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Maori Women's Health


Maori youth and contraception

June 2006 Women's Health Watch

How refreshing to read a sexual health article about what people are doing right! This secondary analysis of the Youth2000 survey sets out to identify the factors that have a positive impact on consistent contraceptive use among Maori youth. Most of the sexually active youth in the survey consistently used contraception. The study identifies protective factors that promote good outcomes or resilience, and looks at ways of reducing risk factors. The protective factors associated with consistent contraceptive use were getting enough time with parents, feeling teachers cared about them, feeling their neighbourhood was safe and having an adult to talk to... Read More

Whai U Poster launch

October 2003 Women's Health Update

A gathering at Te Runanga O Te Rarawa in August unveiled a work of art painted by local Ngati Kahu artist, Theresa Reihana, which has become the inspiration for a national poster. Waireti Walters, Te Tai Tokerau breastfeeding advocate hosted the gathering and reports.
Theresa Reihana's painting became the inspiration for a national poster campaign advocating the benefits of breastfeeding for Maori. Waireti asked Theresa to include the following important elements in her visual representation of breastfeeding: whakapapa, traditional birthing, music and nature. The heading for the poster, "Whangai U", is simply "breastfeeding". The caption under the poster conveys the ideas that breastfeeding is, "affordable, available & accessible".
At the launch Maori community leaders and health providers shared their breastfeeding stories before the painting and its' posters were revealed to their appreciative gaze... Read More

Celebrating Whaea

October 2002 Women's Health Update

A new Maori language CD speaks about the powerful experiences of birth, breastfeeding and motherhood. Camille Guy talked to its creator, Ariana Tikao.

For Christchurch singer and composer, Ariana Tikao, the experiences of childbirth and motherhood were powerful and life-changing. "When I became pregnant I realized that there is a lot of expectation that life doesn't change much," says Ariana. "There is not much appreciation that motherhood is a job."

For Ariana and her partner Ross, motherhood deserved more honouring than that. When Ariana was first hapu (pregnant), they began to read and research Maori approaches to pregnancy and birth. As part of Maori kaupapa about birth, Ross learned an oriori or traditional chant, spoken at the moment of birth. Oriori (lullaby) refers to the genre of waiata for birth... Read More

Mana Wahine & the necessity of kaupapa Maori

April 2002 Women's Health Update

Jo Fitzpatrick reports on keynote presentations by Maori women at the Health Promotion Conference.
It was clear from the beginning that the Health Promotion Forum Conference was grounded in Aotearoa and that mana wahine are a significant force here. Two Maori women doctors described the historical impact of Pakeha settlement on Maori using descriptors (civilised, patronised, minimised, minoritised and colonised) and providing examples. Dr Papaarangi Reid (Te Rarawa) is director of the Eru Pomare Maori Health Research Centre at the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr Fiona Cram (Ngati Kahungungu) is a Senior Research fellow at the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education at the University of Auckland, recently recognised as one of the six research Centres of Excellence in Aotearoa.... Read More

Making screening work for Maori women

January 2002 Women's Health Update

Camille Guy talked to Aroha Harris about her new position in screening.

Tackling the reluctance of Maori women to participate in breast and cervical screening programmes is the task facing the new Maori health screening development manager. Aroha Harris takes up this newly created position within the National Screening Unit from a background in health and social services.

Of Ngati Whatua descent, Aroha has a strong network within the Maori health sector. She was formerly Maori women's health manager at National Women's Hospital and has most recently worked in the areas of child and adolescent mental health in South Auckland.

Maori women are a key focus group for both the National Cervical Screening Programme and BreastScreen Aotearoa. This reflects concern over the high incidence of both breast and cervical cancer, but Aroha Harris is careful not to emphasise those statistics. Scare-mongering is not the approach she intends taking in her new role.... Read More

New fellowship honours kuia

January 2001 Women's Health Update

Mihi Ratima is the first recipient of a new Health Research Council senior health research fellowship in honour of former kaumatua Dr Erihapeti Rehu Murchie.

The Erihapeti Murchie Fellowship in Maori Health has the approval of Dr Murchie's whanau. It is available to emerging leaders in Maori health research who have completed their PhD.

Their research must focus on topics in which Dr Murchie was active - Maori women's and children's health; whare tapa wha (a four point holistic health model); health promotion or health policy, including Maori and indigenous human rights. Ms Ratima's area is Maori health promotion - increasing Maori control over determinants of their own health development.

