Maori lead the way with health solutions
Maori are leading the way when it comes to innovative health solutions for all New Zealanders, pre-eminent Maori
academic Dr Mason Durie told the NZ Population Health Congress in Auckland today.
“The holistic approach found in Maori understandings of health has major implications for modern societies and the
increasing complexities that shape health and wellbeing,” Dr Durie said in his keynote address.
“The Whanau Ora policy, for example, adopts multi-agency and multi-sectoral approaches to Maori wellbeing. It identifies
the family as the main unit for interventions but is also concerned with whanau participation in communities and the
ways communities respond to whanau.
“If we are serious about improving health outcomes for Maori and other New Zealanders, we need to address this
multiplicity of issues.”
Dr Durie went on to explain that for Maori, these approaches and innovations are not new. The history of Maori health
innovation can be traced back to the 1800s.
“Traditional Maori approaches to health were essentially built around a relationship with the natural environment. But
from the mid-1880s a rapidly changing society generated new built environments and lifestyles that did not follow
natural lore.
“New approaches were required and the first two Maori medical graduates, both practitioners of population health, were
able to straddle the old and new worlds. In 1913, along with tribal leaders, they were instrumental in ameliorating the
impacts of a smallpox outbreak that could have been disastrous.
“A contemporary context poses new challenges for Maori health leaders. Current population health challenges are more
complex than those encountered a century ago, and are linked to global influences – climate change, excesses of food in
developed countries and insufficient food in third world countries. Moreover, health no longer respects national
boundaries.
“New Zealand will encounter the same health risks as other OECD countries – Alzheimer’s disease associated with greater
life expectancy, diabetes associated with abundance of fast foods, youth suicide associated with unstable relationships
and peer pressures, infectious diseases that are unresponsive to antibiotics, and alcohol and drug misuse, the product
of marketing techniques and government tardiness.
“Contemporary Maori approaches have recognised that no single sector or discipline can effect the level of change needed
to address the new risks.
“Collective impact underlies much of whanau ora practice. The impact of one agency or one discipline acting in isolation
is no match for the impact of inter-agency and inter-sectoral collaborative approaches.”
ENDS