Māori and Pasifika populations in New Zealand experience poorer health outcomes than other New Zealanders. These inequalities are a deeply entrenched injustice. This qualitative study explores the experiences of six Māori and Pasifika leaders on health policymaking advisory committees. All had extensive experience in the health system. They were recruited, provided semi-structured interviews, the data coded, and a thematic analysis undertaken. Our findings show that inequalities in the health system are reproduced in advisory committees. Participants noted their knowledge and interests were devalued and they experienced racism and tokenistic engagement. Some indicated it took considerable effort to establish credibility, be heard, have impact, and navigate advisory meetings, but even then their inputs were marginalised. Health policy advisory committees need deeper engagement and more genuine recognition of Māori and Pasifika knowledge. Māori and Pasifika leaders have constructive solutions for eliminating health inequities that could benefit all New Zealanders.
Between 1955 and 1985 approximately 45,000 closed stranger adoptions took place in Aotearoa New Zealand. Many of these adoptions involved children of Māori ancestry, who were placed into white families, where links to their whakapapa were severed and a space for fictitious narratives (including memories) was created. This article reveals some adoption fictions experienced in the lives of six Māori people who were adopted into Pākehā families. Using a Māori-centred research approach, it found that there were common fictions that Māori adopted people navigated, through counter-narratives and narratives of repair, in their quest to create their own identity.
In New Zealand between 1955 and 1985 over 45,000 closed stranger adoptions took place. The Adoption Act 1955 promoted the closed adoption of many Indigenous Māori children into Pākehā (white European) families. Such adoptions severed the ancestral, familial and cultural connections for thousands of Māori children. Although the Adoption Act 1955 is still the current legislation in place in New Zealand, the late 1970s saw open adoption become accepted best practice. Yet it was not until 1985, with the passing of the Adult Adoption Information Act, that adult adoptees gained access to their original birth certificate that provided their birth name and the name of their birth mother. For Māori adoptees this offered a chance to search for their birth parents. It also offered the possibility to trace the previously unknown knowledge of their tribal affiliations and Māori cultural heritage. This article explores the narratives of six Māori adults who were adopted into white families. Using a Māori-centred research approach, it found that Māori adoptees often struggled with their dual identities, feeling they were always 'walking between worlds', never fully belonging in either their birth or adoptive families, or fitting comfortably with either a Māori or Pākehā cultural identity.
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