Maori and Social Issues

By Tracey McIntosh and Malcolm Mulholland

Maori and Social Issues is a collection of essays by experts in various fields of social sciences which collectively act as a snapshot of where Maori currently sit in relation to contemporary New Zealand society as a whole. The book is the first of a series to be published on research into the state of New Zealand's institutions and sectors of endeavour. This first book in the series focusses on Maori and social issues; the second will focus on Maori and educational endeavour. Each essay tackles the subject as it impacts on Maori now with perspectives on likely effects and solutions into the future: Maori demographics; smoking rates; educational achievement; incarceration; parenting; mental health; obesity and poverty are analysed in detail. Key statistics, past and future trends, opinion and fact are brought together in one volume to act as a reference for students, academics and others interested in New Zealand social sciences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Huia Publishers
• Release date: Aug 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781775500230

Book preview

Introduction

Tracey McIntosh

This book is the first of a series of edited collections that will look at Māori research in areas that are critical for Māori and for broader society. This volume canvases a range of social issues that are significant for a better understanding of the experience and social environment of Māori, and important in that they highlight the need to ensure research-based solutions to these issues. The majority of these chapters deal with social problems. However, this book is not a call to a return of deficit research. Rather it is an opportunity to collectively provide power-centred, Māori-centred perspectives and solutions.

While the chapters are comprehensive, the topics covered in this first collection are not exhaustive. Gaps are acknowledged. Areas of critical importance such as housing, unemployment and youth related issues are not to be found in this volume. Their absence is explained by a number of reasons: it could be as simple as a researcher not being well placed to meet a publishing deadline or it could be due to the difficulties of locating Māori doing research in particular areas. Subsequent edited collections will bridge some of these gaps. One will look at life course research. Another will be a companion to this collection, looking at other social issues. We need to recognise that there are areas that still need better Māori research capability to ensure that excellent Māori-centred research is produced.

The first chapter on contemporary issues in demography by Tahu Kukutai sets the background which allows us to locate Māori in the broader New Zealand context. It gives a comprehensive overview of Māori demographic statistics. Kukutai alerts us to the fact that demography is far more than a statistical study of human populations; it is also a study of politics and power. Determining who, how, when, why and which people count speaks to both political power and political agendas. For example, the allocation of resources for health care, education and economic investment is determined to a significant degree by census information. Question design can privilege the revealing of information that may support policy decision making and distribution of funds to one sector of the population over another. Numbers are rarely just numbers; they are also political markers.

In the first part of the chapter Kukutai draws on historical and contemporary census data. It provides an overview of Māori demographic change through to demographic forecasts up to 2026. A focus on population growth turns to a focus on population composition that allows us to see the variety of ways of being Māori. The second part explores the challenges Māori face due to demographic change. The last 30 years of identity politics have been based on claims explicitly linking Māori to land and place. Increasingly Māori live in urban centres outside their traditional tribal areas and even outside the country. The diasporic nature of contemporary Māori experience shapes the way we understand Māori identity and informs the inter-generational transfer of knowledge to subsequent generations. The accustomed place of Māori in contemporary society will also be challenged by an increase in ethnic diversity that is likely to mean that Māori will be surpassed as the largest ethnic minority in the country. Kukutai notes both the challenges and opportunities that this will present and brings urgency to the issue of dealing with major social and economic cleavages between Māori and non-Māori as well as the need to address social inequalities within Māori communities. The final part of the chapter offers insights into the way that demography might better meet the aspirations of Māori. While not shying away from a history where the manipulation of figures and statistics have created devastation for Māori and other indigenous groups, Kukutai notes that Māori have a real interest and need for quality statistical data to inform decision making and Māori-centred initiatives.

