title: Re-designing the national imaginary: The development of Matariki as a contemporary festival

authors: Hardy, Ann

subjects: Aotearoa/New Zealand

abstract: This article considers the factors shaping the contemporary redevelopment in Aotearoa/ New Zealand of the indigenous commemoration of the rising of the constellation Matariki as a marker of seasonal change.  Through interviews with producers of media materials celebrating Matariki, it examines the ideological, cultural, and economic factors determining the encoding of the materials, investigating in particular the ways in which Matariki can resource a marketplace for spiritual commodities.

text: Re-designing the national imaginary: The development of Matariki as a contemporary festival This article considers the factors shaping the contemporary redevelopment in Aotearoa/ New Zealand of the indigenous commemoration of the rising of the constellation Matariki as a marker of seasonal change.  Through interviews with producers of media materials celebrating Matariki, it examines the ideological, cultural, and economic factors determining the encoding of the materials, investigating in particular the ways in which Matariki can resource a marketplace for spiritual commodities.

year: 2012

title: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony

authors: Murphy, Ngahuia Aroha Grace

subjects: Native women's ceremony

abstract: This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

text: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

year: 2019

title: Primary care access and foregone care: A survey of transgender adolescents and young adults

authors: Clark, Drew B. A.

subjects: Science & technology

abstract: Objective. To examine the issues of primary care access and foregone health care among transgender adolescents and young adults. 
Methods. This cross-sectional analysis of data from the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey was conducted online during 2013–2014. Participants included 923 youth aged 14–25 (323 adolescents aged 14–18 and 600 young adults aged 19–25). Main outcome measures were self-reported general and mental health status, comfort discussing transgender identity and health care needs with general practitioners, and types of and reasons for self-identified foregone health care. 
Results. Most youth reported poor/fair general and mental health status. Comfort with a family doctor was positively correlated with both general health (r(528) = 21, P < 0.001) and mental health (r(450) = 26, P < 0.001) status, as was having a doctor who was aware of one’s transgender status. 47.2% (n = 219) of young adults reported foregoing needed health care. Among adolescents, levels of comfort with family doctor were negatively correlated with foregone mental health care in the previous 12 months (F₃,₁₆₆ = 3.829, P = 0.011), but not correlated with foregone physical health care (F₃,₁₆₅ = 0.506, P = 0.679). Reasons for missing needed care spanned the dimensions of health care access, ranging from cost barriers to previous negative experiences with health care providers, and concerns that a doctor would be uneducated about transgender people. Conclusion. General practitioners can play a key role in improving the health of transgender youth by demonstrating understanding of the health care needs of transgender youth and competence in gender-affirming care, and by ensuring that their practices are accessible to all transgender youth in need of care.

text: Primary care access and foregone care: A survey of transgender adolescents and young adults Objective. To examine the issues of primary care access and foregone health care among transgender adolescents and young adults. 
Methods. This cross-sectional analysis of data from the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey was conducted online during 2013–2014. Participants included 923 youth aged 14–25 (323 adolescents aged 14–18 and 600 young adults aged 19–25). Main outcome measures were self-reported general and mental health status, comfort discussing transgender identity and health care needs with general practitioners, and types of and reasons for self-identified foregone health care. 
Results. Most youth reported poor/fair general and mental health status. Comfort with a family doctor was positively correlated with both general health (r(528) = 21, P < 0.001) and mental health (r(450) = 26, P < 0.001) status, as was having a doctor who was aware of one’s transgender status. 47.2% (n = 219) of young adults reported foregoing needed health care. Among adolescents, levels of comfort with family doctor were negatively correlated with foregone mental health care in the previous 12 months (F₃,₁₆₆ = 3.829, P = 0.011), but not correlated with foregone physical health care (F₃,₁₆₅ = 0.506, P = 0.679). Reasons for missing needed care spanned the dimensions of health care access, ranging from cost barriers to previous negative experiences with health care providers, and concerns that a doctor would be uneducated about transgender people. Conclusion. General practitioners can play a key role in improving the health of transgender youth by demonstrating understanding of the health care needs of transgender youth and competence in gender-affirming care, and by ensuring that their practices are accessible to all transgender youth in need of care.

year: 2018