Five Maori Leaders on Health, Education, the Maori Economy, Justice and the Maori Crown Partnership

Stuff invited five Māori leaders at the coalface of Māori issues, who didn't get an invitation to speak at Waitangi, to share their perspectives.

Carmen Parahi pn264

All  agree treaty settlements should be used for economic development and not to fix Māori social issues. Instead, Māori need to develop their own solutions in partnership with the Crown. 
This article by Carmen Parahi  (carmen.parahi@stuff.co.nz).

The leaders are Dr David Tipene-Leach on Health, School Principal Myles Ferris on Education, Trust asset chair Kate Paul on the Maori Economy, Sir Kim Workman on Justice, and  criminal lawyer and academic Khylee Quince on Maori and Crown Partnership. 


HEALTH

For decades, Dr David Tipene-Leach has witnessed the effects of poverty on his patients. He's come face-to-face with it as a GP, public health campaigner and in his governance roles as chairman of Te ORA, the Māori health practitioners association and on an advisory panel to Minister of Health David Clark.

"Yes we should exercise more, smoke less and eat better food but the level of individual capability to be able to fix these problems is actually reasonably limited," says Tipene-Leach.
"It's very difficult for us to help ourselves given the cycle of deprivation many of our people are caught in. It's very difficult to escape from," he says.

Dr David Tipene-Leach has worked at the coalface of Māori health for decades. He says, "The outcomes are absolutely unfair and inequitable. It’s institutional racism.” He recommends health practitioners have cultural competence, the ability to respond appropriately to Māori needs.

Māori aren't generally receiving as much time, investigation, tests, prescriptions and referrals from practitioners equally, says Tipene-Leach, compared to non-Māori. He says without cultural competency the practices become entrenched in the system. "It's institutional racism.

"Māori women survive breast cancer very poorly," he says. "Although we have lower rates of bowel cancer we die a hell of a lot more often of it when we get it. "This is not about saying individual practitioners are racist it's about getting everyone working together. The outcomes are absolutely unfair and inequitable."

Labour and the Green Party serve up breakfast for the public at Waitangi after the dawn service. Dr Tipene-Leach says the health system needs to change to include Māori services, an indigenous framework to better support Māori.

He relates what Māori have experienced through colonisation to the trauma people suffered in the Christchurch earthquakes.

"It's difficult to do something about. The rising depression, anxiety, the fear of young children going to school and the need for a lot of counselling in Christchurch.

"We've got 170 years of colonisation of land loss, language and cultural loss. Historical trauma is very real."

He says the health system needs to include indigenous services. "A Māori framework of thinking, treatments such as mirimiri, rongoa Māori. We're touching on the edge here, but spiritual and psychic intervention."

He says medical schools are churning out record numbers of Māori and Pasifika staff but all practitioners need a solid understanding of cultural safety and how to deliver it.


EDUCATION

Myles Ferris is the principal of a decile one, mainly Māori school in Whangarei, and president of Te Akatea, the Māori Principals Association. One of the biggest issues in our current education system for Māori is whether they really see themselves in it.

"How well does your school meet the cultural needs of Māori?" Ferris makes no apology for his stance, all New Zealanders need to learn about Māori culture, he says. "Our children need to know who they are, where they stand in this world. They need to know they're respected and valued."

"The other big issue is the levels of racism and discrimination in our system."He says research has shown teachers don't have high expectations of Māori kids, pointing to the disparity between Māori and other students across NCEA subjects.

In 2017, in NCEA level 3 subjects, just 2069 students were Māori compared to 14,683 non-Māori in mathematics. Of the total 13,045 science students, 1299 were Māori. In technology, just 588 Māori sat level 3.

He says kids in Māori medium kura students are performing better than the majority of Māori in mainstream schools."Our schools in Māori medium obviously get that cultural understanding and awareness right."

He wants compulsory te reo Māori in every primary and secondary school to Year 10.
"Te reo Māori is for all New Zealanders. It is not the domain of Māori we are kaitiaki of the reo. I think it will alleviate a lot of the cultural differences that people have and a lack of understanding of the Māori culture."

He's backing calls for New Zealand's colonial history to be made compulsory but only after te reo Māori has been instituted.  Ferris says there are many culturally responsive programmes available for educators to use. 

MĀORI ECONOMY

Katie Paul is the chair of the Ngāti Whakaue Assets Trust.  The entity has grown its assets from $9 million in 2009 to over $20 million last year, distributing $500,000 to beneficiaries. The former public servant spent many years in the diplomatic service overseas until she felt the pull to bring her children home and work for her people. 

