Te Roopu Wahine Toko I Te Ora continues to provide basics

Tu Tangata, Issue 25, 1 August 1985, Page 2

Te Roopu Wahine Toko I Te Ora continues to provide basics

Thirty four years on, the driving force for the establishment of the Maori Woman’s Welfare League has increased. President, Georgina Kirby says the appalling lack of adequate Maori housing on one hand and the low esteem some Maori parents have of themselves are areas the league has got stuck into.

The league was born prior to 1951 out of the need to look after the Maori families who flooded the cities. Housing was big on the agenda in the days of league founder, Whina Cooper.

in fact one of the first jobs of the league was a housing survey that revealed most Maori families didn’t have proper homes in the city. Government departments then took over in providing adequate housing. While Georgie Kirby acknowledges some things have changed, she says the big push is still on for Maori housing.

She says 3,600 new houses are needed in the next five years, and that’s one hundred a month. She says it can't be done on the present nineteen million a year that’s alloted to Maori housing. The league’s annual conference this year recommended that a bigger budget be asked for. And the state of Maori families is also a big concern for the league says Georgie. “Parents need to let children know they’re wanted. They have to take re-

sponsibility and see the need to be parents.” Georgie admits that a lot of parents have had the responsibility taken away from them by state agencies like police and social welfare. And a lot of parents have abdicated the responsibility as a result of urban living breaking down caring whanau structures. That’s where she sees the most important role of the league, in providing the basics; the wairuatanga or sanctioning of people; the shelter which encompasses the warmth of the whanau; and food which is more than just kai but also the feeding of the total person.

She says without the basics, “it’s no good talking about te taha this and that”. “Good housing needs proper health care.” Health care was really emphasised by this year’s league conference in Hastings. It followed up the first really professional health survey of Maori woman carried out by Maori women. ‘Rapuora’ employed Maori women to

sample how Maori women saw themselves, and the results were written up by Elizabeth Murchie a past president of the league. (A detailed look at Rapuora is included elsewhere in this feature, as is some of the recommendations from this years Conference.)

The league has declared the Decade of Maori Health 1985-1995, so that Maori goals, as outlined in Rapuora and at the conference, can be monitored and worked at. In addressing the needs of the Maori people today, Georgina sees the urban migration of the Maori and subsequent breakdown of the whanau supportive system as the main culprit. Subsequent generations of whanau have been split up by the non-Maori make-up of city life and have been separated from support that would normally have been there, she says.

She cites her own family example where her parents moved away from their Wairoa base, and along with a few other Ngati Kahungunu, lived and worked in the Rotorua area. She says her family kept their links with Kahungunu but also forged new ones with their Te Arawa neighbours. As a result, she grew up in a supportive environment which her parents had built up.

“Each generation has to lay down the environment for the next generation so that they can gain whatever it is that they are after.”

And she says this is not happening enough in the cities where most of the Maori are. ‘‘People have cut themselves off and they need to be shown the links they have with one another.”

In Georgie’s own area, Freeman’s Bay, where she lives in Auckland, she has helped the formation of a league branch composed largely of solo mothers. She says they were encouraged to take breaks from their children so that they could talk amongst themselves.

It was then found out that they didn’t know much about their whakapapa or who they were related to in the city.

Georgie says they were all encouraged to go back to their home areas to gather the needed information from the relatives they had back there. After this the mums had much better support with their city living.

Georgie says it’s this ‘mish-mash’ of tribal Maori people living across the country without the basic foundation, that causes the problems.

‘‘The league has continued to push for the strengthening of the whanau through branches encouraging their women to get to know their blood-ties.”

She says a network of whanaunga has been built up across the country and needs to continue.

“I don’t think our people are strong enough to say, you’re my nephew, you’re my neice and you’re going to come with me. You're not going to go on the streets anymore.”

“I believe there’s been an undermining of parents leadership and consequently if somebody knocks you, instead of retaliating, you just step back

ten feet.”

Georgie says they’re not strong enough to take their relations out of the homes and borstals. “It’s the same with the prisons.” It’s this strengthening of the whanau by blood ties which Georgie sees as coming before the wider iwi ties are made. “We must see all Maori children as our responsibility.” But the message to league mothers is to make sure they're okay in their family and then when they’re confident in handling their own, they can help others.

The role of women may be a big talking point in New Zealand society, but in Maori life today Georgie believes the worth of women is acknowledged.

“It’s taken for granted by the women... that they’re the main strength.”

At one marae she was asked if the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was a fore-runner of changes in male and female roles in maoridom.

She told them that the traditional system would stay because it was a part of Maori life that was agreed to by their grandmothers and their ancestresses.

“You are part of that decision.” “No marae can function without the women, it has to. The men and women must ensure that status is upheld.” “It’s no good saying, ‘we don’t like the idea of women speaking on the marae in some other place’. I said, ‘just let them know where your place is in terms of kawa on your marae, and just

not have yourselves politicised in thinking about what one’s need is.’ Georgina sees pakeha confusion over Maori women’s place in Maori society. “The Maori women lead every aspect of the marae, except for the one in the whaikorero, who the hell wants to speak out there anyway?” “That’s the last bastion left to the

men... they have that small function but they also ensure that the women are there.”

Georgie says if we are talking about the woman’s role within Maori society, as opposed to the pakeha society, then Maori women are not querying the woman’s status.

“It’s the first voice heard on the marae, that’s the key that opens the door to the whole of the culture.”

“What other woman in a culture has that?’’

Georgie believes younger Maori woman don’t necessarily know and understand that part of the culture because of the ‘mish-mash’ of urban living.

And how does the President of Te Roopu Wahine Toko I Te Ora see a solution?

