Te Huarahi Tika o te Tino Rangatiratanga mai i te Whakawhaungatanga kokiritia me te kotahitanga

Maori Mai, Maori Atu : Grass Roots Oranga Hui : Nga Ngaru Hauora Annual Hui
Thursday 12 August 2010
Heritage Hotel, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua

Te Huarahi Tika o te Tino Rangatiratanga mai i te Whakawhaungatanga kokiritia me te kotahitanga

Te Ururoa Flavell, MP for Waiariki

This is a most appropriate time to be coming together to discuss the pathway forwards self-determination.

On Monday, we celebrated the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

This is a day when across the globe, we come together to focus on the progress we have achieved, in creating solutions in such areas as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development.

A key component of the global strategy is the desire to strengthen international co-operation in our pursuit of strategies to advance development opportunities for indigenous people.

This year, our celebration has been particularly important.

I was so proud to stand alongside my colleague, Pita Sharples, in New York, just four months ago, to witness history in the making as he told the world that we had reversed previous decisions on accepting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

New Zealand refused to stand alongside the 143 countries of the world who signed the Declaration in September 2007.

The concern of the former Labour Government – and the Governments of Australia, America and Canada – centred on eight words and they were in Article three and state:

Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination.

The hub of the concern seemed to be the potential for the meaning of self-determination to be manipulated to absolutely favour the indigenous people at the expense of the majority.

And yet the Declaration itself is pretty straight up about what self-determination means.

It tells us that “By virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.

So what does it mean to be self-determining in a health context?

I have to say that when I thought about this hui today – and I knew there would be nurses, hauora providers, community and support workers, social workers, and a vast range of health professionals there – that two stories came to mind about different episodes I’ve been involved in which we might think of in the pathway to self-determination.

To all extents and purposes I thought I was being self-determining, -or my family thought they were - freely pursuing the best course of action that was supposedly for my own personal health and wellbeing.

- The case of the root-canal that wasn’t

- The carbuncle and the shotgun pellet

I am not sure that my uncle thought about being self determining when he provided me (under the influence) with his answer to my problem. And I suppose I was self-determining when I just hung out for the white man’s medicine.!!

But let me take a trip back to our own stories of self-determination, in our meaning and adherence to the concept of tino rangatiratanga.

I remember a paper by a woman of Ngati Whakaue and Ngati Awa descent, Petina Winiata.

This was a paper entitled Leaders are made not just born.

In the context of this paper however, Petina was referring to the experiences she was privy to as being born into whakapapa of Ngäti Raukawa, Ngäti Toarangatira, Te Äti Awa descent – and specifically the vision of Whakatupuranga Rua Mano; a tribal development plan with a 25 year horizon.

In the paper Petina challenged the notion of rangatiratanga as being synonymous with what Pakeha communities might define as leadership. She drew on three statements about rangatiratanga attributed to Bishop Manuhuia Bennett.

- Te kai a te rangatira, he korero: The food of a rangatira is talk

- Te tohu o te rangatira, he manaaki: The sign of a rangatira is generosity

- Te mahi a te rangatira, he whakatira i te iwi : The work of a rangatira is to unite the people

Out of these three statements, it is probably only the last one that fits with a definition of a rangatira as a leader.

Rangatiratanga, then, takes on a much broader meaning, which brings into it the notions of collective responsibility; the generosity of spirit which is about the best interests of the people.

Central to the understanding of rangatiratanga is the concept of oversight, responsibility, authority, control, sovereignty.

But the key is in the collective.

And so I come back to the carbuncle and the root canal.

Sometimes, in the misguided belief that we know best, we take on the phrase, “physician heal thyself” too literally, and think that what we have always done is the only way to go.

I believe what the challenge for self-determination is all about what Bob Marley sang about, namely to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.

And there is no better benchmark than to look at the difference in life expectancy between Maori and non-Maori. Can we truly be satisfied that while non-Maori males have a life expectancy at birth of 79 years, for Maori it is only 70.4? Or that while non-Maori females enjoy an independent life expectancy of 83 years, for Maori the rate is just 75.1?

All of you here will have the detail around Maori over-representation in poor health outcomes, such as the increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, type two diabetes, cancers and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

And I know that over these two days there have been others who have talked about the relationship of other factors which affect and are affected by health outcomes – the physical and social environment, the availability of health services, the interaction between socio-economic indicators such as low incomes, poor housing, and unemployment.

But there was another focus throughout this hui – given particular emphasis in the presentations by Professor Margaret Mutu and John Tamihere – and that is the promotion of Whanau Ora.

I believe that at the very heart of Whanau Ora is the practice and philosophy of tino rangatiratanga. It is our own grass roots oranga in practice.

Whanau Ora is not about a reliance on the things we have always done just because we have – slapping the bread poultice on to bring the boil to a head.

We have had enough of departments telling us how we can “strengthen families” or “close the gaps” out of the wisdom of their Wellington offices.

Rangatiratanga is about the process as much as it is about the practice.

It is about the korero– coming together as we do today, to share best practice, to work out solutions which are for the very best for the people.

Rangatiratanga is all about the collective. It’s not about an individual deciding on an individual course of action on their own; that self-determination means determining a future only for one self.

I think of Maria Tini and her efforts at being comfortable with her cancer. She found the hot stone beds worked for her, it made her feel better just as it has for others.

I think of the many people who want to go home instead of being in hospital. Why? Because they believe that that is best for them.

Something I am reminded of every fortnight when I go for my regular mirimiri is that some people actually know yourself much better than you think you do – they can pick up the stress and read your situation without even a word being spoken. I say I have sore legs, she says, you have a back strain! I say I have sore shoulders from sitting down most of the day in Parliament and meetings, she says you are stressed!

It’s that notion of manaakitanga – doing things which reflect our concern for others, acting in ways which are mana enhancing of each other.

These broader meanings of rangatiratanga – the pursuit of collective wellbeing; the emphasis on korero and on reaching consensus; the application of manaakitanga – are what we must rely on as we negotiate the rapidly changing health environment.

The concerted drive to encourage providers to collaborate, to come together in the best interests of the population, should be approached with a view to what will work best for Maori.

Over centuries, the Maori worldview has been demonstrated in the determination of the people to survive with our tikanga intact.

We have the means within our own Maori methodologies to maintain and strengthen our own culture and traditions, to best deliver on our needs and aspirations.

Contrary to my uncle’s belief, I don’t think shotgun pellets were ever part of our traditional remedies.

We must be able to take advantage of any advances that can assist us in improving health outcomes – it should not be a case of either/or – but we must also uphold our values and the tikanga that guide us in making decisions for the best interests of the people.

We want to ensure full and effective participation in all matters that concern us – as well as upholding our rights to remain distinctive as proud and self-determining peoples, with our own aspirations for economic and social development.

This is about the best of all worlds - Te Huarahi Tika o te Tino Rangatiratanga mai i te Whakawhaungatanga kokiritia me te kotahitanga.