She says a thousand more experienced Māori governance workers are required to handle multimillion dollar, post settlement iwi trusts. Paul says many of those running the older land trusts and incorporations are aging and dying. Māori can no longer rely on older men to lead. "The governance pool is so small there's going to be a role for young women coming through. We've got to draw on everyone to help. "It's so exciting now, our kids are going to be well positioned having an asset base they can grow. We do have to prepare the succession now." 

Paul says the Māori asset level is projected to $12 billion by 2026.  But she's very clear the money is to be spent growing economic wealth for Māori. "There's a temptation for New Zealanders to see iwi settlements as the panacea or remedy for all of our social needs to address our social problems." 

"I'm always asked, as an iwi chair, what are you going to do about our poverty? What are you going to do about housing and education? Well actually those are always the Crown's responsibility that was never abrogated under the treaty." 

"Just because iwi have got billions of dollars doesn't mean they have to provide all of our education, social housing. The treaty settlements were never meant to do that." 

She believes iwi need to get more involved with trade negotiations.  "Forestry, farming, fisheries were a big chunk of our settlements. So much of it is exported and goes overseas. Iwi will now have to be part of those conversations with government. "Iwi need to be a part of international trade negotiations and exporting discussions. We've got this dual role of helping our tribe but also growing our assets." 

JUSTICE
Sir Kim Workman has worked in the justice system for over half a century. He was knighted last year for his prisoner welfare and justice work. 

He agrees treaty settlements shouldn't be used to pay for social services despite Māori having high rates of crime as perpetrators and victims often linked to poverty. "The money should be reserved for economic development."

Workman has publicly advocated for system reform especially for Māori, who are more likely to be stopped by police, charged, held in remand, convicted and imprisoned than non-Māori. 51 per cent of the prison population is Māori. 

"There's been a pattern over decades of agencies promising a partnership with Māori.
"It never ends up as a partnership. It ends up with the Crown or government agencies co-opting Māori values or principles into a western model of delivery. It never works."
"Māori need to develop their own approaches without interference from Pākehā. To develop outcome measures that address spiritual, physical and mental issues for Māori."

He says the incarceration of Māori has been criticised domestically and internationally for decades, yet little has changed. "We now have to think radically about different models Māori will develop and be resourced." 

Workman says ex-criminals shouldn't be excluded from being a part of the solution. But is critical of new programmes he says are often new ways of punishing people. 

"We shouldn't be shy about involving former gang members or former prisoners in the process. We do it all the time in areas like drug rehabilitation.  "We've got to be brave, instead of being preoccupied with risk. We're so busy being tough on people and wanting to punish them - for often very minor things - rather than working with them, to change and transform their lives." 

MĀORI AND CROWN PARTNERSHIP 

"The big problem is hyperincarceration of Māori," says criminal lawyer and academic Khylee Quince.

"5000 Māori bodies in a cage on any given day in this country is an outrageous problem." 

Quince believes it's important to find out how people came to be in the system. "From a government perspective that's quite difficult. It means looking across the sector in terms of health, education, restricted opportunities, dysfunctional and marginalised lives.  They're quite often horrific stories." 

Quince says the Treaty of Waitangi is important as it establishes the partnership between Māori and the Crown, setting out clearly its responsibility to Māori. Quince cites a number of initiatives that are working, including one she says is a good example of a treaty relationship. 

Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services in partnership with the Crown has created a programme for Northland youth to be bailed to a supported address instead of being held in remand in Auckland.

Quince is impressed by the number of government-appointed inquiries underway for mental health and addiction, the health and disability system review, justice system reform and historical abuse in state care. She warns the panels are hearing different snippets of the same story so hopes they'll join the dots. 

A client told her he was in a prison cell with a guy he shared a room with in a Levin state care home when they were eight years old. 

"Here they all are in the cage 42 years later. I was gobsmacked. They talk about the pipeline as if it's an inevitability."


All the experts agree 

Māori have the solutions that should be resourced and supported by the government. 

"The key to lifting oneself out of poverty is education. We should invest in education now. It's not just a poverty of wealth, it's a poverty of hope, a poverty of knowledge," says Ferris.
He wants more promotion of Māori businesses and entrepreneurship at school level.
"I think it's essential to create wealth," says Ferris.  "We're well aware if we have economic strength and stability then we alleviate a lot of the problems we have."