Te Ao Māori
Hutia te rito o te harakeke
Kei whea te komako e ko?
He aha te mea nui?
We feel that the problem of FND is likely to be particularly acute for Māori. This is a gut feeling.
It is well understood that rates of trauma and preventable illness are higher in Māori populations. Rates of violence are much higher for Māori than non Māori. It is well understood that Māori tend to have problematic relationships with health services. Levels of trust and uptake of services are poor. All the indicators are there to suggest that we have a problem. We think it's reasonable to expect that Māori are as over represented in FND statistics as in prison statistics.
Despite this context, Māori were under represented among our research cohort. Only 12% of our respondents identified as Maori, compared to 17% in the wider population. We feel that this is probably due to our our small sample and the nature of the faceless computer based method we employed.
We think the two most important things to do here are:
remedy the culture of stigma in the health system
conduct culturally safe research.
Kanohi ki te kanohi
Research in this area would require a face-to-face research method and Māori researchers within a Māori cultural setting.
FND is a deeply spiritual matter. Violence is a violation of tapu. A single act of violence is understood to ripple out through time to affect generations passed and generations yet to come. Medical abuse is an assault on the mana and ora of entire whānau. This world view may prove a fruitful way for the wider scientific community to think about the disorder. Indeed, many clinicians have shown how Māori cultural principles can be effectively incorporated into mental health care.
If we are to understand the impact of FND on whānau, hapu and iwi we will need to employ a different research method. Māori researchers need to do this work well away from the ivory tower. This would likely involve a series of wananga on Marae involving hongi, waiata and roimata.
We already have a network of Māori health providers throughout the motu. Te Puni Kōkiri can help.
We think this needs to happen.