title: Gender and Climate Change vulnerability: A Case Study of a Coastal Community in Pramuka Island, the Seribu Islands

authors: Saputro, Tri

abstract: Climate change poses a significant threat to people’s lives and livelihoods around the globe, and communities of small low-lying islands of the developing world are especially vulnerable. As a growing scholarship demonstrates, the impacts of climate change on people’s lives vary along gender lines, among other factors. Thus, understanding the gendered implications of climate change risks and impacts is essential to inform policies that are responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups. This chapter explores the implications of climate change impacts for the lives of women and men on a small and vulnerable coastal community on Pramuka Island, a part of the group of Seribu Islands, Jakarta, Indonesia. The study examines how changes in women’s and men’s employment, income, and time management reflect the ways in which environmental changes, including climate change, shape the everyday lived experiences of vulnerable local communities of small islands.

text: Gender and Climate Change vulnerability: A Case Study of a Coastal Community in Pramuka Island, the Seribu Islands Climate change poses a significant threat to people’s lives and livelihoods around the globe, and communities of small low-lying islands of the developing world are especially vulnerable. As a growing scholarship demonstrates, the impacts of climate change on people’s lives vary along gender lines, among other factors. Thus, understanding the gendered implications of climate change risks and impacts is essential to inform policies that are responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups. This chapter explores the implications of climate change impacts for the lives of women and men on a small and vulnerable coastal community on Pramuka Island, a part of the group of Seribu Islands, Jakarta, Indonesia. The study examines how changes in women’s and men’s employment, income, and time management reflect the ways in which environmental changes, including climate change, shape the everyday lived experiences of vulnerable local communities of small islands.

year: 2023

title: Just breathe: Dynamic breathwork as interoceptive exposure for veterans and police

authors: Pointer, Ben

subjects: breathwork

abstract: Military veterans and police officers experience high rates of trauma-related symptoms alongside autonomic dysregulation, yet many do not engage with or complete conventional therapies. Breathing-based interventions may provide a low-cost, acceptable alternative. I used a single-subject, multiple-baseline-across-participants design with eight veterans and police officers to evaluate a 10-session online dynamic breathwork protocol. I hypothesised that this intervention would (H1) increase resting heart rate variability (HRV) and reduce resting heart rate, (H2) improve self-reported psychological symptoms commonly associated with PTSD, and (H3) be rated as acceptable and feasible for home-based use. Participants practised cyclic hyperventilation, extended breath-holds, and a Valsalva-type manoeuvre in 10 sessions across a 20-day period. Resting heart rate variability (RMSSD) and heart rate were recorded daily with Polar® H10 sensors. Self-reported psychological measures of depression, anxiety, affect, mindfulness, and psychological flexibility were completed at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Physiological outcomes did not show meaningful change. However, large effect sizes were observed across all psychological measures, with reductions in self-reported scores of depression, anxiety, and negative affect, and increases in mindful awareness and psychological flexibility. Social validity ratings indicated that the protocol was highly acceptable and feasible for home use. In contrast to traditional exposure therapies that target external trauma cues, this intervention employed breath-based interoceptive exposure to engage conditioned internal responses, offering a novel pathway for inhibitory learning. My results suggest that while short-term autonomic adaptation was not evident, structured online breathwork may offer a promising and scalable means of reducing psychological distress for trauma-exposed operational personnel.

text: Just breathe: Dynamic breathwork as interoceptive exposure for veterans and police Military veterans and police officers experience high rates of trauma-related symptoms alongside autonomic dysregulation, yet many do not engage with or complete conventional therapies. Breathing-based interventions may provide a low-cost, acceptable alternative. I used a single-subject, multiple-baseline-across-participants design with eight veterans and police officers to evaluate a 10-session online dynamic breathwork protocol. I hypothesised that this intervention would (H1) increase resting heart rate variability (HRV) and reduce resting heart rate, (H2) improve self-reported psychological symptoms commonly associated with PTSD, and (H3) be rated as acceptable and feasible for home-based use. Participants practised cyclic hyperventilation, extended breath-holds, and a Valsalva-type manoeuvre in 10 sessions across a 20-day period. Resting heart rate variability (RMSSD) and heart rate were recorded daily with Polar® H10 sensors. Self-reported psychological measures of depression, anxiety, affect, mindfulness, and psychological flexibility were completed at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Physiological outcomes did not show meaningful change. However, large effect sizes were observed across all psychological measures, with reductions in self-reported scores of depression, anxiety, and negative affect, and increases in mindful awareness and psychological flexibility. Social validity ratings indicated that the protocol was highly acceptable and feasible for home use. In contrast to traditional exposure therapies that target external trauma cues, this intervention employed breath-based interoceptive exposure to engage conditioned internal responses, offering a novel pathway for inhibitory learning. My results suggest that while short-term autonomic adaptation was not evident, structured online breathwork may offer a promising and scalable means of reducing psychological distress for trauma-exposed operational personnel.

year: 2025

title: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools

authors: Milne, Beverley Ann

subjects: Maori education

abstract: If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

text: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

year: 2013