Te Hiku providers have numerous causes for celebration
this festive season, as they triumphantly see out 2024 with
a continued commitment to redress systemic health inequities
for whānau in the Far North into 2025 and
beyond.
Since 2022, the Taikorihi Locality has been
working with Te Whatu Ora under the Pae Ora (Healthy
Futures) Act to support providers delivering initiatives
that address population health and wellbeing for whānau
living in the area from north Hokianga to Te Rerenga
Wairua.
The Taikorihi Locality Innovation Fund last
year committed $2.5m towards supporting 13 innovations that
address the population health priority areas which Te Hiku
whānau had identified after extensive prior
consultation.
These include Whare Āhuru / Housing,
Whānau / Māmā and Pēpi, Hauora / Health and Wellbeing,
and Taitamariki / Youth.
Although the dissolution of
Te Aka Whai Ora midway through 2024 was followed by the
announcement that the coalition government would also wrap
up Taikorihi in mid-2025, many practitioners supported by
Taikorihi will continue to work as they always
have.
The Te Hiku Rongoā Māori Collective is a group
of rongoā Māori that works vigilantly, restoring balance
and bringing more accessibility and availability of
traditional Māori healthcare to whānau across the
hapori.
Tuia Maara’s Joanne Murray is familiar with
the peaks and troughs that whānau Māori attempt to
navigate in a healthcare system that is often inaccessible
in the Far North.
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She says her roopu has been
providing rongoā hauora packs to communities since the
first COVID lockdown. Now, with the assistance of Taikorihi
innovation funding, Tuia Maara has teamed up with other
providers across Hokianga and Te Hiku to create a powerful
hub that provides all forms of rongoā, including mirimiri,
romiromi, mahi wairua and medicinal
preparations.
“It’s something that’s close to
our heart, this mahi that we do. We’ve been doing it a
long time on the smell of an oily rag, and we just keep
going.
The struggle is real up here right now. Some
people don’t even have kai, let alone money to go to the
chemist and the doctors,” Joanne says.
Māori health
provider Te Hiku Hauora CEO Maria Baker says Te Hiku
providers will continue to operate in the way that they do
best beyond the life span of Taikorihi – via
whanaungatanga and a shared vision of uplifting whānau
health, particularly for Māori and people with
disabilities.
Te Hiku Hauora delivered two very
successful initiatives this year – the Muriwhenua
Wellbeing Festivals and Te Niho, a dental health
initiative.
Maria says both initiatives opened
opportunities for whānau to understand what is available
for access and support. She adds both initiatives also
opened doorways for providers to explore further,
sustainable collaborations that maximise existing resources
in the hapori.
ANT (Te Aupōuri Ngāti Kahu Ngāi
Takoto) Trust will continue to support whānau Māori
following a year of significant learnings in the Māmā and
Pēpi health space. Kia Taurima is an initiative that
supports whānau health by focusing on its central unit –
mother and baby – and positive shifts in the Māmā that
participated this year were tangible, says ANT Trust Manager
Trudy Brown.
She says the multi-faceted initiative was
designed to uphold mātauranga Māori, with a particular
focus on the needs of Māori mothers.
“If you survey
mothers in English, they’ll give you one answer. But if
you give the same survey to reo-speaking Māmā, they’ll
give you different answers.
This programme is leaned
more towards a cohort of women who don’t have a voice in
the system – Māmā who grew up in kōhanga reo, kura
kaupapa that have got a sense of the Māori world. The
health system they want to see looks different to what’s
currently available,” she says.
Re-imagining a
futureproof health system was also a key focus for
taitamariki group He Taura this year. Under the guidance of
The Moko Foundation, He Taura was formed to provide a
leadership forum for its members and co-design initiatives
that meet the needs of youth in Te Hiku.
The group met
each month with several professional mentors expanding their
skill set and knowledge base.
Furthermore, He Taura
surveyed and engaged with over 100 taitamariki across Te
Hiku to arrive at three initiatives which were launched or
re-booted in 2024, including a teen parenting programme (Te
Rarawa Anga Mua), a sports development and mentorship
programme (Native Sports), and an in-schools healthcare
programme across kura kaupapa Māori and primary schools
(iMoko).
Te Rarawa Anga Mua General Manager Melanie
Sweet says the Teen Parenting programme is already being
delivered and is making a significant impact by supporting
teen parents and their whānau with holistic services that
align with Te Rarawa’s kaupapa Māori approach.
She
says this opportunity has also resulted in strong
collaborations with Kaitaia College and the Ministry of
Education to establish a Teen Parenting Unit here in Te
Hiku.
“The ongoing work is proving transformational,
providing relevant, tailored support that makes a real
difference for teen parents in the rohe,” she
says.
Native Sports director Rawinia Everitt says one
of the fledgling organisation’s missions is to accentuate
the resources available to taitamariki in the Far North that
enable them to achieve health, wellbeing, and sporting
success.
Native Sports provides several experiences;
these include access to its Kaitāia-based sports hub He
Kura, hunting and diving excursions, cabin building
workshops and supporting taitamariki to travel and represent
a variety of sporting codes, both locally and
internationally.
Rawinia says her personal journey
influences her drive to support an equitable environment in
Te Tai Tokerau that empowers taitamariki to develop their
sporting and cultural aspirations.
“We’ve started
two academies – one in Hokianga and one in Kaitāia – and
these are mainly for area schools and kura kaupapa Māori.
