Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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    Māori perspectives on sleep and aging
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2024-06-05) Gibson R; Lowe H; Korohina E; Rolleston A; Sharkey K
    Introduction: Sleep is vital for health in older adulthood. Ethnic disparities have been noted with regards to sleep health. However, culturally appropriate approaches to sleep as a broader social experience are lacking. Methods: Here, sleep-related group interviews were conducted in the form of hui (group meetings and discussions) with eleven participants of a health service intervention for older Māori (the Indigenous people of New Zealand) and their whānau (extended family). Notes were collated and analyzed thematically. Results: Four key themes were constructed that represent the key conversations and ideas. These concerned the conceptualizing of sleep—including appreciation for its somatic role but also the spiritual properties of sleep states; the changing obligations around sleep and wake—including individual and communal time use and changing cultural and familial obligations with advancing age; and the barriers and facilitators for supporting sleep—including the social and spiritual nature of communal sleeping, the schedules and sleep of others, as well as holistic and environmental methods for relaxation. Findings demonstrate the multifaceted nature of sleep and aging among Māori. Culturally relevant interpretations of sleep practices and disturbances were offered and are beyond typical Western models which are predominantly medicalized. Discussion: This work aids the understanding and representation of sleep as a social and cultural perspective within the New Zealand context. This provides foundations for future participatory research to design culturally appropriate approaches to assessing and supporting sleep health in forms that are meaningful for aging well across cultures.
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    Introducing 'Ngaruroro', a New Model for Understanding Māori Wellbeing.
    (MDPI AG, 2024-04-05) Johnson FN; Wehi P; Neha T; Ross M; Thompson V; Tibble S; Tassell-Matamua N; Shedlock K; Fox R; Penman Z; Ritchie T; Winter T; Arahanga-Doyle H; Jose PE; Wright M
    Indigenous peoples around the world are revitalising their ancestral beliefs, practices, and languages, including traditional understandings of health and wellbeing. In the Aotearoa (New Zealand) context, a number of ground-breaking Māori health- and wellbeing-related models have emerged, each with their own scope and applications. We sought in our qualitative studies to explore and identify several key sources of wellbeing for Māori individuals. Nine interviews were conducted with members of Māori communities to identify key themes of Māori wellbeing. We performed a Reflexive Thematic Analysis on these data and then conducted a further fifteen interviews to revise, refine, and reposition the previously generated themes. The Ngaruroro model describes wellbeing as the embodied and active process of being well in relation with one's (1) here tāngata (social and familial ties), (2) te taiao (the environment), and (3) taonga tuku iho (cultural treasures) while doing what one can to make lifestyle choices that are conducive to the health of one's (4) tinana (body) and (5) wairua (spirit) while cultivating a balanced (6) ngākau (inner-system), fulfilling (7) matea (core needs) and exercising your (8) mana (authority). These themes illustrate that Māori wellbeing is dynamic, interconnected, and holistic.
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    Academic-community solidarities in land occupation as an Indigenous claim to health: culturally centered solidarity through voice infrastructures
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2023-05-25) Elers C; Dutta M; Kaur-Gill S
    In this work, we explore the role of land in Indigenous theorizing about health, embodied in a land occupation that resisted a climate-adaptive development project imposed on the community from the top down by the local government. The proposed development project of building a stop bank on the Oroua River sought to alienate Māori from the remnants of the land. Embedded in and emerging from a culture-centered academic-community-activist partnership, an advisory group of Māori community members om the “margins of the margins” came together to participate in the occupation of the land to claim it as the basis for securing their health. This study describes the occupation and the role of our academic-activist intervention in it, theorizing land occupation as the root of decolonizing health emerging from Indigenous struggles for sovereignty (Tino rangatiratanga). The community advisory group members brought together in a culture-centered intervention, collaborated in partnership with the academic team, generated video narratives that resisted and dismantled the communicative inversions produced by the settler colonial state to perpetuate its extractive interests and produced communicative resources that supported the land occupation led by the broader Whānau. This study concludes by arguing that the culture-centered approach offers a meta-theory for decolonizing health communication by building voice infrastructures that support Indigenous land struggles.
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    Understanding how whānau-centred initiatives can improve Māori health in Aotearoa New Zealand.
    (Oxford University Press, 2023-07-13) Reweti A
    This article highlights the significance of prioritizing Indigenous voices and knowledge systems, using whānau-centred initiatives (a concept that encompasses the broader family and community) as a foundation for health promotion within an Indigenous context. Tū Kahikatea, a conceptual framework, is used to demonstrate the relationship between the values underpinning different whānau-centred initiatives and their corresponding outcomes. The framework highlights the capacity of whānau-centred initiatives to support whānau in attaining mana motuhake, which represents collective self-determination and the ability to exercise control over their own future. By doing so, these initiatives contribute to the improvement of whānau health outcomes. With recent changes to Aotearoa New Zealand's health system, the findings underscore the benefits and potential of whānau-centred initiatives in enhancing whānau health outcomes, and advocate for continued strengths-based practices in Aotearoa New Zealand's health system. By bridging the gap between academia and grassroots community action, the article demonstrates the potential of whānau-centred initiatives and contributes to a global call for integrating Indigenous viewpoints and practices into Westernized healthcare, in order to improve Indigenous health outcomes.