Enacting Mana Māori Motuhake during COVID-19 in Aotearoa (New Zealand): "We Weren't Waiting to Be Told What to Do"

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Apr 19;20(8):5581. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20085581.

Abstract

Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand), were at the centre of their country's internationally praised COVID-19 response. This paper, which presents the results of qualitative research conducted with 27 Māori health leaders exploring issues impacting the effective delivery of primary health care services to Māori, reports this response. Against a backdrop of dominant system services closing their doors or reducing capacity, iwi, hapū and rōpū Māori ('tribal' collectives and Māori groups) immediately collectivised, to deliver culturally embedded, comprehensive COVID-19 responses that served the entire community. The results show how the exceptional and unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19 provided a unique opportunity for iwi, hapū and rōpū Māori to authentically activate mana motuhake; self-determination and control over one's destiny. Underpinned by foundational principles of transformative Kaupapa Māori theory, Māori-led COVID-19 responses tangibly demonstrated the outcomes able to be achieved for everyone in Aotearoa when the wider, dominant system was forced to step aside, to be replaced instead with self-determining, collective, Indigenous leadership.

Keywords: COVID-19; Indigenous health; Kaupapa Māori; Māori; collectivity; community-based responses; mana motuhake; self-determination.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Health Services
  • Humans
  • Maori People*
  • New Zealand / epidemiology

Grants and funding

This research was funded through a programme grant awarded by Te Kaunihera Rangahau Hauora o Aotearoa | Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC 18/667) to Te Hikuwai Rangahau Hauora | Health Services Research Centre, Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. Te Kaunihera Rangahau Hauora o Aotearoa | Health Research Council of New Zealand is the government agency responsible for managing Crown investment in health research in Aotearoa. Its key functions are to advise the Minister of Health on national health research policy, to advise on health research priorities, to initiate and support health research, and to foster the recruitment, training, and retention of health researchers in Aotearoa. The funding number HRC 18/667 represents the Health Research Council (HRC), the year of funding (2018), and the funding application number (667).