Māori and Social Issues, T McIntosh and M Mulholland (eds)

Māori and social issues, Tracey McIntosh and Malcolm Mulholland (eds). Wellington, Huia Publishers/Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, 2011. 322 pp, NZ$45.00 (paperback). ISBN 9781775500025

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga is the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC)-funded Indigenous Centre of Research Excellence and this is their first foray into what will be an edited book series. The editors, Tracey McIntosh (University of Auckland) and Malcolm Mulholland (Massey University), have invited 20 colleagues to contribute 13 chapters on key social areas, including: education, parenting, mental health, obesity, smoking, poverty, child maltreatment, gangs, homelessness and incarceration. These are bookended by an introduction (McIntosh), a chapter on demography (Kukutai) and concluding chapters on marginalisation and resilience. As the list of topics indicates, a significant part of the book is devoted to issues which are of policy and political concern. The case is made with a focus on those statistics which identify and describe the extent of Māori marginalisation and the reasons why Māori should be disproportionately involved in one behaviour or outcome. Most chapters do end with options and there is an interesting chapter on resilience, picking up a title of one of Mason Durie's books to indicate that there is hope.

In looking at the book as a whole, several matters become apparent. The first is that many of the official definitions of what constitutes a problematic behaviour—and the way in which statistics are collected and presented—are inadequate when it comes to Māori. For instance, Te Kani Kingi explores the issues of ‘Māori mental health’. The chapter title itself suggests that there might be something that is particular to Māori when it comes to what constitutes mental illness and wellbeing. Kingi asks some questions about whether mental ill-health was known to Māori prior to European colonisation. The answer is unclear for obvious reasons; mental health is a product of a particular tradition of defining and treating illness, and we simply do not have enough information to draw conclusions about how Māori might have approached what we now know as mental illness pre-colonisation. Kingi does provide some interesting suggestions with regard to the latter. To an extent, contemporary Māori mental wellbeing and illness remains problematic—to what extent do Pākehā/European approaches adequately recognise and respond to Māori experiences? In fact, the 2006 review, Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey (Oakley Browne et al. 2006), does provide a very useful survey of Māori mental disorders. Most other chapters struggle with similar issues: are historical and contemporary non-Māori approaches appropriate in defining the issue; in treating a particular behaviour; or in encompassing Māori issues and institutions? Even how to measure obesity amongst Māori (Isaac Warbrick's chapter) provides some challenges which are not immediately apparent, especially to non-specialists.

There are other commonalities between the chapters. The first is that many of the issues are gendered. Some focus deliberately on gender; for example, the chapter on gambling by Laurie Morrison is concerned with the involvement of Māori women. In other cases, such as the chapter on Māori involvement in gangs by Rawiri Taonui and Greg Newbold, the discussion is mostly around Māori men and gangs. Others could have been more explicit in discussing gender; the otherwise excellent chapter on child maltreatment by Erana Cooper and Julie Wharewera-Mika could have discussed whether there were gender differences or issues in terms of who was responsible for such maltreatment.

There is also an orthodoxy apparent in most chapters. The focus of the book and its individual chapters tends to stress the marginalisation of Māori. Colonisation plays a leading role in the past, present and future for Māori, sometimes as a given rather than something that needs to be explained in terms of process or the connection with particular outcomes. And nearly all point to the inadequacy of social policy and social service delivery of the New Zealand state and the contribution of such inadequacies to ongoing marginalisation. Most make the case, but one or two take this as a given as well. And most chapters point to Whānau Ora as an appropriate contemporary policy initiative. However, for various reasons, there remains little evidence that Whānua Ora will have the impact intended. It seems, to me, premature to say that Whānua Ora has been, or will be, a success when other interventions have failed.

Overall, the book is a useful reference on Māori social issues. The various chapters are helpful in summarising the available approaches and understandings of the issues and Māori involvement. I have some quibbles. It is surprising and a little disappointing to see archaic and racist terminology such as ‘Caucasian’ in the chapter on obesity. I do feel that at times there is a certain orthodoxy, such as the ubiquitous references to colonisation—it would be good to see some interesting and different takes on such emblematic themes. And if there is to be a companion book, then it might start where this book ends—with the focus on pathology and negative outcomes—and move on to explore what has worked, or what might work, following the tradition that Mason Durie has established, with a focus on Māori development in a rapidly changing and very different century. The final two chapters suggest what is possible in this regard. The 2013 post-census Māori social survey might provide some interesting additional suggestions in terms of the changing dynamics and issues of Māori households and communities.

P Spoonley

Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Email: [email protected]

© 2012 P Spoonley