Elizabeth McKinley and Te Kawehau Hoskins provide a comprehensive overview of Māori education and achievement that examines the diverse and often competing discourses on Māori educational (under)achievement since the 1960s. The early discourse, informed by psychological and anthropological accounts, focused largely on assimilative strategies that sought to encourage Māori to take on Pākehā values and practices. These accounts emerge from a deficit lens that sees poor Māori achievement as a result of perceived cultural and social limits and the impact of deprivation. The 1970s saw a focus on the broader education system and related areas such as teacher quality. These discourses saw a more positive value placed on culture and encouraged pedagogic delivery to be culturally responsive. They explicitly recognised that a mono-cultural pedagogy privileges certain groups of students over others and embeds disadvantage. In turn these discourses informed initiatives that focused on achieving dual equity and excellence objectives. The 1980s and early 1990s took a more critical turn with a focus on the consequences of historical and contemporary relations of power. In practice this focus on systemic inequality informed two parallel developments in education. One that looked outside of the present system and developed Māori medium education to respond to cultural and educational needs and the other that sought to address Māori underachievement in mainstream settings by a focus on school responsiveness. McKinley and Hoskins underscore the role that both research and activism have played in transforming educational practice in New Zealand.

McKinley and Hoskins are well placed to comment on both current educational research and possible future direction. They note that the challenge to create an education system that allows Māori to live and learn and reach their potential as Māori is laudable but considerably difficult to deliver. It entails the need to create an environment that allows Māori to succeed in ways that will be recognised and valued by other Māori as well as allow them access to and achievement in global knowledge economies. This chapter does not shy away from the complexity of the challenges, the shift of decision making and in regimes of power that will need to take place, nor the significant political investment required to realise these objectives.

Averil Herbert clearly demonstrates that Māori familial practices are dynamic in nature. Her work on Māori perspectives on parenting posits the need to situate parenting in its wider relational contexts to hapū and whānau and contemporary family dynamics and practices. She argues that a narrow appreciation of family composition and modes of parenting risks rendering invisible the diversity of whānau structure and the richness and depth of parenting practice. Herbert identifies inter-generational mechanisms that allow children to develop relationships with a wide number of adults in ways that are protective and inclusive. Spreading the responsibility of care for children has benefits that accrue not only to the child, but to the broader Māori community. Whānau may be read as deep, multi-level and interconnected. However, she notes that the contemporary reality is that many Māori children are brought up in households where only their parents or parent reside. Rather than read this as an obvious deficit she sees this as an opportunity to explore best practice in accessing and supporting these diverse households.

Herbert asserts that research evidence has shown that cultural values can be integrated into standard programmes and can enhance beneficial outcomes. She also underscores the importance in including the concepts of mana wāhine and wāhine toa into parenting perspectives. Her approach supports a focus on households, an appreciation of the significance of community factors and values in exploring the potential risk factors and ascertaining the necessary support structures needed for each household.

Te Kani Kingi explores the history, experience and consequences of Māori mental health. Kingi notes that while mental health issues undoubtedly existed in pre-contact and early contact society, the evidence suggests that they were relatively uncommon. He notes that defining mental health is always problematic. Every society has its norms and values which prescribe its rules and regulations. If an individual transgresses these norms then s/he is likely to be seen as deviant and likely to be labelled negatively. Mental illness definitions also change over time and place as different explanatory modes gain dominance over others.

Kingi provides a range of historical accounts of the mental well-being of Māori that are revelatory. He maps the way that the mental health condition of Māori has been perceived and understood over the last 100 years. What is clear is that the last 35 years have seen a significant increase in the number of Māori accessing mental health services, from a time when Māori were under-represented in mental illness statistics to the present situation where Māori are over-represented in negative mental health indicators. Kingi looks at the explanations put forward to understand it and highlights the ongoing difficulty of developing evidence-based adaptive solutions to this complex and critical issue.

Obesity in now seen as one of the key indicators of health risk. Isaac Warbrick allows us to better understand the contrasting ways in which obesity may be explained and understood. While he notes that the prevalence of obesity is high among Māori when compared with the general population, he alerts us to issues with definition and assessment which may not give us a clear enough indication of health risk. Obesity is more than physical health, it is about overall well being. This allows a broader focus on the quality of life and the need to recognise the profound economic and social costs of obesity. Warbrick explains the difficulty in assessing obesity and the need for culturally appropriate and scientifically valid measurements of it. He outlines the seeming contradictions of the way that deprivation is often coupled with obesity and the problems associated with the abundance of unhealthy food and declining physical activity. Warbrick argues that initiatives to counter it need to focus on prevention. While surgical and pharmaceutical interventions have their place far greater emphasis needs to be placed on healthful living programmes.

