This story is from Stuff/Pou Tiaki
The New Zealand health system as it stands is not fit for protecting Māori māmā, Tina Ngata says.
The indigenous and environmental rights advocate, author and researcher features in a new short documentary, It Takes a Kāinga.
Māori māmā were twice as likely to die during pregnancy and 3.35 times more likely to commit suicide, while suicide remains the leading cause of maternal death among pregnant women in Aotearoa.
More than a decade on since Ngata (Ngāti Porou) started her research into the health disparities faced by Māori mothers in Aotearoa, nothing has changed, she says ‒ the health system has continued to embed poor maternal health statistics in Aotearoa.
“Naturally when you are a young Māori mother, you sit at the intersections of all of those risks, because the system, in multiple ways, was never designed from the beginning to take you into account.
“That’s a failure on us all that any young māmā should be standing there in that tapu state, having those thoughts. That’s a failure on all of us.”
Through the eyes of director and māmā Taylor Hohepa (Te Arawa, Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu), It Takes a Kāinga wasn’t just a film, but a “movement”.
The 15-minute documentary explores the alarming mental health disparities faced by Māori māmā in Aotearoa, and offers insights into empowering Māori-led healthcare solutions with an impassioned call to return to the traditional practices for preserving whakapapa.
Centred around award-winning musician and māmā Ria Hall (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Waikato), the film focuses on wāhine Māori who have faced physical and mental health challenges in their maternal journey.
“While this documentary has a strong Māori lens ‒ it is for everybody, and I believe positive change begins with collective understanding,” Hohepa says.
“We are hoping to spread the message of this kaupapa through Ria’s inspiring story.”
For Ngata, the “distressing inequities” confronting young Māori mothers and their mental health has “always been an issue close to my heart”.
“It’s such a tragic statistic, people should be crying, people should be heartbroken about it.
“It’s the fact that [māmā Māori] are more likely to suffer extreme blood loss, more likely to haemorrhage, less likely to receive consistent maternal healthcare through their journey and certainly it being more difficult for them to access tikanga Māori-centred care as well.”
Breaking the circuit of intergenerational harm relied upon a holistic and wrap-around approach, Ngata says, an approach where the system looks at mothers in “the context of their whānau” and their wider village and not just as individuals.
“The health system that surrounds [māmā Māori], the place that they go to reach out to for help and care has been built with the destruction of indigenous peoples at its foundation.
“It was exactly the justification for having a Māori health authority… you can’t just do little tweaks within a colonial system you need to create a whole new system.”
It Takes a Kāinga is available now on YouTube.
