Colonisation As Determinant Of Inequalities Between Maori And NonMaori People Homework Answer

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Question :

Quote:

“the natives of the country are a strong raw boned well-made active people rather above than under the common size especially the men … they seem to enjoy a good state of health and many of them live to a good old age”

James Cook

Maori no longer enjoy the “good state of health” observed by Captain Cook and compared to their fellow New Zealanders, it cannot be said that they “live to a good old age”. 

Assessment purpose:

To explore the process of colonisation as a determinant of longstanding inequalities between Maori and non-Maori. 

Reflect on implications for own nursing practice.  

Essay task:

a) Describe the initial impact of colonisation on Maori as the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Identify specific breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and link these to the social, economic and health inequalities Maori experience today. 

Furthermore discuss colonisation as a continuing process and determinant of ongoing inequalities. 

b) Write a personal reflection identifying what insights you may have gained and discuss how these will influence and inform your nursing practice. 

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Answer :

Maori Essay

Introduction

This essay aims towards exploring the process of colonisation as a determinant of longstanding inequalities between Maori and Non-Maori people. For this purpose, this essay will first describe the impact of colonisation on Maori as the indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Further, this essay will also discuss colonisation as a continuing process and determinant of ongoing inequalities. Lastly, this essay will provide a personal reflection on the implications for own nursing practices. 

Impact of Colonisation on Maori

Tangata Whenua is the term that is used in New Zealand to refer to the Maoris as “people of the land”. The Maoris are considered a group of indigenous people who had experienced their colonisation hardships over the last few centuries (Anderson et al., 2014). It has also been observed that Maori people were forced to start new livelihoods in unfamiliar places that took several years for both the people of Europe and Maori to settle in harmony.  

Colonisation can be defined as a process of one country settling down at another place. In the process, the originated country people are supposed to acknowledge the country's new rules and regulations and start settling down in harmony (Paradies, 2016). In the late 1840s, Maori people were forced to settle down in some other place and sell their ancestor's territories. This act of colonisation was referred to as "Loss of Maori Land". 

When European colonised New Zealand, they found that Maori people were there for ages over the country's North Island. In this regard, the Dutch people founded New Zealand in 1642. As a result, they figured out and evaluated more than 100,000 Maori people who inhabited that land (Webb, 2017). On the other hand, the Europeans also figured out that the Southern side of the Island was captured by some powerful tribes who could not leave the land. Over the next few years, when British people arrived in New Zealand to start colonisation, the people who belonged to the Maori community faced many issues (Smith, 2011). As a result, the Maoris were forced to face slavery and also fight wars with Great Britain. Later, Wakefield pushed some political norms to establish self-governance and believed in processing British people and communities' land. Since Maori people referred to the land as the symbol of well-being and success, the British evaluated the land as a source of profit and started acknowledging it as the main source of profit for its economy (Joy & Beddoe, 2019). 

In the early 1830s, a British resident named James Busby was allotted to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand to investigate the possibilities of adopting a new flag for the nation (Moon, 2020). As a result, the treaty of Waitangi was introduced to give the Maori people more power of governance (New Zealand History Online, 2012). For this purpose, the government legislation derived by Busby processed a crown to translate the guaranteed acquisition (Smith, 2012). However, the Crown policy was not controllable since the people of Maori signed a different contract regarding their land. Through this way, the Maori people possessed assertiveness over several years by fighting the Treaty of Waitangi (Orange, 2015). The legislation aimed towards reclaiming the Maori Sovereignty as the name Maori was given by the British people, which was more of a derogatory name. In the last couple of decades, the Maori people are found to be breaching the treaty of Waitangi for the sake of supporting their land, culture, and language (Ruru, 2011).

Another example could be derived from the protest that was led in 1975. It was inaugurated by Whina Cooper, who was perhaps the Te Rarawa (Brookes, 2015). He insisted on advocating for the rights of Maori land. By the time the protest started gaining the local people's support, around 60,000 people had signed the petition in the Parliament of Auckland (Hill, 2012). 

The current social inequalities between Maori and Non-Maori people are found to be associated with the areas of justice, racism, and language. It has been also found that Maori people have less access to social justice and that is why they started moving into the rural areas more comprehensively. Even the 1898 Old Age Pensions Act was found to be allotting pensions to people who were Europeans and not the Maori people. This was found to be breaching the Treaty and the Non-Maoris were found to be having more privilege than the Maori (Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2020). There are other shreds of evidence as well that echo the biases against the discrimination between Maori and Non-Maori people (Poata-Smith, 2013). These include the differential access regarding legal information, advice, and representation limitations for the Maori people. Similarly, more than 8% of the Maori people were victimised of physical attack, which is comparatively lesser than the usual European people who stand at around 3% (Dulin et al., 2011). Lastly, while the Non-Maoris are found to be receiving a high degree of support, Maoris are found to be discriminated against based on the language spoken. 

