February 29, 2024
Te Aka Whai Ora axing blow to Māori confidence
A Māori academic says the Government’s decisions to scrap the Māori Health Authority will reinforce a cycle of poverty and welfare dependence by whānau Māori.
Meihana Durie, Massey University’s deputy vice-chancellor for Māori, says Te Aka Whai Ora was a rare example of Government supporting Māori solutions.
“Once you take away things that our people have built off the back of three generations and three decades, for example of championing Māori health, those things have an inherently negative impact upon our ability to move forward confidently into the future. So I think the Government really does need to take a cold hard look at the impacts of some of these decisions,” he says.
Professor Durie says he’s concerned about the future of other initiatives such as Ngā Tini Whetu, a whānau-centred early support prototype involving Te Puni Kōkiri, Oranga Tamariki, ACC and the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency designed to strengthen families and improve the safety and wellbeing of children.