Dr Murchie was a member of the Maori Health Committee from 1991 to 1994 and HRC kaumatua from 1996 until she died in 1997. She was a Maori Women's Welfare League member for 30 years and was its health research director from 1980 to 1986 when the landmark study of Maori women's health was produced. She contributed to a wide range of arts, health and education organisations.

Daughter of Rapuora funded

July 2001 Women's Health Update

A $348,000 research grant from the Health Research Council will enable the ground-breaking Rapuroa: Health and Maori Women study to be updated for the new century. The first Rapuroa study was led by Erihapeti Murchie for the Maori Women's Welfare League and published in 1984.
The study looked at cultural security and found that while older women were still connected to their tribal regions and cultural practices, this was less true of young women. Other areas studied were women's assessment of their health, major influences on their health, such as weight, diet, smoking and alcohol, and the relationship between wellbeing and stressful circumstances.
For Rapuora II, Jacqui Te Kani, president of MWWL, will coordinate community participation in the study which will be led by a team of Maori women researchers based at the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education at the University of Auckland.
The study will build on the earlier study and like the original Rapuroa, will train Maori women as interviewers.
In the first stage, 72 Maori women around the country will be interviewed about their health and this information will be used to develop and test a survey questionnaire for the next section of the project. The researchers will use research methods based on Maori philosophies and practices.

National consultation on Maori women's health

April 2000 Women's Health Update

The national consultation Te Mapuna Hora - The ripples go wide - was the first project to involve researchers from all four of the Health Research Council-funded Maori health research centres.

The project was led by Annemarie Gillies of Te Pumanawa Hauora at Massey University, with Dr Papaarangi Reid of Te Ropu Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pomare at the Wellington School of Medicine; Dr Su Crengle of Tomaiora at the University of Auckland; Christine Rimene of Te Ropo Rangahau Hauora A Ngai Tahu at the University of Otago; and Druis Barrett, then president of the Maori Womens' Welfare League.

Te Mapuna Hora aimed to 'nurture and protect the mauri (spirit) of Maori women' through a nationwide consultation on Maori women's health and wellbeing. The team consulted about research methods, ethical issues and Maori women's health priorities in order to develop a research proposal along the lines of an earlier study Rapuora.

This ground-breaking major study of Maori women's health, led from 1981to 1983 by then league president Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie, has contributed to many policies and services in Maori women' health. It was the first survey by and for Maori with over 1100 Maori women interviewed.

The Mapuna Hora research team distributed 10,000 leaflets with tear-off slips and talked about the consultation at hui in their own tribal regions and conferences organised by pan-tribal and health-relate organisations. The four researchers also spoke about their roles and proposals at the national Maori Women's Welfare League conference in September.... Read More

Support at hand for Maori nicotine addicts

January 2000 Women's Health Update

Nicotine replacement therapy, counselling and support are on offer to Maori women keen to kick the cigarette habit.

The Health Funding Authority is funding a series of smoking cessation projects aimed at curbing the high incidence of nicotine addiction amongst maori women.

Pilots are currently being run in Northland by Hauora Whanui and the Kaitaia-based Te Hauora O Te Hiku O Te Ika and in Auckland by the Ngati Whatua O Orakei Health Centre, as well as in Christchurch and the East Coast....

Ukaipo - Maori women and childbirth

October 1999 Women's Health Update

A new resource about Maori experiences of childbirth has been received with great acclaim by Maori and medical communities throughout the country

Ukaipo - Maori Women and Childbirth is a book about Maori spiritual concepts associated with childbirth. In their own words four generations of Maori women tell their stories about conception, pregnancy, antenatal services, birth, complications, postnatal services and the importance of whanau.... Read More

New breast screening initiative for Maori women

January 1999 Women's Health Update

Kia Uu &endash; Ki to Mana Wahine was launched with laughter, positive messages and good food at the Orakei Marae in December. Te Ha O Te Oranga O Ngati Whatua is one of nine providers in the North Island with a contract with the Health Funding Authroity to promote breast screening to Maori women, particularly those with difficulties accessing screening services.

Irihapeti Ramsden brought home the importance of breast cancer to Maori women when she talked of her own experience on discovering her breast lump was malignant.

'It hit me, I'm not going to see my mokopuna, and more important, they're not going to see me, a confident Maori woman who can help them on their paths.'

There are 5000 Maori women in the eligible age group in the area covered by Te Ha's contract, which stretches from the Brynderwyn Hills to Mercer. Although some Maori women will respond to invitations to take part in screening issued by their GPs, the Maori programme will aim at contacting hard-to-reach women.... Read More

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