Māui Pōmare

Sir Māui Wiremu Pita Naera Pōmare was born in 1875 or 1876.

He trained as a doctor in the US and returned to New Zealand in 1900.

He was the Member of Parliament for Western Māori and went on to become Minister of Health from 1923-26.

He was very concerned with the health of Maāori, particularly in the areas of housing and sanitation which were then major political issues.

However he was controversial in that he saw little need to preserve Māori cultural heritage and was involved in government actions to supress Māori culture.

He believed that Māori culture would ultimately merge with Pākehā culture, retaining the best aspects of both.

The day Saturday closest to the anniversary of Pomare's death on 27 June is celebrated as Māui Pōmare day at Owae Marae in Waitara, Taranaki.

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Womens' health activism

Māori women have organised to improve their health and also to redefine what is meant by health.

The Māori Womens' Welfare League was set up in 1951 and had health as a major focus.

Women worked on improved immunization, family planning, tuberculosis and other issues.

The League also became involved in the provision of health services in the 1990s.

The Kohanga Reo movement began in 1982 with the creation of the first 'language nest.'

Kohnaga Reo serve to strengthen hapū and whānau bonds which help to maintain emotional and physical health.

Tipu Ora is a health organisation established in 1989 with a strong focus on whānau addressing family issues such as midwifery, teenage parents and new mothers.

In the 1990s and 2000s Māori have begun to establish their own health-provider organisations because current provision of health services were seen as ineffective.

This post is based on this article.

Next: Maui Pomare.

Activism

Changes that effect the health of Māori are not always driven from the top.

In fact, you could argue that improvements in the entire area of health are often due to grass roots activism.

Maori activism is a mechanism used to drive the improvement in Māori social and economic status.

Māori political activism has developed from a failure to see progress in the areas of land grievances, language and overall health status.

These essentially have been from the determination of Māori people to maintain their intrinsic cultural beliefs.

In the changing pattern of ill health for indigenous people European colonisation of the Pacific and the Americas after 1492 saw indigenous populations decimated by imported communicable diseases.

In the Pacific indigenous people experienced high mortality from imported infectious disease mainly when their land was taken and their economic base, food supply and social networks were disrupted.

Māori insist on political and economic justice through tino rangatiratanga  or transposed as Maori independence.

This section is taken largely from this research report.

Next: Women's health activism