Therapist and Coloniser

Pākehā Approaches to Māori Historical Trauma

Abstract

This article discusses issues in treating the historical trauma of Māori, the colonised peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. The advent of Māori psychotherapy has enabled valuable insight into the needs of such clients, but, even as it helps define a space of safety and nurture for Māori, questions arise about how non-Māori practitioners might treat Māori clients from outside this largely intra-cultural process. The article focuses on the response from New Zealand Pākehā (that is, New Zealanders of European descent), due to the fact that they are in the most primary bicultural relationship with Māori, in which an inherent white privilege and coloniser status complicates the relational process. Finally, the article discusses the difficulties Pākehā experience in bridging intercultural divides around cultural competency, power structures, and the importance of cultural self-awareness, which may also have a wider multicultural relevance to other tauiwi (non-Maori) practitioners.

Whakarāpopotonga

He matapakinga kaupapa whakatika i te hītori whetuki o te Māori, te tangata pēhitia o Aotearoa. Nō te tīmatanga ake o te whakaora hinengaro Māori te whakamanahanga o ngā mātauranga mārihi ki ngā hiahia ō aua kiritaki, engari, ahakoa e āwhinahia ana te tautuhi ātea haumanu, poipoi mō te Māori, ka ara tonu ake te pātai mō te momo whakaora kiritaki Māori ā ngā kaiwhakaora o iwi kē i waho ake i tēnei hātepe ahurei-takitahi. Ka arotika atu tēnei tuhinga ki te urupare mai ā ngā Pākehā, nā te mea ko rātau te kākano rua mātāmua ki te Māori, e puta ake nei te momo hao ā-mā me te tūranga kaipēhitanga hai whakauaua i te hātepe whakawhanaunga. Hai whakamutunga, ka matapakihia te uauatanga o te wheako Pākehā ki te whakawhiti tautuhi ahurei whakapā ki te toa ahurei, te mana whakatakotoranga, me te tokānuku o te tuakiri ahurei, ā, tērā pea he pānga whānui ake anō ki ngā kaimahi (iwi kē) kākano maha.