Author: Tina Ngata

Yesterday, like most Waitangi Days, I reflected a lot about the incredible women who have led our Tiriti justice movement over the years. I thought about the history of the movement, and pondered on the future. I spent time with my daughters, and thought about whom I want them to look up to, and who I needed to protect them from, and where I needed to focus my energy, in order to leave them a better world. I do have a Waitangi Wāhine hero, and I’m going to get to her in a moment, but we need to go on another journey first.

Curiously, I noted, many others took the opportunity to acknowledge Waitangi Day by celebrating the Prime Minister – I mean, sure, there’s lots that can be said when it’s in comparison to her forebears, but that’s probably the least appropriate day to carry that exercise out (and even less so when you appropriate Māori vernacular to do that… seriously, #ChurArdern really ain’t it, folks). Still, even all of that is vastly preferable to the tone-deaf annual drone of colonielle feminists and their monocultural stale takes on women’s speaking rights on the marae. When we cannot even click to the fact that we have no entitlement to a particular debate, we are very, very far from addressing colonial entitlement to power, or land, or water.

Waitangi is an opportunity for us to talk about challenging Treaty issues, so let’s talk colonielle oppression.

By colonielle I mean colonizer women who benefit from and exploit colonial patriarchy. They have an arsenal of tools at their manicured fingertips, including deadly tears, the camouflage of gender rights, deployment of their colonial male protectors and the manipulation of media.

Over the past week we have seen it demonstrated, as women of colour were gleefully thrown, yet again, under the bus by a white female journalist for her own ends:

MIQ has played a crucial role is keeping us alive and relatively safe from Covid, but it has also generated its own injustice, particularly for NZ citizens returning home and has, itself, become heavily politicised. So naturally, the Anti-Labourites and Anti-Ardern crowd came out strong, upholding Bellis as the white Mother Mary spurned from safe lodging. Blissfully ignorant or uncaring to the fact that she had employed time honored colonielle tactics of exploiting misogynist patriarchal power and stealing/appropriating from women of colour for her own benefit, the New Zealand commentary managed the trick of impassioned laziness, as they failed to look beyond their own cultural and political context of MIQ and PM Ardern.

And even as Afghani women such as Muzhgan Samarqandi pointed out that she is doing more harm than good, had been actively silencing their pleas, and as other eloquent writers such as Rafia Zakaria pointed out that she is employing privilege and exploiting misogyny (seriously, read those links they are very, very good)… the chorus of Bellis supporters, part political opportunist, part colonielle faux feminist, chimed together that there is NO racism at play here.

If your priority is on ‘white woman privilege’ and not the objective reality that all pregnant kiwi women face such a barrier to being able to give birth in their home, just block me

— H.Johnson (@Hjjohnsonn) February 2, 2022

Hey @kirsty_johnston if you were looking for a useful topic for your feminism podcast might I suggest “why did “progressive” feminists heap vast quantities of misogynist garbage on @CharlotteBellis instead of supporting her?” It would be a real eye opener https://t.co/tiSWq363JM

— mangereleviathan (@mangereman) January 31, 2022

Now, we need to appreciate the NZ context here. White women racism is its own genre, with its own characteristics and features (including white women feminists exploiting colonial systems that oppress non-white women, and society that protects that behaviour, and using feminism to cloak racism). Elizabeth Woolstonecraft, considered a founder of the British suffrage movement, used slavery as a metaphor to discuss the treatment of privileged white women in the UK.

How white feminists and elites appropriated slavery, and still do

It’s a chilling reminder, in this age of faux-oppression, that white supremacists co-opting victimhood is not new, and in fact has its own historical narrative.

In the USA, white women suffragettes sided with racist white female slaveowners because getting women the vote was more important than halting lynchings.

The Suffragettes Were Not Allies to Black Women, They Were Racist

This genre of racism also sits at the heart of the NZ feminist movement, with Kate Sheppard being centered as the iconic leader of NZ and the world’s feminist movement, all the while erasing that wāhine Māori held political power long before this, or that Kate Sheppard’s Christian Temperance Union applied horribly racist policy against the sacred practice of moko kauwae for Wāhine Māori, a powerful cultural attack upon the sacredness of wāhine. Even in the recent 125yr anniversary celebrations, New Zealand largely failed to grasp the opportunity to expose, and dismantle, the legacy of colonielle racism in Aotearoa, and failed to explore the colonial and Indigenous context within which the NZ suffrage movement played out (for a wonderfully articulate exploration of this truth, read this piece by Leonie Pihama or click on the poem below by the incomparable Dr Karlo Mila).

NZ is steadfastly committed to drinking its own Kool-aid when it comes to race relations. We have stitched-in blinders when it comes to convincing everyone that we are kind, and just and equitable. We are the archetypal pearl clutching, apron wringing Stepford wife of a nation, refusing to face our darkest truths and insisting, through gritted teeth, that everyone just enjoy the damn trifle. Even when we have moments of apparent insight (like the Dawn Raids apology), they are portrayed as the errors of previous era, historical transgressions that this new, shiny government can heroically make up for (even utilising the metaphor of breaking shackles), and unsurprisingly, when just weeks later that history repeats itself, it is treated as an aberration of the colonial system, not a feature.

Between New Zealands compulsive delusions about its own innocence, and the additional racist layering of white feminism, New Zealand society is ripe ground for colonielle racism, and all the while it will occur against a backdrop of “no racism to see here”.

So let’s just get clear about something:

THE MOMENT someone says a situation is “not racist” that is, in itself, a red-flag. 

Racism exists in acts, deeds, words, thoughts and policy which uphold a system of racial injustice. 

Our entire world is built off of a system of racial injustice. The global economy was borne from, and is maintained through racial injustice. The New Zealand government, which creates the system of policies that shape our lives, is premised on racist ideals of European supremacy. Those ideals are upheld today as we see Waitangi Day after Waitangi Day pass without the government ever volunteering to address the injustice of our racist, Treaty violating constitutional framework.

Treaties are tools for equity. You cannot achieve treaty justice by applying the Treaty within an inequitable system. While racism remains at the roots of our society, it will inevitably rise to the surface in implicit and explicit ways. It will be provided for in policies, protected in institutions, and enabled in individual acts and words. Even organisations such as the Race Relations Commission and Human Rights Commission are not exempt from this fact.