“Well we have the resource, in terms of the culture, a third of our membership are in the kohanga reo. Why? Because they have the language and understand and know the bringing up of families... in different levels.

She says an important strength is their tolerance, and their ability to awhi people. Some people expect the league to have the answer for all street kids and other issues but Georgie just expects her women to awhi, to embrace their own family first. That’s why she’s emphatic that there should be someone in the whanau, a grand-aunt, an uncle, a whanau advocate who points out that such and such needs doing, ‘me penei, me mahi te mea nei’. She says the person should bring the whanau together. And in Georgina’s own family there is such an elder person back in Nuhaka who checks out whether Georgie is speaking enough Maori, I hope she passes. League membership is three thousand Maori and pakeha members, the average age being around 35. The league also has men and women as associate members and women dignatories as honorary members.

1985 league recommendations and comments

TREATY OF WAITANGI

The treaty not be ratified as law but be honoured instead. The conference felt the mana of the Maori signatories established the Maori as tangata whenua. Also that if any changes were to be made, they should be made by Taitokerau. The proposed bill of rights was seen as being separate from the treaty, with strong feelings that the treaty was already a bill of rights.

TREATY OF WAITANGI TRIBUNAL

The conference asked for increased membership on the tribunal so that tribal areas would be represented, also that the league be represented. The conference asked that the tribunal have the power to make laws. Concern was expressed that should the treaty become part of the bill of rights, the tribunal’s authority would not be enough to prevent any future government abuse.

WAITANGI DAY

Waitangi Day should be commemorated rather than celebrated, with the emphasis on educating people to the significance of the treaty. The conference felt that Waitangi Day was a base around which to question the present status of Maori people in New Zealand and that the treaty must be honoured for Waitangi Day to continue.

| HEALTH I

The Decade of Health 1985-1995 have measurable goals in the areas of life expectancy, alcohol and drug abuse, and a healthy weight. a need to build up information on tribal medicines. establish whare rapuora using existing public health and plunket nurses, dental care and spiritual healing. educate medical staff about Maori values and wairua as to cultural needs. encourage league members to be positive with ideas and health care for themselves and their children. re-emphasis the teachings of our tupuna. explore the idea of a health centre based at a school with a community health worker from Health Dept working with a co-ordinator from the league. accept we need to change our eating habits and that marae should provide nutritionally sound menus. smokers should acknowledge the ‘non-smoking’ rights of others. (It has been a league practice for some years not to smoke at branch and conference meetings.) Maori people should make themselves aware of rights of patients and next of kin whilst in health institutions.

TE ROPU WAHINE TOKO I TE ORA MAORI WOMENS WELFARE LEAGUE INC

The Maori Womens Welfare League arose out of a desire of Maori women throughout Aotearoa for an organisation that would give Maori women a place and a voice in New Zealand society, and yet not be exclusively Maori in its membership.

The Social and Economic Advancement Act of 1945 was placed on the Statute Books and the Department of Maori Affairs came into being. The Welfare Division appointed Women Welfare Officers to form Maori Welfare Committees as sister organisations to Maori Tribal Committees.

The first Conference of the Maori Womens Welfare League was held in September 1951 and 187 branches were represented. The prepared constitution was adopted on a note of goodwill, cooperation and assistance and the newly formed organisation soon emerged as a very important link within maoridom.

The League was formed with the recognition that the influence of the woman in the home is reflected in the members of her household. Maori women had wisdom, courage, fortitude, and an awareness of spiritual and moral values.

Princess Te Puea Herangi of Waikato, a woman of great stature, was the first Patroness. Her grandniece, Te Arikinui Te Atairangikahu, is the League’s present Patroness. Under the inspired leadership of Dame Whina Cooper as foundation Dominion President, and with a clear vision of League needs, this body of women moved out in force with dedication and determination, seeking solutions to post-war difficulties. No task was too small or too big. They raised money to educate and clothe children in need, undertook housing surveys demanding better houses, built roads, revived Maori arts and crafts, visited hospitals and prisons, carried out a general programme of fundamental education. The League challenged Government policies in every area of social need and justice. All through this first decade the women were fully supported by their men.

The second decade saw the independence of the League and the formation of the New Zealand Maori Council with the men accepting responsibility for land laws, housing, education and general policies. The League was involved in the formation of the Maori Education Foundation. The most outstanding contribution in the 60's was the development of the Playcentre movement and its extension into Australia among the Aborigines.

During its third decade, the League faced the challenge of a second migration from country to the city, from the home tribal lands to adopted tribal areas. The organisation was faced with youth alienation in large numbers which demanded a positive personal and group response. The League responded on the basis of Whanaungatanga.

In the 1980 s the League has undertaken to partner the Department of Maori Affairs, in the promotion and development of the Tu Tangata programmes: Womens Wananga; Youth Wananga; Whanau Wananga; Te Kohanga Reo; Rapu Mahi; and Matua Whangai. The League has provided the community component esential to the success of those projects.

Anxiety over the disparity in health standards between Maori and the rest of the Community has involved the League in the first scientific and technological health survey to be conducted by Maori women themselves. The purpose of the survey is to determine the Maori womans perception of her own health and the health of her family. From the information gathered, the League is to promote positive action programmes to improve the health of our own women and their families, and to improve Maori health to the point where health statistics for New Zealand show no ethnic differences. The Health Report of the survey was released November 1984 at the Ngati Toa Marae.

Georgina Kirby National President Maori Womens Welfare League 1983 Maraea Te Kawa 1983 Violet Pou 1980-1983 Elizabeth Murchie 1977-1980 Mira Szaszy 1973-1977 Hine Potaka 1971-1973 Miria Karauria 1968-1971 Ruhia Sage 1964-1968 Mata Hirini 1960-1964 Miria Logan 1957-1960 Whina Cooper 1951-1957