Pīkau i te Anamata: Re-imagining whānaucentric parenting practices in Aotearoa

About this research

PhD Researcher: Arianna Nisa-Waller (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāpuhi) (VUW)

Primary supervisors: Professor Anne-Marie Jackson     

Project summary:

Continuity of care is a term primarily used in midwifery that refers to models that incorporate continuity of services and/or continuity of care across hāputanga. Continuity of care is held as the gold standard internationally; it is well evidenced that health disparities exist for global indigenous communities across the perinatal landscape. In Aotearoa, these inequities impact wāhine Māori and their pēpī but are experienced by whānau as the primary providers of support and care. Where perinatal inequities exist for whānau Māori, it is essential to explore the factors that facilitate or guide whānau-led extensions of continuity within the first 2000 days of a baby’s life from conception to 5 years of age. Arianna’s project demonstrates that connecting to the practice of pīkau where our tipuna carried their babies on their backs provides an active place to reclaim the strengths of our earliest parenting traditions as a metaphor for flourishing whānau. Through the metaphorical values framework and practice of pikau, Arianna’s research follows the collective postnatal and parenting journeys of whānau Māori living in the Otago region. Arianna considers how whānau determine the domains of mātuatanga and seeks to give expression to whānau-led intergenerational aspirations for achieving hauora ā whānau, ā tamariki, ā hāpori.