#SayWhattttttttt

Former Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy was advised to never use the word 'Racist' in her role. Dame Susan revealed what she learnt during her time in the job. This is all a part of the Te Ao with Moana Mana Wahine #WaitangiSpecial. pic.twitter.com/XyehQSDdkt

— Te Ao with MOANA (@TeAoWithMOANA) February 5, 2022

Racism that results in Indigenous women being targeted for harassment, for abuse, for assault, rape and murder does not just exist in the individual acts of their assailant. It exists in the justice system that fails to take their complaints seriously, it exists in the mono-dimensional media portrayals of us as promiscuous creatures, angry disrupters, poor mothers. An impossible dichotomy of undesirable brown troublemaker, or compliant and desirable native guide, but never quite the Madonna.

It is in its ubiquity that the power of racism rests. It is the systems that refuse to accept its presence, even in the face of it, which allow racism to not only be maintained but proliferate. It’s the society and organizations which always point to others but never themselves that fail to dismantle it, and permit its presence as the default experience for everyone who isn’t white. Which is why we say, in the critical theory of race, there is no such thing as “not racist”.

You are either actively exposing and addressing the ubiquitous system of racism as it appears in your organisation, through antiracist education and policy, or you are enabling racism to remain, which is racist.

Which brings us to the case of Aiomai Nuku-Tarawhiti who was followed through Farmers Tauriko by a staff member, and then profiled as “undesirable”, and told to leave.

@jayjay_petty

It’s sad that this is the reality for some of our young people, know you are loved despite the words that people may say ❤️

♬ State Lines – Novo Amor

Farmers have apparently held an investigation and the whanau have a meeting with them soon, to be mediated by the Human Rights Commission. In an email to the whānau, Farmers contested that the incident was not, in their opinion, racist.

So let’s have a closer look. 

One might suggest that being followed and called “undesirable” is in itself an objectively neutral experience, and without explicit racist intent, could not have caused racialised harm. 

Let’s take one factor off the table early: Intent

Racism is not experienced by intent. It is not about the person that did it, but rather where it lands, who experiences it, and the power relationships between them. This phenomena did not happen on a blank canvas. We have an older white woman, in a position of authority, following a young brown woman for no reason than how she “looked”, labeling her “undesirable”, implicitly accusing her of doing something wrong, or being somewhere wrong, (and explicitly looking/being wrong) and directing her to leave.

This occurs to Aiomai as a member of a people who have been unfairly judged, labeled, villianised, disempowered and displaced for generations. It occurs to her as the next generation of a long line of brown women who have been subjected to the colonial gaze as either “desirable” or “undesirable”, with equally disastrous consequences. 

It occurs against a history, passed down to Aiomai, where native women and children have been specifically targeted by a colonial project with the aim of leaving their people morally dejected, deflated, and easier to oppress.

To have applied such treatment in a way that ignores that reality, is, in itself, racist. It erases the harm that this experience creates WHEN COMBINED with the longstanding experience of being Māori in colonially racist NZ and being a young woman of colour in a racist world.

It expects her to receive that experience as if she were, in fact, white. 

There’s a certain dark poetry to this story of cotton farmers, sugar farmers, slavery, stolen land, settler colonial farmers, and a store called Farmers enabling racism toward a young wāhine Māori, literally displacing her because of her appearance. Just when you thought Farmers had reached peak-colonizer… this past Waitangi week, Tauranga Farmers managers gathered for the karakia that was offered to mark the opening of their new store. While it is of course the tradition of this whenua to open all new premises with karakia for the protection of staff and customers, it’s also a fact that colonial reliance upon Māori grace, while still being racist towards Māori, is another longstanding colonial tradition (along with guilt-laden aggression towards Māori).

So, after another Waitangi Day has passed, and we see our land is still not back, our rights to self determination remain denied, and the power systems that enable racist abuse of privilege remain, I celebrate and uplift Aiomai Nuku-Tarawhiti who is standing her ground, along with her whānau who stand by her side. Standing up to the system that has protected and enabled white women to exploit colonial power against brown women. Drawing on the long history of wāhine Māori who have held and protected this land from the time of Atua to this day, continuing a legacy carried by Whina, by Eva, by Naida, by Tariana. You see, it is not just trauma that travels through the generations, but also mana, strength, and forbearance. Aiomai is here because every generation before her survived everything colonizers had to throw.

Of course Aiomai upsets colonizers, she is the walking reminder of the failure of colonialism. Of course they feel threatened by Aiomai, she carries the force of righteousness, she carries the whakapapa of this land and when colonizers compare themselves to her, at a very deep level, they feel bad, and all they know to do, is try move her out of sight.

But she is not moving, she is a powerful wāhine and even as a rangatahi, is forcing racist colonial systems to confront themselves and for that, she is my Waitangi hero, and she should be yours, too.

After an intense few months of vaccinating, and training our whanau to be isolation support workers, and setting up a community SIQ facility, establishing a rapid antigen testing program for our community, we hit a huge milestone this weekend – we were finally able to start vaccinating our children.

This is a momentous step in our protection journey for all parents, I think, but for us in Matakaoa, with one of the highest ratios of children to adults in the country, it holds particular relevance. Let me give you a bit of background korero for you to better understand why:

Similar to covid, in 1918, influenza was imported and first experienced by Non-Maori, and then crossed over to the Maori population. When the influenza epidemic arrived in Tairawhiti district in October 1918, cases were consistently reported upon within Gisborne township, for the duration of its spread through the colonial population. There are numerous articles that testified to the way in which Gisborne residents came together to support each other through the outbreak.

Once it exhausted its colonial hosts and crossed over to the Maori population in mid to late November, the Poverty Bay Herald shifted its reporting, it returned to focusing on the war, trade, and other places where influenza was still impacting upon “the whites” (as the newspaper called it).

At this point, when influenza was mentioned in the Poverty Bay Herald, it was no longer framed as an effort for people to support each other through – rather it reported on the need, and council discussions, to ban Maori from entering the township.

This is a well known part of our pandemic history, and it is echoed in our experience today. Infectious diseases imported by non-Maori, with media and government calling for a “team effort” by everyone, but with impacts upon Maori being under-reported, and eventually with Maori being blamed. In fact were it not for the work of Rawiri Taonui, it’s unlikely that the disproportionate nature of the infections, hospitalisations and deaths would have been picked up or highlighted at all. No other media outlet has pointed out that within the last month there have been “zero Pakeha infection” days in the current outbreak.