Tobacco and smoking has been a part of the Māori experience since contact with European people. Marewa Glover maps the lethal nature of this relationship looking at the devastation that smoking has wrought and the riven history of programmes aimed at reducing the prevalence of smoking. Glover also asserts that while the damage of smoking has impacted disastrously on Māori the worst effects have been disproportionately delivered to women and children. Glover makes a compelling argument for the need to see Māori smoking as far greater than a health issue. The community cost of smoking is immense and inter-generational. Glover posits the need to see smoking as a political, educational, mental health and social justice issue. In recalling the trials and tribulations of the last 20 years of Māori tobacco control strategies Glover makes a passionate call for the need to build on the evidence and experience of past practitioners, assert the rights of Māori to have authority over targeted programmes and the political will to invest in an issue that is truly life and death.

Poverty, deprivation and living under conditions of scarcity are characteristics of life for too many Māori. Fiona Cram provides a discursive overview of the experience of poverty for Māori. After a discussion on monetary indicators of poverty there is a brief overview on the impact of colonisation on Māori impoverishment. The alienation of land and resources not only robbed Māori of their cultural and spiritual base but also their economic base. Moreover, resistance to colonial forces often meant a disproportionately punitive response that led to entrenched disadvantage. This coupled with the increasing stigmatisation and marginalisation of Māori cultural life has meant that all parts of Māori life have faced some form of privation. A discussion on both social exclusion and social inclusion introduces a framework whereby Māori development can occur by embarking on social inclusion pathways that acknowledge and uphold indigenous rights. She argues that there is a need to question not only the reproduction of inequality in New Zealand society, but perhaps even more importantly the reproduction of privilege.

There are few issues that have had as high a public profile and generated as much debate as that of child maltreatment in New Zealand. While psychological and physical maltreatment is not solely a Māori issue, it is a real and present problem in our communities. The need to better understand it so that we can move to resolve it and further strengthen our whānau is a matter of absolute urgency. Erana Cooper and Julie Wharewera-Mika present a comprehensive discussion of the complex intertwined factors associated with maltreatment and look at the existing and potential pathways to healing for Māori children and whānau. They recognise that there are no simple solutions nor do they shy away from the need for in-depth examination of both causes and responses. They rightly note that an exploration of historical injustices to Māori and the relationship that these may have to current rates of child maltreatment do not absolve responsibility for the present reality in which some of our children suffer terribly, in some cases terminally, in our homes. However, they recognise the importance of being cognisant of a past so that we are better placed to change the future. They also see the imperative of addressing other well-being markers and the importance of protecting children not only from physical abuse, but also from health, education and other social inequalities. They rightly see this as one of the principal priorities of communities and the nation.

It is acknowledged that problem gambling does immense damage to individuals, relationships, whānau and broader society. Loss of resources, trust and mana are just some of the consequences of gambling. Laurie Morrison furnishes an in-depth discussion of Māori women and gambling. A focus on Māori women reflects the fact that the development of new forms of gambling has seen a concomitant involvement of women and an observed rise of women seeking the support of gambling problem services at a much higher rate than men. This chapter draws on Morrison’s research which looked at the narratives of gambling Māori women and their whānau. The research was carried out to explore the effects of gambling on individuals and whānau and to explore culturally appropriate ways of supporting gambling reduction and cessation. Morrison provides a discussion of the socio-economic context that can perversely incentivise gambling amongst women. She observes that many Māori women have borne the brunt of social and economic marginalisation and that some have sought new venues where they feel that they can belong. Her study found that gambling contributed towards multiple negative outcomes for the women and their whānau. The normalisation of gambling as a part of Māori life is also explored. Morrison uses culturally specific frameworks, drawing on the traditional waka as a metaphor, to enable expression of how their individual and social circumstances were impacting and shaping their gambling behaviours and to suggest strategies to support women in gambling cessation.

