Cook Islands born and raised John Kiria from the island of Aitutaki and Rakanga is no stranger to navigating pathways of wellbeing for families under his care.
As a Whānau Ora Navigator at the Mount Wellington Integrated Health Centre, John’s job is to ensure the practice is advocating for families and helping them find the help they need to thrive.
“My role is to liaise with the community,” John explains. “I am the voice for our area in our clinic. If there are any notices – for example – with the covid vaccine – I ensure our clinic is speaking different Pacific languages and bringing awareness to our communities.”
Educating our communities.
This is John’s first time attending the Nga Vaka Turanga Māori Cook Islands programme, however he has been involved with many similar community projects.
“As a navigator, especially in the health sector, it’s important we’re aware of different initiatives and trainings so we can pass on information to our people. We haven’t yet come to a point in dealing with domestic violence, but it’s best to be prepared in case we do come across it.”
The father of six, who comes from a big family himself is well connected to his Cook Islands community here in New Zealand. John says there’s a need to stay rooted in culture in order to achieve wellbeing.
“We have to stay grounded in our Cook Islands cultural values.”
Grounded, not stagnant.
John is clear about the difference, however, between being grounded in culture and refusing to evolve cultural ways of thinking which might contradict New Zealand’s laws.
“We need to adapt to where we are so that it doesn’t cause any strife or divisions in families,” he says. “There is a reason why laws are in place.”
“We need to blend the two cultures, because ‘no teia tuatau’,” John says, explaining an element of the Turanga Māori that asserts the importance to be relevant and realistic to the environment and context within which people live today in Aotearoa. He says while it’s important his people stay true to cultural values and practices, at the same time they must adhere to the laws of the country.
Being responsive to families in need.
Akono’anga Māori is the expression of knowledge, beliefs, customs, morals, arts and personality and working together for the benefit of Cook Islands people and families. It is both the substance and a set of processes whose primary purpose is to ensure well-being.
Turanga Māori provides participants with an in-depth insight to these cultural approaches to achieving family wellbeing, especially when dealing with family violence.
Which is exactly what John does in his day to day.
“Being in the community every day I got used to the what, where and how of what’s happening in my community coming at me from all directions. As long as I’ve got all these tools that are available, it helps.
“Especially helping families and ensuring that those who need help are looked after.”
John loves working in the space that he is in, especially with the elderly in the community.
“Ensuring that our elderly know there is support available, is especially important. Some of them don’t realise they have access to support so that’s where we come in.
“During the Covid-19 lockdown we were fortunate to be part of the group that was distributing/ giving support to families. That’s where I found a lot of elderly by themselves and we were able to get in there and help them.”
Turanga Māori and the other ethnic specific programmes will allow John to be even more culturally competent when attending to elderly members of the Cook Islands community.
He encourages people to attend the Nga Vaka programme to help alleviate challenges that communities are facing or to help frontline workers become more resilient.
“The more concepts we have, the more of these frameworks that are available, the easier it is to use the right one for the right moment or the right occasion.”
Nga Vaka o Kāiga Tapu is an initiative born out of the Government Taskforce on Family Violence 2010 strategy addressing family violence in Pacific communities. It’s a unique programme that was created, designed and framed by Pacific communities to build strong families and prevent and address violence.
The Cause Collective has been running the current programme with support from Pasefika Proud since 2016. Nga Vaka o Kāiga Tapu uses culture to help Pacific communities lead their own action to prevent and stop Pacific family violence. More importantly, it promotes elements that protect and strengthen family and individual wellbeing.
Nga Vaka o Kāiga Tapu incorporates eight ethnic Pacific communities: Cook Islands, Fijian, Kiribati, Niuean, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan, Tuvaluan communities.