Journal article

This article explores the development of Māori and Indigenous frameworks of resilience, considering the impact of engaging with largely State-led notions of resilience on Māori development. We highlight the closely linked notion of resistance, asserting the necessity of a fi rm political analysis from Indigenous researchers engaged in this discourse. One of the Indigenous criticisms of resilience theories is that by defi nition they assume an acceptance of responsibility for our position as disadvantaged individuals.

Mātauranga Māori has become commonplace in international sport events involving New Zealand athletes and teams to create a national identity. The heart of this article examines the journey and implementation of mātauranga Māori into the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth games teams at Athens 2004, Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Delhi 2010. The experiences of one cultural advisor (referred to here as CA), who is also an ex-Olympian, are presented through an analysis that considers the principles of rangatiratanga and ōritetanga as advocated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The Ngā Tohu o te Ora research project was developed to investigate outcomes associated with rongoā Māori, in order that this practice might enjoy increased support as a funded service. The primary aims were to: 1) identify wellness outcome measures used by traditional Māori healers; and 2) develop and test a framework of traditional Māori wellness outcome measures.

Māori wellbeing is the foundation of Māori development, yet Indigenous peoples (including Māori) are often invisible in universal measures of wellbeing. In 2006 Mason Durie outlined Māori-specific measures of wellbeing, built upon Māori understandings of what constitutes a “good life”. Following Durie this paper describes developments in the culturally responsive measurement of Māori wellbeing. These have culminated in Te Kupenga, the 2013 survey of Māori wellbeing by New Zealand Statistics, and two Māori mental wellbeing assessment tools, Hua Oranga and the Meihana Model.