Whakaoranga Whānau: Whānau Resilience

Jordan Waiti (Ngāti Pikiao, Te Rarawa)

Massey University Wellington

Outline

• Background and Resilience Literature• Methods• Findings• Whakaoranga Whānau Framework• Discussion

Question: What are the resilience strategies employed by Māori whānau?

• Resilience: ‘the ability to withstand and rebound from crisis and adversity’• Extensive International Literature (Western Models)

• Often focused on ‘Individuals’ Resilience• Recent acknowledgement of family systems – “Collective Resilience” • Networks, Family belief systems, Organizational patterns, Communication, Spirituality,

coping/protective factors.

• Lack of Maori-based Resilience research (cultural perspectives)• ≠ Deficit Theory - Strength orientated• Recent interest attached to ‘Whanau Ora’.

Methods• Whanau interviews (n = 15) – kanohi-ki-te-kanohi - Family death, chronic ill-health, redundancy, incarceration, disabilities, solo-parenting etc.

- Rural and Urban- mixed, blended- Participation in Te Ao Maori

• Analysis- Thematic Networks:

• Key Informant interviews (n = 10) – kaumatua, family practitioners, clinicians, psychiatrists/psychologists, policy makers, academics and researchers

• Design a Conceptual Framework - Coping Strategies and Protective Factors

Principles: Networks/RelationshipsWhakapapa Whānau, Kaupapa Whānau, Significant attachments, Whānau systems, Tangihanga.“of course my whānau, they’re always there no matter what crap we’ve been through or given

each other. Just to know that they’re always there whether it’s money, whether it’s just support, like I could not have done this research without them. You know, work full time and be a single Mum, impossible, especially the travel that I do.” (single-parent)

““it was good even just to go there and she was so happy, especially to see mum[kuia] and so its that intergenerational kind of support that can help people when they’re feeling down” (family death)

“One of my mum’s safety mechanisms for us when our father had his alcoholism, was that if she knew that the abuse was going to happen in the house, ‘get down to Aunty Betty’s house’, you know.” (multiple life shocks)

“Yeah, and aunties and uncles in a real broad term. So she’s got heaps of aunties and uncles even though I’ve got only four brother and sisters, she’s got heaps of aunties and uncles and cousins. So all of those things have supported me through this” (single-parent)

Principles: Abilities and Skills• Flexibility, Education, Sport/Exercise, Humour, Positivity,

Aroha/Manaaki, whānau accounts, Previous exp.

• “yeah built it up [protective factors], we’d always made sure that we went back home to visit all the aunties and uncles and those kind of things. Because while dad was doing his studies, every January he would take two weeks off and then we’d go up home up north and do the [visiting] rounds, so we already had all those kind of systems in place before dad died. He had a lot of time for my family and so we already had the strong support from my aunties and uncles, and that also gave me the strength when he passed on” (family death)

• “You know, my strategies of parenting and resilience have evolved over time. You know, I’m less rigid compared to what I used to be and I have to accommodate contemporary challenges for adolescents. I have to move and shift with what’s working for my tamariki.” (multiple life shocks)

• “So, one of the big things about going through the adversity that we had, was being able to use that to help other people – help our whānau, help other people. To me, that’s a wonderful thing – and it’s healing for us, too – that we can go and manāki people who’ve been saddened.” (suicide)

Principles: Meaning, Values and Faith

• Cultural Identity, Spirituality, Religion, Responsibility

• “There was the [negative] stuff I’d been carrying around within me and I was translating that into what was wrong with me. And you can’t understand that without a historical context. So learning that history and learning my whakapapa, learning my place within this lifetime has been so helpful too, so important” (single-parent)

• “So te taha wairua from my viewpoint as a single parent has actually being absolutely crucial for assisting us in our journey of resilience and coping. You know, its important for our family because our ancestors are very important to our whānau.” (multiple life shocks)

• “A few weeks later I had this beam come through me, this sort of light, and it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world. This beam came down through me and I was just blown away. For me it was [her deceased daughter] telling me that everything was alright, that she was alright. And so I never sought any of that stuff but it came to me…It gave me confidence to move on, it made me feel a lot better.” (family death)

Framework (adpated from Gunnestad, 2003)

Conclusions• Nothing new• Not fixed, but rather dynamic• The broad principles which contribute to whānau and family

resilience are similar• The application and interpretation of these principles can be quite

different• For whānau – resilience strategies are both generic and culturally

specific• Resilience strategies (the mix of generic or culturally specific) will

vary amongst whānau• Implications: social capital, whānau identity, s-determination,

sound education.

“The fact that there are fewer neurotic and psychotic illness among Mäori than among Päkehäs in New

Zealand emphasises among other things the tremendous value to the Mäori of possessing a psychological security

that comes from tribal and family security.”

(Beaglehole - 1947)

Culturally Aligned Resilience Factors

Acknowledgements• Various whānau• Key Informants• Funders: HRC, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, ACC,

Families Commission.