Rawiri Taonui and Greg Newbold examine the phenomenon of Māori gangs, discussing their emergence and the responses to them. Media attention on Māori gangs has been sustained yet there is little beyond the superficial that is widely known about their formation, organisation and composition, or on their norms and aspirations. This chapter offers a wide-ranging sophisticated overview of the history, make-up and issues associated with gangs. A number of theories have been posited on the causal factors of gang emergence and these are outlined as well as a comprehensive discussion on the (largely state agent) responses to and effectiveness of policies and interventions. Like other contributors to this collection, Taonui and Newbold recognise the role of colonisation and the impact that comes from facing socio-economic, political and cultural oppression. The inter-generational aspects can be seen both in cycles of poverty and systemic marginalisation, and in inter-generational gang membership with the attendant transfer of gang values and norms.

Place is central to Māori identity and culture. Yet as Shiloh Groot, Darrin Hodgetts, Linda Waimarie Nikora and Mohi Rua note, movement, change, voluntary and involuntary displacement are also part of our collective history. There is a tendency to define homelessness in narrow ways and to pathologise a condition that has many different forms. Homelessness can be a symbolic condition. One may have a home but experience a profound sense of loss and the absence of a cultural anchor. For others homelessness is an experiential state characterised by no stable abode and without the necessities to create a home environment. While the experience may be diverse the chapter makes clear the fact that a significant proportion of the homeless are Māori. Given this it is critical to recognise that the homeless issue is also a Māori issue. This chapter seeks to problematise issues of homelessness and belonging and to look at the complex ways individuals seek to maintain a sense of self, place and tribal memory even under conditions of dislocation and isolation. Drawing on a single case study the authors demonstrate that homelessness and navigation of street life are negotiated in culturally patterned ways. This study enables a move away from a deficit model of explaining homelessness. It supports efforts to encourage social services to recognise and incorporate the experience, strengths and capacities of the homeless in the breadth of their responses.

Of all the statistics where Māori are over-represented, probably the most publically well known is the fact that Māori make up over 50 per cent of the prison population. The frequent repetition of this statistic is, arguably, used to further stigmatise and criminalise Māori populations and to normalise Māori internment in prisons. Robert Webb provides an analysis that allows a greater and more nuanced understanding of the incarceration statistics. He offers a detailed analysis of explanations of offending, conviction and sentencing. To better contextualise these figures he outlines the consequences of a penal populism that has led to a more punitive punishment regime and looks at the different responses to the problem of over-representation. Webb notes that there has been a call for Māori-centred culturally informed responses for many decades yet the roll out of such initiatives has been slow. More recently they have gathered some momentum and it will be important to monitor their effectiveness. It is clear, however, that responses that focus only at the point of offending, conviction and sentencing are insufficient. We need to address the broader societal structural issues that are causal and conducive to Māori increasingly living confined lives.

Marginalisation is a feature of many of the issues discussed in this book. Tracey McIntosh focuses on a specific embedded form of marginalisation characterised by the inter-generational transmission of social inequalities. In considering narratives of confinement McIntosh explores the experience of women in prison, and specifically the experience of young Māori women. Young Māori women in prison are a socially submerged population, marginalised in both dominant and Māori communities and absent from the public consciousness by virtue of their age, their ethnicity, their gender and their incarcerated status. McIntosh argues that cumulative disadvantage blocks opportunities and creates lives that are marked by restriction and constraint. This in turn leads to pathways to prisons that are normalised.

All the chapters in this collection look in different ways at issues related to the fact that New Zealand society has significant social cleavages. They note that the burden of these cleavages has overwhelmingly impacted on Māori. The authors have focused on the challenges and opportunities that arise by seeking Māori-centred solutions. Some have spoken of the resilience of Māori individuals and communities. Amohia Boulton and Heather Gifford explore the usefulness of the resilience discourse in understanding the coping mechanisms of Māori and in the framing of responses of health and social service delivery that must address persistent inequalities. The chapter offers a critique of the resilience literature and alerts us to the risks of using the term without considering the possible implications of its use. Drawing on an ongoing research project they tease out some of the complexities of resilience and look at how it aligns with Māori concepts such as whānau ora. They demonstrate the importance of robust critique of conceptual terms and look at the opportunities that arise from refining and redefining concepts so that they better align with Māori aspirations.

