May 16, 2023
Pūrākau offer path to mental health
A Māori psychologist says traditional Indigenous storytelling techniques are a way to help people find mental health.
Carrie Clifford from Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, and Kāi Tahu has just received her PhD from the University of Otago for a thesis that looked at the way using pūrākau can help remove cultural shame and give mana to Māori patients as they compare their situation with that of their tupuna.
Her research included time in the United States where she found a similar dynamic among indigenous communities, but they felt their healing practices were invisible in conventional psychology.
Her thesis describes a framework, Toka Āhuru, which can to help clinicians use pūrākau in a practical setting.
“It encourages them to understand not only the pūrākau itself and what the key messages are in the pūrākau but also to understand how pūrākau are in a te ao Maori world view,” Dr Clifford says.