Te Reo Māori And The Healthcare Sector.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a strong advocate for te reo Māori advancement in the workplace. It was my hope to share why this is and in the process stoke some curiosity and interest in others to pick up the wero (challenge), and actively give te reo Māori a go in our important mahi.

In my kōrero I referred to health equity in the context of gardening. A gardener who treats a succulent as they would a fern would quickly find themselves scratching their head and scrambling to resolve whatever is making their plant sick. It is the same in working with people – different people respond differently to different care.

We need to stop blaming or responding with indifference to Māori who do not respond well to our health system, just as Toad does in the excerpt of Frog and Toad Together below.

While meeting our Māori patients and whānau with an acceptable level of language proficiency isn’t the whole solution, it is most certainly part of the solution - we know that Māori respond better to services when the mana of te reo Māori is reflected within care.

My PowerPoint presentation and recording is available on Doogle, check it out.

Mauri ora!

Fran