Even today, if you read the official figures for Maori loss over that time, the numbers are nowhere near what we as Maori know them to be. The Gisborne Herald just recently reported that 160 died in our district in 1918, and the NZ History website reports that there were no recorded deaths in Waiapu County, and 11 Maori deaths reported across Cook County. If you look to the Maori newspapers of the time, they tell a very different story: thousands of Maori lost, and hundreds of Maori children laid upon just the one marae alone, here in Wharekahika. We have numerous mass burial sites dotted along our small section of coastline, from typhoid, from smallpox, from influenza. At least one of them is dedicated to children, alone.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that so much loss can have on a people – but still, our tipuna were determined that we not forget what has happened. The photos of those lost still hang in our wharenui, babies in beautiful crisp white christening gowns, children in attire of the day. The names Materoa (the great loss), Mamaeroa (the long grief) were re-embedded into our family lines, laments were composed, all so that we would not forget, and would not allow it to happen again.

And this has been our commitment, to our elders and our tipuna, that we would not allow this to happen again, not to our people, and certainly not to our children. We already know that we have disproportionate levels of child asthma and rheumatic fever in our region, and some of the poorest access to health services in the country. We don’t need modelers to know that it will not bode well for our children. It’s for this reason that we have, like the government, gone hard and gone early to prevent Covid coming to our region.  For this reason, I have pushed hard for supported conversations for Maori parents to ask the questions they need, and when they are ready, for priority access to vaccines for tamariki Maori. It’s for all of these reasons, a number of us have been working hard to ensure that tamariki Maori, who hold higher rates of respiratory illness, diabetes and rheumatic fever, are not left til last as many of their parents were in the Covid vaccine rollout.

Just like before, longer, and more indepth conversations will be required for Maori parents to feel comfortable about vaccinating their children – and to avoid Maori being blamed and in particular Maori parents being blamed. These conversations need to be supported, and held in a context that appreciates the journey we have been through as a people. As we gathered on Saturday morning to say our karakia for the commencement of child vaccinations in our community, I looked up at children’s burial site that overlooks our community and I thought of them all – those we have lost in past generations, who never had this opportunity of a vaccine, and gave thanks to all those involved in keeping us safe til we could get to this point, and all of those who have been involved in us being able to protect our babies now.

Heoi ano, after a long wait – what feels for some of us like the longest wait – our children can now be vaccinated, and in spite of whatever else could have been done, there are still things that we, ourselves, can do to prepare our children for their vaccination. I’ll leave us with these recommendations, built from amazing conversations with health experts as well as our incredible and inspirational community covid response team (all mothers and grandmothers ourselves). Have a wonderful sacred week, everyone, as we embark on this, most precious and special step in our nation’s journey of protection. Kia kaha tatou katoa xx

Supporting your children’s vaccination journey:

For planners of clinics:

1. Some whānau want to be done together. Have adult doses ready for parents/grandparents.
2. Children pick up on fear/nerves. Provide loads of opportunities for parents to ask their questions of experts BEFOREHAND (you might want to consider group Q&A sessions with GPs/experts or even one on one sessions if parents request them). They need to be calm & confident on the day for their child. Have clinically approved advice handouts for planning staff to pass on to parents when clinical staff are not available so the advice is consistent and correct.
3. Recommend to your community BOOKING in for child imms, and if possible call the parents the day before to check if they have any other questions about the imms and that they understand what to look out for afterwards, and the nature of normal after-effects.
4. Similarly if you can, go with Wellchild/Tamariki Ora nurses. They’re already familiar with child imms techniques, and may also be familiar with the children (ours is). More confident nurses make for calmer child patients.
5. Have a whanau-friendly space set aside for child observations. Coloring in resources, movie space, tamariki friendly kai, music, and a celebratory atmosphere for them.
6. Follow up with a phonecall in the next day or so if you can. Check in on how the children are doing, reassure parents for the expected aftereffects and remind them of when their children’s second vaccination will be due, and how to book it.

Parents:

1. Have lots of discussions with children in the lead up. Frame it positively, they’re helping everyone be protected, a part of the kaitiaki team just like Mummy & Daddy.
2. Be honest about it hurting (I pinched her quickly to show how fast it passes) Plan a postvaxx treat.
3. Be prepared for the next couply days after vaccination. Lethargy, sore arm, slight fever, headaches, generally blah are all normal after effects. Have pamol, water bottles, movies, blankies, games, treats ready and plan to be available for extra attention and cuddles.
4. Ask all you have to ask before the day, so you can cede all Q&A space to your child ON the day. Let them ask all the questions, you’re there to support.
5. Carefully consider your child’s exposure to antivaxx content. This includes their online time & yours (especially when posting vaccination photos and most especially when children are able to see and read the responses). Antivaxx narratives regarding children are particularly nasty so be proactive & vigilant in your online protection of your tamariki.
6. Check in with your child over the following days and talk about what is happening inside their body in an age-appropriate way. For my 5 and 7 year old we discussed how the vaccine is now teaching their tinana how to block and punch the virus (just like The Karate Kid which is one of their fave movies), and even though it might not feel like it, that’s a lot of learning going on which is why they can sometimes feel tired. Reassure them that some after effects are normal (sore arm, feeling tired, a slight fever or headache), and of course don’t be shy to go to the doctors if there are more concerning symptoms like difficulty breathing or a sore chest. Here is some information about side effects that you need to take into consideration.
7. Again, take the time to check out trusted, reliable sources. Protect Our Whakapapa and Te Roopu Whakakaupapa Uruta are great starting points for your journey towards making a good, informed decision about your child’s vaccination.
   
   Below are some clips from a recent parents’ Q&A session we held online with health professionals (Health Researcher Dr Donna Cormack, GPs Dr Rachel Thomson and Dr Rawiri Jansen, and Starship Hospital Pediatrician Dr Jin Russell).
   

So I want to paint a picture for you. I will use a brush of numbers, and a brush of maps, and a brush of storytelling, and we will paint a vignette. But first, a little Covid101.

Vaccinations are the strongest tool to protect yourself, but they are not the only tool, and it’s important we understand that. Being vaccinated does not mean you don’t have to wear a mask. Being vaccinated does not mean to stop social distancing. Being vaccinated does not mean complete freedom of movement.

