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Professionals, parents and people on the autism spectrum are gathering in Auckland today to discuss best practice, share experiences and learn from the Altogether Autism Conference.
Bernie Wastney will be there to share her perspective on issues Maori parents face.
She says professionals don’t know what they don’t know, and she’s happy to give them tips on how they can be more useful when dealing with whanau Maori trying to cope with children with autism spectrum disorder.
"Include my whanau in meetings and planning because when things go wrong it’s them that I ring, not the professionals and they have an interest and love of my boy and so if there are resources being introduced, include the whanau, show them how to get the best out of the resources as well, so that we have a whole team working on doing the best for my child," Mrs Wastney says.
Her own journey was helped by some of the tikanga and Maori practices shown to her by her grandmother Riripeti Karauria from Ngati Porou.
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