We focus on bringing opportunities to those little minority
kura that connects them up and builds a sense of hauora,
connection and belonging,” she says.
The iMOKO
Programme is a kaupapa Māori initiative designed to deliver
prompt, equitable, and culturally aligned healthcare
directly within kura (schools) in Kaitāia.
By
addressing common but significant health concerns – such
as skin infections, head lice, and sore throats/strep throat
– the service ensures tamariki and their whānau receive
prompt and effective care, often while reducing barriers
often associated with accessing primary healthcare.
Dr
Lance O’Sullivan says the strategic importance of
partnering with ANT Trust – Te Whare Oranga and connecting
with local providers, such as Te Hiku Hauora, strengthens
community engagement and ensures targeted support for Māori
communities.
He highlights instances where the
programme has extended support and guidance to the whānau
of tamariki receiving care, emphasising how the programme
plays a vital role in easing the burden on Kaitāia’s
overstretched primary healthcare services.
“Māori
probably have the poorest health outcomes in the health
system and are less likely to complain about services. The
great thing is that we can use that index child as a gateway
to the extended whānau,” he says.
Also activated to
redress Māori health inequities this year with support by
the Taikorihi innovation fund are the Wāhine Hauora and Te
Papa ō Tāne initiatives. These are two new, collaborative
innovations focusing on wāhine and tāne health using
mātauranga Māori-based approaches and normalising and
integrating Māori health frameworks, including Mason
Durie’s Te Whare Tapa Whā model.
Another innovation
supported by Taikorihi this year is Rākau Ora, based in the
heart of Kaitāia. Rākau Ora managing director Vanessa Kite
says her after-hours mental support and addictions service
has sustained the wellbeing of over 300 people, mostly
Māori, since the first quarter of 2024. The service
operates outside of normal business hours in response to
community need and recognition of a current gap in service
delivery in Te Hiku.
Vanessa says the service is
delivered by a staff of volunteers engaged in studies
towards their certifications themselves; she adds this is
invaluable to reduce the barriers that whānau face
accessing mental health services.
“The lived
experience of our team is valuable. It’s gold! Through our
mana enhancing approach based on our reality, and that of
others, we are able to relate and inspire not only our
community that visit our space, but also our whānau. That
is the gap we humbly operate from,” she says.
Kotahi
– Unity in the Community is also the calling of THMCT,
reflecting a long-standing commitment to inclusivity,
wellbeing and the integration of traditional and
contemporary practices, says THMCT Chair Teresa
Hart.
She says the service, located at the main
entrance of Kaitāia Hospital, underwent a recent
refurbishment to enhance accessibility for all, including
whaikaha whānau / families with disabilities, to ensure
that their services are culturally aligned, user-friendly
and welcoming.
The Trust was supported this year
through Taikorihi to continue to implement its vision for
kōtahi and unity for all under a cohesive service that
demonstrates commitment to whānau whai kaha.
Also
developed with whānau Māori square in its line of sight is
the Te Hiku Housing Forum, which received funding to deliver
an initiative not traditionally associated with
health.
North Studios Director Ezzera Houghton says
the Taikorihi prototype identified early on that housing was
a critical determinant of public health and warranted
investment in the Te Hiku health reforms.
As one
response, North Studios designed a website – Tono.nz – a
repository of information and conduit between whānau and Te
Tai Tokerau-based services in the housing
space.
Ezzera says work is being done in the
background to pull together a comprehensive report on
current investment in the housing sector in Te Hiku. He is
working with local providers, Te Hiku Iwi Development Trust
and various iwi rūnanga to achieve the final product by the
time Taikorihi wraps up mid-2025.
“We’re at the
lowest point of home ownership in 17 years. It’s down by
about 60 per cent. We’ve got low rates of building
consents. We’re currently in a recession. And even then,
our providers are still doing the mahi.
My hat’s off
to all those housing providers that are making do with what
they’ve got under these circumstances. It has not been
easy to house the people and to increase the stock for our
region,” he says.
Taikorihi Programme Manager JJ
Ripikoi says while it is disappointing that the prototype in
its current form faces a finite life, the successes of the
initiatives that were supported throughout 2024 have reaped
rich, valuable learnings moving forward.
He says the
Taikorihi experience has proven that initiatives designed on
key elements like collaboration, innovation, mātauranga
Māori and health equity work for Te Hiku
whānau.
“We are currently preparing a social impact
report that will voice to Crown our learnings over the three
years of the project from inception. Although it would be
great for providers to be able to access sustainable pūtea,
we are good at just getting on with it in Te Hiku and we are
determined to work for the improvement of hauora whānau,”
he says.
The Taikorihi innovation fund contract
holders are also excited about the opportunity to
collaborate and challenge what has previously been a siloed
operating environment for whānau to navigate in Te
Hiku.
JJ says the data forthcoming also shows the
initiatives make a solid impact on the lives of whānau who
participate. He hopes this data will provide a baseline for
future projects and ongoing public health investment in Te
Hiku.
“We know that there is a lot of mahi to do to
improve hauora in Te Hiku ō Te Ika. These initiatives are
short-term wins aimed to target some longer-term goals.
Taikorihi is determined to action whānau voice, and we will
continue to pull together providers to collectively deliver
on what those voices have said they need,” he
says.
For more information on the Taikorihi Locality,
visit www.taikorihi.co.nz.
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