There are such things as “breakthrough infections”. Amongst healthy populations they are very rare. But there are things that make them more likely to happen. Those things include:

• Living in a crowded situation with a covid positive case (because of the constant exposure in closed quarters as opposed to brief contact outdoors or elsewhere).
• Having low immunity to start with. This means that while the vaccine has BOOSTED your immunity, it will not be at the same level of a double vaccinated person with standard. immunity levels. This includes whanau who have had treatment for things like an organ transplant, or chemotherapy that has lowered their immunity, or whanau who might have been born with a condition that makes their immunity low.

Secondly, the vaccine helps your body to fight the virus so you will more likely get better. But also, there are some health conditions that, even with double vaccinations, you may still get very sick.

For all of these situations, and reasons, it’s important that as many people get vaccinated as possible. The best protection for those that can’t vaccinate (like children under 12) and for those with weak immunity, is that everyone around them is vaccinated and forms a protective bubble around them. As I write this, about 20% of the current outbreak are under 12 – that’s well over 1000 children. Mainly tamariki Maori. The other thing that’s incredibly important to do is work through an isolation plan for your whānau/household, and try really hard to reduce exposure to those that are not vaccinated, or immune compromised, or have health conditions.

Some of those health conditions are:

• Cancer
• Chronic kidney disease
• Chronic lung diseases including regular bronchiolitis, asthma, cystic fibrosis
• Heart conditions including heart disease, coronary artery disease, and high blood pressure
• Diabetes type 1 and 2
• Smoking
• Addiction
• Dementia
• Obesity

Ok so – early summary:

• Vaccinations are the strongest protection
• Vaccinations ALONE don’t keep us safe
• You are still high risk from crowded housing and low immunity
• You are also high risk of severe covid if you have certain health conditions.

But enough with numbers and tables…. let’s consider a scenario to play out what these facts mean for an average household in the East Cape.

Riripeti is a 35 year old mother, her whānau call her Riri. She has a 5 year old, a 14 year old and a 15 year old. The 5 year old had bronchiolitis when they were 2 and has mild asthma. Her partner works in forestry. They live in the whanau homestead here, somewhere between Wharekahika and Potaka… it’s a modest but well kept homestead, built in the 50s. One bathroom one toilet, 3 bedrooms. Their 17 year old nephew lives with them, sleeps on the couch. They are all double vaxxed.

Riri is also asthmatic.

14 year old contracts covid at school and brings it home. They can’t isolate away from her because they only have the one bathroom, and of course Riri wants to take care of her 14 yr old baby, so the whole family has to isolate. Her partner is hesitant to stay home because there were just 500 job losses in the forestry industry and he doesn’t want to lose his job – he’s stressed at having to isolate. The 14 year old, because they are vaccinated and young and healthy, has a rough time but recovers after 10 days and gets the all clear to stop isolating at 14 days, but then Riri tests positive, and because she is asthmatic, she deteriorates fast. At 10am she was able to talk. At 10.30am she is struggling to breathe and they call 111. The ambulance takes 20minutes to get to her and 3 hours to get her to town alone and she is barely alive at that point (in fact it’s a miracle she makes it there). The entire household clock resets to 14 days again, even though she is transferred out.

The damage from the time it took to get Riri to hospital means she needs ICU but there are only 2 beds, both full in Gisborne hospital but there is a spare one, free, for 7 days in another district. The hospital barely manage to keep her alive long enough to transfer her again to fight for her life in another district, alone. The family are notified of the transfer after it happened because the staff are too busy to call and the decision to save her life is too urgent.

The father and the 5 year old now test positive and you have a covid positive parent looking after a very sick covid positive child, and of course the clock resets itself again for the remaining household members. the 5 year old also needs ICU. There are only 15 staffed child ICU units in the country, all in Auckland.

Here are the fathers choices:

1. Allow his 5 year child to be transferred to Auckland by herself for ICU treatment (if it’s available)
2. Allow his 5 year old child to be transferred to Hawkes Bay ICU where there is one available, not sure about how long for though.
3. Keep his child at home with him where, if she also deteriorates, she will probably not make it to hospital in time, and will not be able to access ICU.

The father thankfully recovers because he is also healthy and vaccinated, the 17 year old nephew catches it last which resets them for another 14 days but he also recovers because he is vaccinated. By now that one house has had to isolate for 70 days. Nobody in, nobody out.

Over that time, who is delivering their kai? Who is delivering their medicine? Their watertank runs out…. who is arranging a refill? Who is feeding or moving their animals? Who is taking care of income? Physically they are fine, but the 17 year old is now suffering depression, and the father has lost his job and is also severely depressed, and the 11 year old daughter is now carrying the whānau – and they can’t reach anyone to find out about Riri.

Their living situation is not an uncommon living situation, or health profile, where we are in the East Cape. Now take this situation and multiply it by hundreds. Consider what this means for single parents. Consider what this means for grandparents looking after multiple mokopuna under 12.

Maybe it’s not asthma, maybe it’s diabetes, or obesity, or heart disease, or maybe they beat cancer a few years back with help of drugs which worked, but lowered their immunity. All of these things mean that although you are MUCH safer than if you had no vaccination, you still don’t have 95% protection. If you are in close living quarters, you can halve that protection again.

That is for vaccinated.

The lowest protections and worst outcomes of all sit around whanau who are unvaccinated, and lower immunity, and underlying health conditions, and are living in crowded situations, and we still have too many unvaccinated in Ngāti Porou

We have very high rates of asthma, of diabetes, of heart disease. We have people who have had or are on immune suppressing treatment. We have over-crowding. If you look at these maps, you can see – in all of the covid risk factors, places like Tairawhiti and Tai Tokerau, even with vaccinations, are still very high risk (source: MOH).

I could keep putting maps up for all of the risk factors – cancer, addiction, kidney disease and you would see the same, consistently that eastern tip is dark.

Now to add to these health factors, consider the following maps which focus on housing deprivation (overcrowding, damp homes, and homes without all amenities); and travel distance to a hospital:

Can you see now why the picture I painted above is not just a story of one, but many whānau where I live? I say this because I need us all to understand that we have to do everything we can, even with vaccination, to keep our whānau safe. It really will take all of us as a community to protect each other, with masks, with distancing, and with courage to make strong calls about things like holidays, about gatherings, about visiting. We are going to have to dig deep to avoid the deeply tragic scenario above playing out again, and again.