It is hoped that this first volume, and the series of collections to come, can build on present research and create momentum for new research and collaborations that will lead to culturally sound plural and adaptive solutions. It is further hoped that this will in turn inform and influence new indigenous knowledge production and policy formations. These aspirations recognise the need to work and learn from our communities and to ensure critical ethical high-quality research practice which is informed by shared social, cultural and historical factors. We must ensure that we hold dear to the values of our past, are grounded in the reality of our present and recognise the creative potential necessary in our research for ensuring a valued future for our descendants.

Contemporary Issues in Māori Demography

Tahu Kukutai

Introduction

… there is reason to fear that a population which has once reached such a state of decrepitude as that exhibited by the Māori inhabitants of this country will, from causes strictly intrinsic, proceed to its final catastrophe … (Fenton, 1859: 29)

A renaissance is by no means a new feature in human history. But the revival of the Māori race, resulting in an arrest of population decline and an awakening of fresh hope, was in many respects unique. (Winiata, 1958: 293)

Demography is much more than the statistical study of human populations: it is also a study in politics and power. The political origins and motivations of census-taking and population registers have been well documented (see, for example, Kertzer & Arel, 2002), as has the importance of official enumeration for modern nation-building (Patriarca, 1996). As New Zealand’s leading source of demographic information, the Census of Population and Dwellings not only provides a window into the changing demography and conditions of Māori, but also reveals dominant discourses about Māori as a people and their place in Aotearoa New Zealand.¹ From historical concerns about the fate of the ‘dying Māori’ and racial ‘miscegenation’, to contemporary patterns of socio-economic inequality and cultural change, the census is a forum where the quantification and qualification of Māori has played out in fascinating ways (for a detailed critique of census representations of Māori identities, see Kukutai, 2011, in press). This chapter draws extensively on historical and contemporary census data to provide an overview of Māori population patterns from past to future. In doing so, it seeks to locate both the sources of data and the patterns they yield within a broader context of socio-political and cultural change, and cast a critical lens on the demographic discipline.

There are three parts. The first part provides a sweeping overview of Māori demographic change from the early twentieth century through to 2026 with respect to population size, growth and the changing determinants of growth. The focus then shifts from population growth to changes in population composition. Key features include age structure, geographic location, marriage patterns, and cultural characteristics with respect to te reo Māori and iwi identification. The historical analysis is informed by Ian Pool’s 1991 book, Te Iwi Māori, while contemporary patterns use recent research conducted by the author in tandem with census and population projection data available through the Statistics New Zealand website (www.statistics.govt.nz).

The second part of this chapter reflects on three challenges that Māori will face in coming decades as a consequence of demographic change. One is the evolving relationship between identity and place. For Māori, as for other indigenous peoples, collective identity is intimately intertwined with connectedness to ancestral ‘homelands’ (Fullilove, 2008). However globalisation and rapid technological change means these linkages are becoming increasingly complex. The majority of Māori do not live within their tribal rohe and the boundaries of home are increasingly being pushed beyond the shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. About one in six Māori now live in Australia (Hamer, 2007, 2008) and there are significant Māori populations in North America, Asia and the United Kingdom. This chapter foregrounds some of the issues associated with the increasingly diasporic nature of te ao Māori.

A second challenge considered here is that of growing ethnic diversity. Ethnic analysis has often focused on the relationships between Māori and ‘European’ or ‘Pākehā’²; however, changes in the country’s ethnic composition suggest the Māori–European relationship is an historical moment that might well be relegated to the rear-view mirror in coming generations. An important consequence of change is that Māori are likely to lose their status as New Zealand’s largest ethnic minority group after 2031 (Kukutai 2007/2008). The challenges and opportunities that might unfold as a consequence of ethnic diversification are discussed.

A third set of challenges relate to changes occurring at the intersection of demography and economy. A small but important body of work has identified significant inequalities between Māori across a range of social and economic outcomes (Chapple, 2000; Kukutai, 2004, 2010; Sporle, et al., 2002). While inequality exists within all populations, there is a real risk that the growth of Māori economy and post-settlement iwi wealth will exacerbate, rather than reduce, social class differences. This chapter provides some insights into processes of socio-economic segmentation occurring between Māori focusing, in particular, on the relationship between ties to Māori identity and socio-economic disadvantage.

The final part of this chapter shifts from substantive matters of Māori population change to consider future directions in demography as a discipline. The strengths and shortcomings of standard demographic concepts and practices are discussed, along with suggestions for how the study and practice of demography might change to better reflect the complexity and needs of te ao Māori in the twenty-first century.

