approaches to flood risk management, in particular, its limited ability to incorporate complex social elements such as how individuals have differing vulnerabilities and sensitivities to flooding and uneven abilities to engage with risk agendas. The notion highlights the compounding interactions between flooding and other social disadvantages across multiple public policy areas and scales. We argue a fuller acknowledgement of the socio-spatial-temporal dimensions of intersecting disadvantages can help sensitise technical risk analyses that tend to see people and communities as homogeneous entities in a given spatiality. In doing so we can better reveal why some individuals or communities are more vulnerable to disasters or are slower to recover than others. Finally, we outline the challenges in turning more ‘just’ flood risk management from an abstract notion into one that could inform future practice.

year: 2018