I know, already that there will be those that will come here for summer anyway. They are already here. Our campervan parks are already full. Hotels might not have vaccine mandates but they are asking people for their vaccine passport when they take bookings anyway. Consequently, unvaccinated tourists are flocking to campgrounds in rurally isolated regions. One tourist from New Plymouth was laughing at my cousin last week who was fishing and wearing a mask. When my cousin asked him what brought him here to the East Cape he replied “nobody else would take us”.

We are doing everything we can as a community to prepare. We are working hard to vaccinate. We are putting together home isolation plans. It will take a lot of community volunteer hours just to keep our community safe, even with vaccinations (but especially for those that are not). We cannot afford to wrap our limited health resources around visitors as well, at the expense of our own people.

So I need to know from you…

If you are here camping on our beach, 5 hours away from any health service, and you carry an infection you picked up from the petrol station you stopped at 2 days ago, and spread it in my community….

1. Are you expecting all of the volunteer community hours going into supporting our own community to isolate at home, to then wrap around you??? Who then looks after our whanau here? Are you expecting us to volunteer to look after you when you walked away from a fully resourced health service whereever you normally live??

2. Who is going to transport you to hospital and to which hospital? The one with only 2 icu beds? Our whānau will be more likely to decline fast bc of the diabetes, rheumatic fever, heart disease and poor housing. You’ve just spread it in our community, but you get the ICU bed?

3. If you are willing to return home, HOW will we get you home without leaving a wake of infections in your path?

Every year, our population swells to 3 or more times its normal size, from tourists. That terrifies me when I consider how hard it is for us to plan to just look after our own whānau, and how hard we are working to stop them from getting infected too. I don’t think any of those people travelling here think that they individually are a risk. They don’t seem to realise that from where we are standing, anxiously watching them drive past us, they are just one of hundreds of others we have seen that week, and that for us, that risk is cumulative. That for us, that risk is severe. Or maybe they do, and they don’t care, because for them, we are just somewhere to use for an escape. I hope not… I hope you care. I hope you care enough, to wait just one more summer.

Noho haumaru, noho ora ra.

As the vaccination efforts for our people progress, and access to vaccines for those who want them improves – the discussions are shifting, on all sides of the vaccination debate – and to be honest, I think they probably need to.

In some ways, those shifts are problematic. Certainly we are seeing the debate become increasingly dangerous and heated. The government’s shift to the language of “personal responsibility” is troubling and understandably many feel that this is merely the government seeking to recuse themselves of accountability for a vaccine sequence that placed the majority of the Maori population in Group 4, initiated at the national level with mainstream messaging, was infrastructurally designed to privilege mainstream health providers, and so unsurprisingly delivered first and foremost to mainstream populations.

Before you come at me with the “Maori have always had access and the messaging has always been there for Maori” (as indeed the language of personal responsibility implies) – no we have not, and we still do not. There are still pockets of the country where people have to travel extraordinary distances, past clinics who don’t vaccinate, in order to access these services. There are still services who are struggling to get through the complex vaccine accreditation system in order to be able to do this work, and many DHBs are clunky, ineffective machines for being able to adapt to support these services. Maori messaging about vaccinations (including ours) have made inroads but have also, at a national level, come too late and are uni-directional. They generally don’t allow for conversations or one-to-one questions. Too often whanau are told “go and ask your GP” but for isolated communities, you might not have a GP available for weeks at a time, and then they’re only available when you are at work – and the boss will hardly give you a day off just to go and talk with a GP when there’s nothing wrong with you. This is also assuming that you have $35 spare to talk with a GP. Maori specific risk was not highlighted from the beginning, because Maori specific statistics were not provided from the beginning. We relied upon the likes of Dr Rawiri Taonui to carry out a lot of that analysis (which he has done so voluntarily and diligently since the first lockdown in 2020). Maori MPs have rarely fronted the pressers. Maori medical professionals have been either sidelined or their expertise ignored. I could go on but there are a myriad of ways in which the specific risk to Maori populations has not been met with adequate policies.

So in the face of that kind of inequity, languaging of personal responsibility is deeply problematic. It seeks to set a context for where some will, actually, be left behind. It assumes that those who still have questions, or have been exposed to either poorly held conversations (ie good information but presented in a way that is blaming, shaming or condemning) or misinformation (wrong information but without bad intentions) or indeed disinformation (deliberately wrong information) – are all in the same boat, and that all that could have been done to support their journey, has been done.

This is simply not the case, and it’s being demonstrated as such in many places around the country.

What we have seen in our small clinics that we have run is that when whanau are able to come in, without pressure of being vaccinated, but can ask a Maori health professional directly about the facts, that they will often carry on to get vaccinated. This week, in Taneatua, Marama Stewart held an inspiration “Cool to Kōrero” session which brought in Māori doctors to have free, accessible one on one sessions with whānau to ask their questions in a private setting – and it was incredibly effective.

Mean Tāneatua mean! "It's Cool to Kōrero" event put on today at the kura for our community to come and have a chat to Māori doctors and nurses about vaccinations. Pīki mihi ki a @Marama nāna i whakatū tēnei kaupapa whakahirahira pic.twitter.com/98zNbynrQ1

— Aunty Hōhā (@fuck_lupus) November 4, 2021

After today I don't think low rates are due to lack on access, I think it is due to lack of connection. #MāoriDoctors #Whakapapa pic.twitter.com/iWhafFr1VT

— Mārama Stewart (@Marama) November 4, 2021

The sequencing of the vaccine rollout means that our people have been exposed to misinformation and disinformation for much longer, and in a context (pre-vaccine access) that contributes to their vaccine uptake decisions. Now reconsider what “personal responsibility” means. We have to do a lot of work now to combat misinformation – and we are getting very little support while we are at it. In nations overseas, misinformation education is embedded in the curriculum from a very young age. In Aotearoa – we have to pretty much find our own way through this mess, and it’s dividing communities.