Statistical Overview: From Past to Projected

Māori Population Size and Growth

Historical growth patterns provide an important context for understanding contemporary patterns of Māori population growth.³ Of the various early estimates of Māori population size, Captain James Cook’s estimate of 100,000 Māori in 1769 appears the most realistic (Pool, 1991: ch. 3). At the time of Cook’s visit, Māori were at the first stage of the Demographic Transition – a multi-stage process by which populations shift from a regime of high to low fertility and mortality as they industrialise (Caldwell, et al., 2006). Mortality and fertility levels were high, although the estimated life expectation at birth of about 30 years was similar to estimates for populations in southern Europe (Pool, 1991: 57–58). As contact with Europeans increased, Māori depopulation ensued, reflected in the negative rates of growth in Figure 1. The mechanism for depopulation was exposure to introduced diseases but this increasingly occurred within the macro-political context of land alienation which had wide-ranging negative impacts on Māori health (Kukutai, Sceats & Pool, 2002; Pool, 1991: ch. 5; Sorrenson, 1956). The issue of Māori population decline preoccupied bureaucrats and scholars well into the early twentieth century, and reflected broader colonial discourses about ‘fatal impact’ and indigenous extinction (see, for example, Buller, 1884; Newman, 1881; Walsh, 1908). After reaching an historic low of about 42,000 in 1896, Māori commenced a gradual recuperation (Table 1), driven by factors which included increased immunity and a decline in the malnutrition–infection cycle.

The post-war period signalled the second stage of the demographic transition, characterised by rapid growth as mortality rates fell sharply, particularly for children and infants. For Māori boys under the age of five, the mortality rate by infectious disease dropped from 69.6 per 10,000 in 1945 to 5.0 by 1966 (Pool, 1991: Table 7.8). The reduction in Māori tuberculosis mortality began before modern treatment options such as antibiotics were widely available, aided by the effective integration of public health measures and social policy (e.g., systematic X-ray screening and improved sanitation in rural areas). The combination of declining mortality and continuing high fertility produced record Māori growth levels in the post-war period, with a peak of just below 4 per cent per annum between 1956 and 1966. Internationally such levels are now rarely seen. In 2009, for example, Liberia was the only country in the world that recorded annual growth in excess of 4 per cent (World Bank, 2011).

Since the 1950s Māori mortality and life expectation levels have continued to experience significant, albeit uneven, improvement (Figures 2 and 3). A newborn Māori boy born between 2005 and 2007 could expect to live to an average age of 70.4 years: 16 years longer than his counterpart born in 1950–1952. The life expectation gap at birth between Māori and non-Māori has halved since the 1950s but remains significant at 8.6 years for males and 7.9 years for females (for detailed analyses of ethnic mortality differentials, see Blakely, et al., 2005; Ministry of Health and University of Otago, 2006). Despite ongoing differences in survivorship between indigenous and non-indigenous New Zealanders – particularly from about age 40⁴ – the long-term pattern is one of convergence (Pool, Boddington, et al., 2009).

The rapid decline in Māori fertility that began in the late 1960s resulted in slowing rates of natural increase and a shift to the third stage of the demographic transition. The usual preconditions of fertility decline – increased survivorship, urbanisation and universal education – were already in place by the time the contraceptive pill was introduced in New Zealand, providing Māori women with an accessible and effective method of fertility control. Between 1971 and 1978, the Māori total fertility rate (TFR) plummeted from 5.1 births per woman to just 2.8 (for more detailed explanations of the Māori fertility transition, see Douglas, 1977; Pool, 1991; Pool, et al., 2007; Zodgekar, 1975). By 1986, Māori fertility had dropped to replacement level of 2.1 (Figure 4). The speed of the Māori fertility transition was extremely intense and has few parallels internationally (an exception is Thailand, see Phadthaisong-Chaipanich, 2006). Although methodological and data quality issues make time-series analysis challenging, there is a general consensus that Māori fertility levels began to level out around the mid 1980s and have experienced a slight upward turn since 1995 (Pool, 2005). In 2009 the Māori TFR was 2.8, compared with