Kia Whai Oranga a Mokopuna
Maori feature more than any other group of people injured intentionally or unintentionally.
Every year on average enough Maori children to fill nearly 100 classrooms are hospitalised because of unintentional
injuries.
The most common setting for children to be unintentionally injured is in their own home. But many are also injured on
our roads, or while at play, recreation or sport.
Nationally Maori children appear to be at similar risk of serious unintentional injury as pakeha children, however,
Maori children appear at higher risk than pakeha children of certain kinds of serious unintentional injuries. These
include:
1. Burns and scalds – In particular burns in house fires or from children playing with matches or lighters, scalds from
hot beverages or household water that is too hot, and burns from touching hot things such as heaters.
2. Pedestrian injuries – Sustained by children usually while walking around their communities (e.g. on their way to
school) or by toddlers being backed over in a family driveway.
3. Injuries sustained while riding in motor vehicles. Maori account for 30 percent (130 per annum) of hospitalisations
of child occupants of motor vehicles.
Allan Brown has researched, over the last 10 years, whanau ora (Maori health) and the 13-week Kia Whai Oranga a Mokopuna
is his brainchild, to help prevent injury to preschoolers, and done from a Maori world view. He has financed it almost
entirely himself.
Kia Whai Oranga a Mokopuna linked Turanga Health, Turanga FM radio, Nga Whare o Te Kohanga Reo ki Turanga and the Injury
Prevention Network of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The programme is based on Dr Mason Durie's 'Te Whare Tapa Wha' model of Maori health underpinned by four dimensions: te
taha hinengaro (psychological health) te taha wairua (spiritual health) te taha tinana (physical health) and te taha
whanau (family health).
The key message to reduce preventable injuries was communicated through iwi radio stations and Maori language resources.
A second key message of the programme was to provide a safe playing environment for our tamariki.
Supporting these messages is the World Health Organization. Learning to live together – by developing an understanding
of others and their history, traditions and spiritual values – is one of the four pillars proposed by the World Health
Organization for the foundations of education.
According to Maori orators it was only through the guidance and protection of Te Kotuku that Tane-nui-a-rangi was able
to ascend to the twelfth heaven and received from Io the supreme Maori god, the three sacred baskets of knowledge and
the two sacred stones. It was here that the Kotuku remained while Tane returned to the new world safe from all harm.
Hence the proverb ‘He Kotuku Rerenga Tahi – ‘White Heron of Single Flight’ From this Allan Brown acknowledges the Kotuku
as a symbol of safety and protection.
The conference is on from Wednesday 7 October – Friday 9 October at the Hoani Waititi Marae, Waitakere City, Auckland.
More information about the Injury Prevention Network of Aotearoa New Zealand (IPNANZ) Conference, including a programme,
can be found on the conference page of the IPNANZ website: http://www.ipnanz.org.nz/page.php?p=128=103.
ENDS