There are many implications for that, in addition to the whanau who are at increased health risk from being influenced by misinformation. It means Maori have to work twice as hard, and be twice as visible, to combat the issue. That means Maori who are working to protect their communities from covid, and those who are also combatting misinformation or even basic sovereignty that doesn’t align with the misinformation movement – are being subjected to threats, harassment, abuse, and acts of violence. It also means relationships within Maori communities are being increasingly strained, and in some cases, snapped. Right now across the motu heartwrenching discussions are taking place within hapu, iwi, marae, and whanau about how to navigate spaces safely with unvaccinated and vaccinated relations. Whakapapa is everything. The thought that it could be placed at risk by infection upon the marae is untenable. The thought that it could be impacted by turning whanau away who have chosen not to vaccinate, is also untenable. We must protect our communities, yes, but we must also, in all of this, strive to protect our relationships.

In addition to this quandry, we have the very urgent planning right now for covid in the community. We need to provide for our whanau who are going to get very sick. The realities we have been seeing on the news in other countries, will soon be in our own communities, and if our whanau are very sick in their homes, and cannot access a hospital, then we will need to care for them – vaccinated or unvaccinated. In fact, what the science and experience is showing us, those who will need support the most, when the hospitals can take no more, will be those who are unvaccinated and potentially, feeling the least like they can now reach out for help.

We can’t have that happen. We need to work hard on some tools that can help us to protect our relationships and our sense of community so that we can truly protect our actual communities – I consider all of these to be critical tools for rangatiratanga.

FORGIVENESS

I don’t have all the answers, and in fact all of us are learning as we go, getting frustrated with each  other, needing to step back and then step back into our relationships again. Much of it is new ground for us all to navigate so I guess the first thing I want to say is… we really need to exercise our forgiveness muscle. Not just of each other, but of ourselves too. This isn’t something we have had to deal with in our lifetimes – it was never, ever going to be an easy journey. No matter where your opinion lies, the stakes are huge, and that’s why people feel so strongly. Without getting into the relative morals of whether it’s justifiable to hold an unvaccinated, unmasked protest in a pandemic, or whether it’s ok to call people who do that (as a response to colonial trauma) stupid or uncaring – we need to be ready to forgive ourselves for the things we might say, and forgive each other for the things we say, in what is essentially a long, drawn out, and increasingly heated argument.

GRACE

If you want someone to really consider what you are saying, and have a change of heart, you need to try and create the context for them to do that. It’s ok to have different opinions of course – but when people feel attacked or threatened, they are much more likely to simply entrench their position, and identify you as an enemy. All of our whanau need space to be able to reconsider how they feel about something, and this happens a lot more when you allow them the space to do that.  This doesn’t mean you have to accept acts that are harmful, in fact its right to point out the harm of someone’s actions. But we need to try and be mindful of how we do that, and mindful of whether we are making it more, or less likely for that person to feel like there is a pathway back for them from the position they have taken. We must accept that those who decide to get vaccinated, and want others to, are not necessarily our enemy who endorses the state, but are just doing what they think is the best thing to keep the people they love, alive. Similarly, those who do not want to be vaccinated may well be operating from a space of genuine concern for their own wellbeing, and genuine concern for the wellbeing of the community and the erosion of community rights. If we can at least accept that it’s not simply a case of us being each others enemies, but rather different ideas of what love and concern for ourselves and our community look like, we are on much better footing.

SELF DETERMINATION (binaries are fake)

Arguably forgiveness and grace could both sit under this theme as characteristics of rangatiratanga anyway, but there is another distinct aspect of rangatiratanga that I want to address: that of self-determination.

Increasingly, this discussion is becoming polarized, and turned into a binary argument.

If you are pro-vaxx, you must be pro-government

If you are anti-vaxx, you must be anti-community

If you are pro-mandate, you must be anti-choice

If you are not pro-choice, you must be anti-human rights

In fact none of these are necessarily true and we have to be very wary of black and white arguments that suggest “if you are A then you must also be B”.

M served this one up to his anti-vax sister with zero prompting from me and gosh he writes nicely. pic.twitter.com/U2vVbgd4Gi

— Captain Rainbow Princess Unicorn (@mycaptainplush) October 31, 2021

It is very, very easy to erase important aspects of someone’s argument and reduce it down to a simple wrong-right position, to suit your agenda. White supremacist movements have relied upon this tactic for a long time to recruit others onto their cause, and it’s working very effectively here in Aotearoa. Rangatiratanga calls upon us to recognize our own distinct pathway through a situation. Yes we oppose a colonial government whose very existence violates the Treaty upon which its very existence rests…. but rangatiratanga does not mean taking the opposite position of the government for the sake of it. That, perversely, still leaves our fate in the hands of government.

Rangatiratanga calls us to strategically assess each situation as it arises, and, utilizing our own experts and leaders that we have prepared for just these situations, consider our allies and responses accordingly, to meet our best interests. Particularly when we choose our allies, we must be strategic, for not everyone else who opposes government is our ally. There is a concept called entryism, where people of one movement adhere themselves to another movement, enter it, and then seek to use that movement for their own agenda – and again, white supremacists are excellent at this. They will enter a movement, create a binary opposition (“they are evil/corrupt, we are pure and good”), and seek to establish a situation that suggests either we are with them, or against them – and it is splitting communities and families apart. A clear red flag for this is the “divide and rule” line. Yes it is true that a people divided are easier to rule, however disagreement does not need to mean division, and it is very common now to hear people saying “you’re allowing them to divide us” when what is actually happening is a matter of disagreement. If we can try to exercise some grace in the conversation, and put the rhetoric of both government and other groups to the side, then we will be much more equipped to determine the course of action for ourselves, regardless of whether the government agrees with us or not.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

While it’s easy to say “we have to make our own decisions based on our own best interests” – in the information age, it is very, very easy to be deliberately confused about what is in our best interests. Manipulative recruitment is an art that has been refined and sophisticated over time, and it has been supercharged by the internet. We are OFTEN hearing terms like “do your research” and “check the science” but the crucial research skills of critical analysis are sorely lacking. Now I’m the first to admit, science and academia are racist, elitist, colonial machines that have a lot of decolonization work within themselves to do (and it’s also true that they can produce an abundance of important, valid work as well). At the same time, our ancestors have always scrutinized, and analyzed, narratives to seek our own pathway and take our own independent positions. This brings us back to the fact that the skills of critical analysis to combat misinformation and disinformation are sorely under-resourced in Aotearoa. While our education system plays catch up, we can also develop our own, and I implore educators to do so.

