Dr Bridgette Masters-Awatere

Climate change disproportionately affects Indigenous communities across the globe. In Aotearoa, Māori face these inequities while also holding deep-rooted knowledge systems that offer powerful, holistic responses to environmental transformation.

Western views on disability & underfunding of Indigenous health marginalises kāpō Māori. New research aims to change this & centre kāpō Māori lifeworlds

Traditional forms of Māori story-telling describe strong and knowledgeable kāpō Māori. Ongoing processes of colonisation has seen experiences of marginalisation, invisibility, and ‘othering’ become the norm for Māori, and even more so for disabled Māori. The framing of disability within the Pākehā health sector alongside chronic underfunding of Māori health services has compounded the exclusion and isolation experienced by kāpō Māori.

This summer internship joins and contributes to a research project on Māori whānau experience of Hospital Transfers by being involved and undertaking literature review, in depth analysis of interview data and considering and reflecting on their research and the research impact and contribution.

While all hospitalisations can be stressful for patients and their whānau, hospitalisations involving transfers away from home can be even more so and can present unique issues in terms of how whānau negotiate distance, unfamiliarity, active engagement and help-seeking. In this study, we are interested in better understanding how whānau facilitate support and remain actively engaged in the ‘care equation’ when a whānau member is transferred or hospitalised away from their home location.