Here are a few bilingual tools for critically analyzing information, created by myself alongside our local collective of Te Reo Māori and storytelling collective, Ngā Marae Kāinga o Matakāoa. They are not foolproof – but they are a simple surface level set of tools that can help us to interrogate and filter out potential misinformation. Everyone can use these tools, regardless of their political leaning, to help critically analyse information in front of them. The tool is called RATA, an acronym:

Māori: Rongonui, Arotau, Tika, Aromatawai
English: Reputable, Accurate, Timely, Accountable

In assessing the information in front of you, it’s important to ask questions like:
– Do I know who is even writing this article?
– Are they qualified to make the statements they are making?
– Does this work build upon and align to what the vast majority of research in this area says, and if it doesn’t then does it explain why it is so different in its findings?
– If it is experimental research, is it the most recent research available, or has it been cherrypicked from old research (that is no longer relevant). *nb this does not apply to deliberately historical research.
– If the person writing this article is spreading false information, is there any accountability for them? Do they belong to an organisation, or alliance, that guarantees a standard of practice/information?

Artwork by Wahapeka Ngātai-Melbourne, translations by Pōhatu Poutu.

Te Reo Māori full size downloads:

English version fullsize downloads:

These tools should ideally be used together, and can also be combined with other critical analysis skills like argument fallacies:
(Infographic developed by Artists For Education)

These are all very helpful skills to exercise when we are engaging in information being put in front of us – hopefully, with this mix of the very practical tools of analysing information, applied with grace, and forgiveness for ourselves and each other, we can navigate our pathway in a way that is truly self-determining. More importantly – I really hope, that in some way, these tools can also help us to recover some of the kotahitanga that we need to make it through this together.

Discussions for whānau, hapū, marae, and kura

Covid is on the way. Our vaccination rates aren’t yet what they need to be, and while quite a few communities (like ours) are pulling out all stops to do what we can to raise the vaccination rates, in the meantime, there are some urgent discussions and plans that we need to carry out, at a community level.

WARNING: These are taumaha (heavy) discussions. They are not pleasant, and for some they might be fearful, but they are important, and for many others, they are discussions that bring some level of comfort because they enable us to prepare.

I’ve been getting a lot of requests from different sectors asking me what we should be considering, and it appears there is little guidance out there. Just to remind people: I’M NOT A COVID EXPERT. But I am a researcher, and have a valued network of qualified, independent experts who I trust. We are holding some of these discussions at a community level right now, and so I’m going to share with you what some of these discussions look like.

I’m going to mention the word vaccinate often. That’s because the absolute best prevention measure is to vaccinate. The proof of that is quite simple: it’s in the percentage of positive cases that are unvaccinated:

The most heartbreaking of those lines, for me, is the Under 12 line who did not have a choice whether to vaccinate or not. Every time somebody says it’s about personal choice, I think about them.

These considerations are in three sections: Whānau planning; Hapū planning; and Kura planning
WHĀNAU PLANNING

1. Vaccinate.
   
2. If you have children in your household that are too young to vaccinate, or whanau who are not able to vaccinate for medical reasons, then consider how you need to protect them. You might want to consider letting people around you know that you have people in your household who do not have the choice to vaccinate, and because the best way to protect them is to ensure everyone AROUND them is vaccinated, then you are only accepting vaccinated visitors.

3. Plan for covid care. If you have unvaccinated whānau in your household, or in the rare instance of a “breakthrough” infection, it is likely you will have to isolate at home. You should have a plan ready that can be actioned as soon as one of you tests positive. You should be ready to isolate immediately, ideally have the positive person isolate from the rest of the household, the rest of the household will need to be tested. If you are lucky enough to have not had it transmitted inside your household, then you can prevent it by having ONE person only tend to the covid patient’s needs.

You might want to consider the following:

• What kind of care does a covid patient require?
  • consider addiction needs, appropriate dietary needs, hydration needs, countertop medicine that can help to relieve some of the symptoms like fever
• Do you have a space where they can safely isolate at home away from the rest of the household?
• What childcare arrangements will you need to make if you are a primary parent and fall ill with covid?
• Do we have reliable access to clean drinking water?
• Is your home/the isolation space well ventilated, dry, warm?
  • Ventilation is important – it is better to have a ventilated room with blankets and warm clothes than an unventilated room.
  • Try to keep your surroundings to a standard that would help anyone get better from the flu (ie minimise condensation, damp and mould).
  • Consider investing in an air purifier with a HEPA filter. These can be expensive…. if you are on a benefit then you might want to consider talking with your doctor about a referral for your case manager. Especially if you have unvaccinated children or are on a health and disability benefit. Consider contacting a benefit advisory/advocacy service like BAIS who can advocate on your behalf or advise you on accessing these.
  • If you cannot source a purifer for whatever reason, then keeping the room ventilated with fresh air can also be achieved by having a window open, with a fan facing the window.
• Do you have reliable access to a support person if you urgently need something purchased and delivered?
• Consider investing in an oximeter – they can help you to measure oxygen levels and pulse rate to monitor your patient (in some cases you may be able to access one through your DHB. If you are on a benefit then speak to your case manager about purchasing one as a health requirement).

• Here is a link to the NZ resuscitation council guidelines on covid and resuscitation.
• Do you have an advance care plan organized so people are clear about your wishes for health care, resuscitation and other decisions if you are unable to communicate? Here is a link to the Health Quality & Safety Commission NZ guide for advance care planning.
• Here is a link to the live document developed by @jenene (Jenene Crossan) which outlines helpful equipment to have at home while healing from covid. (NB it is NOT medical advice it is a list of equipment that covid patients have self-reported as helpful/necessary while they were recovering . PLEASE check with a clinical specialist)

COVID HOME MANAGEMENT KIT ideas! I'll keep adding to it as suggestions roll in. Happy to answer questions. This does NOT constitute medical advice. This is crowd sourced from NZ Covid patients who have been through it. Please get vaccinated. Please RT https://t.co/WtxwuCyokK

— Jenene Crossan (@Jenene) October 25, 2021

4. If a member of your whānau/household is:
– A minitā/tohunga
– A pou kōrero/pou karanga
– Undertaker
– In a role to do with caring for tūpāpaku or supporting grieving whānau
How might you support them for the increased level of work that may be ahead of them? People in these positions often have a “N-yes” challenge (they wind up saying yes even when they want to say no). Can you nominate someone to monitor the demands on their time and energy, and step in when necessary? Do they need a checklist of covid-safety requirements to keep themselves safe in carrying out their duties? What are the safety precautions they need to take when coming home from their mahi, in order to keep the household safe? Can anyone else be trained to share the load?

Here is another wonderful resource to help you consider what you need to do as a whānau to be prepared:

HAPŪ PLANNING

1. Vaccinate
   
2. Vaccinations and quality information are vital tools in combatting covid at a community level, but the best strategy is a “whole of cake” strategy…. the safest community is a community that is well informed, well vaccinated, and well masked. None of these tools are as effective as all of these tools together. (Note contact tracing may be getting phased out as the positive case numbers get out of hand, but it’s still a good idea to ask people locally if they have been to a location or region of interest).
3. How will you deal with the pouri of mass loss in your community? What are the provisions available to you to deal with whānau in distress, or indeed numerous whānau in distress, or an entire community in distress over a sustained period? Do you have access to quality kaiawhina in this area? What role could pure, karakia, waiata, māramataka, kōrero pūrākau play in the healing of the mamae ahead?
4. What are your plans for your marae? Will you stay closed? Will you have conditions for how to operate when open?
   
   Rapid antigen and saliva tests are popular covid suppression tools overseas with some restaurants having rapid antigen test rest areas outside of venues and restaurants and customers arriving 20mins early to get tested before they can go inside. Many households overseas have now normalised testing and test themselves at home a couple of times a week. Rapid antigen tests are now approved for use in Aotearoa. Is a rapid antigen test area something your marae may want to consider? (note: Rapid Antigen Tests help with suppression, they are not 100% effective because they do not pick up low levels of the virus. While they are convenient and accessible, they should be used in combination with masks, distancing and other rules like telling people to stay home if they are sick).

3. Urupā and tangihanga planning.
Pray for the best, but be prepared for the worst.
– Do you have a plan for high mortality rates?
– Here are the MoH guidelines for dealing with tūpāpāku and funeral services
– How might you support social distancing at tangihanga?
– Do you have supplies of masks and contact tracing resources?
– What is your urupā capacity? How might you be able to cope with an increased mortality rate?
– How can you manaaki/tiaki your pou kōrero, pou karanga, and others involved in the care of tūpākaku and whānau pani?
– How will you handle hākari? Should hākari meals be offered in takeaway containers? Should hākari be cancelled? If you have hākari on your marae, what are the ventilation and covid requirements?

4. Communications strategy
Good public health information is a crucial factor in community health. How will you communicate vital information out to your hapū? Via social media? Do you have someone who can print information out and leave in letterboxes/Po boxes for whānau who are not on social media?

Who are your trusted sources of information?
Here are some excellent links for relevant, reliable covid advice:
Te Roopu Whakakaupapa Urutā – The National Māori Pandemic Group has excellent resources and advice on a wide range of covid issues, made relevant to Māori.
Protect Our Whakapapa – Simple, powerful, on point resources for whānau to protect our whakapapa from covid.
Dr Rawiri Taonui consistently and tirelessly analyses covid for Te Ao Māori
Dr Morgan Edwards has an easy-to-follow, comprehensive instagram page with quality covid information

KURA PLANNING

1. Vaccinate
2. The government has mandated vaccination for all school staff (teaching and non-teaching). While that reduces the risk, it does not eliminate it. Every kaiako and staff member at our kura is vaccinated, but we are keeping our taonga home because we do not know if all of the households of other students (especially U12) are vaccinated. While we know that young children often recover well, those have have required hospitalisation, have suffered long covid or severe covid have been children with underlying health problems, in particular underlying respiratory healthy problems. Overarchingly in Aotearoa, that will be Māori and Pasifika children. Here is a very good general article by the incomparable Dr Jin Russell who outlines a gold standard plan for safely reopening

• What provisions will the kura have for parents who need to keep their children home for safety reasons, until they are vaccinated?
• How will the kura protect young children from unvaccinated parents who may be dropping off or picking up children?
• Soon the Pfizer vaccine might be available for 5-11yr olds. Should the kura be considering (if it hasn’t already) kura vaccine clinics so the vaccine is readily available to students and their whānau? Do the whānau need a wānanga on vaccines first, with some trusted information sources?
• How will you, as a kura, work to protect our pēpi under 5?
  *Important info for parents of under 5: For newborns best protection comes by mother being vaccinated in pregnancy, breastmilk tops up protection and the natural sugars in milk help baby to develop a strong immune system through gut bacteria. Vaccination in pregnancy protects mother during pregnancy and postpartum when she is at high risk from COVID-19. For older infants, mother’s being vaccinated while breastfeeding is likely to have some benefits to reduce risk of transmission and some antibody transfer, but only temporarily (some studies suggest 4 weeks). For toddlers, their own immune system is more developed than infants and are currently less likely to get sick from COVID. For all babies, their best protection comes from everyone around them being vaccinated and staying away when sick.
  
  Other studies on vaccinations for pregnant and lactating Māmās:
  https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2780202
  https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.06.21252603v1

• Will classrooms be well ventilated? Here is an excellent article on the importance of ventilation for classrooms. Here is another link to a study carried out by Otago University that outlines the importance of ventilation, HEPA air filters, and CO2 monitors for classrooms.
• What education resources are available for your kura on covid, vaccines, and misinformation?

As more resources or important considerations come to hand, I will add them up here. Again, these aren’t easy discussions, but they are important. It is equally important that you hold these kōrero with aroha, couched in karakia, and to consider the important processes of pure and tuku in order to release the weight of the discussion afterwards.

Indeed, reading this blog may leave you feeling taumaha. I invite you to tuku. Turn off the device, sit quietly for a moment with the weight of what you have read. Acknowledge it. Commit to taking an action (it might be discussion with your GP, it might be creating a resource, it might be a phonecall to learn about services, it might be doing more research, it might be calling a hui) in relation to it. Bless the weight, and release it to the universe, while retaining your commitment to action. Remember, we have come through this before as a people, and while it’s important to prepare, it’s also important, and possible, to both prepare while holding hope and faith. Offer a brief karakia to emerge back into Te Ao Marama.

Unuhia, unuhia, unuhia
Unuhia ki te uru tapu nui
Kia wātea, kia māmā, te ngākau, te tinana, te wairua i te ara takatā
Koia rā e Rongo, whakairia ake ki runga, kia tina, tina.
Hui e, taiki e.