The current economic inequalities between Maori and Non-Maori people are associated with education, employment, income, living standards, and housing. While Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People echoes that Indigenous people have all the right to acknowledge their control over educational systems, Maori people still struggle to receive sufficient education for their children (Davis, 2012). As per the statistics of 2005, more than 49% of Maori children left school without even receiving an NCEA qualification which was 22% in Non-Maori people (Marriott & Sim, 2015). The 1028 census report also showed that around 50% of European and Asian people access home ownership naturally but the Maoris are found to be having lower income than these non-Maoris. In this regard, the average income of a Maori individual in 2017 was somewhat lower than then Non-Maoris by 82% (The Treasury, 2018). In comparison, the Non-Maori people stood at 25.7% as per the report of June 2007. Thus, this provides empirical evidence regarding the discrimination that Maori people face in the labour market. While the average income is still found to be somewhere around $400, an average Non-Maori earns a minimum of $637 per week (Dyall et al., 2013). As a result, the inequalities are visible from their living standards and housing capabilities. 

While discrimination is visible in terms of education, earning, and living standards, it is obvious that the impact is significant on the health aspects. In this regard, the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907 was found to be stopping Maori people from accessing traditional Maori practices to heal. This was because they felt that the tradition followed supernatural or spiritual techniques to heal people. That is why the Health Quality and Safety Commission's Chief Executive echoed that the health outcomes for Maori people’s health assessments are 100% worse than that of the Non-Maoris (Woodard, 2014). As per the report of 2019, it has been found that the Maori health concerns were a subject of more than 200 claims. Despite this, the consideration of health inequality for the Maori people remains contentious. It is not debatable that while the Maoris receive less, the Non-Maori people receive more, which continues to an undefined control (Rusell et al., 2013). As a result, the differential access to health exposures leads to several disease incidence and also the inequality in the quality of care is received. Thus, it is evident that environmental factors such as discrimination and racism influence Maoris' physical health aspects more comprehensively. 

· Health

As far as the current scenarios are concerned, New Zealand is posing large gaps in life expectancies. Considering this context, the gap between Maoris and Non-Maoris is less than two years and requires some severe policies to be introduced (Reid et al., 2019). Further, it has also been noticed that the Maoris' mortality rates are complex and, thus, three times more than that of the Non-Maori people. This leads to echoing the causes of combines and other cardiovascular diseases (Palmer et al., 2019). In this regard, while colonisation is treated as a continuous process, the determinant of the ongoing inequalities in health assessments has been widened for the last couple of decades. That is why it was potentially echoed in the last segment that Maori people’s health assessments are 100% worse than that of the Non-Maoris. 

· Education

As discussed earlier, Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People echoes that Indigenous people have the right to acknowledge their control over educational systems. However, it has been found that Maori people are still struggling to receive sufficient education for their children. In around 2003, the age-standardised tertiary participation rate for children was found to be decreased from 13,000 to 9,000 (New Zealand, 2013). As a result, the Maori children started receiving half of the curriculum offered to Non-Maori children. In 2005, more than 49% of Maori children left school without even receiving NCEA qualification (Sutherland, 2019).  This was around 22% in the case of Non-Maori children. 

· Social Welfare

In terms of social welfare, the Maoris are found to be struggling with their living standards. In this regard, social welfare was significantly lower in 2004, as the pattern was evident. There are various shreds of evidence that echo the biases against the discrimination between Maori and Non-Maori people (Harwood, 2010). These include the differential access regarding legal information, advice, and representation limitations for the Maori people. Although there was a little difference found to be taking place between the average living standard of Maori and Non-Maori people in 2004, the severe hardship remains constant at 7% over half of the pacific families (Miner-Williams, 2017). Thus, it is evident from the records that the vulnerable living standards have led Maoris to stay dependent on the assistance policies. 

· Justice

      It has been found that the Maori people have higher offender rates as compared to the Non-Maoris. However, they both are found to be possessing similar history and backgrounds in terms of socioeconomic cultures (Paine & Gander, 2016). The differential access is found to be interrelated with legal information, representation, and legal advice. Still, the Maori people are found to be having lower access to the ace of justice. In 2006, the Ministry of Justice reflected a spike of 25% in the size of Maori people imprisoned (Fu et al., 2015). As a result, the Maori people are at a greater risk of being the victim of crimes than the Non-Maori people.

Conclusion

To conclude, this essay aimed towards exploring the process of colonisation as a determinant of longstanding inequalities between Maori and Non-Maori people. For this purpose, this essay has first described the impact of colonisation on Maori as the indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Further, it has also discussed colonisation as a continuing process and determinant of ongoing inequalities. 

Personal Reflection 

The insights that I have gained in terms of health inequalities for the Maori people are complex and require some major consideration of policies. Considering the current scenario, it has been found that the gap between Maoris and Non-Maoris are found to be less than two years and thus requires some severe policies to be introduced. On the other hand, I have also encountered that the determinant of the ongoing inequalities in health assessments has been widened since the last couple of decades has led to various cardiovascular diseases. For this purpose, the insights require reflective in action that will broadly include two major segments, namely mindfulness and indiscrimination. In this regard, what I figured out is the New Zealand Nursing Council recognized some basic principles of the Treaty and thus, provided nursing care on the basis of various factors. These included factors such as collaboration, participations, protection, and quality. Despite various policies and interventions, the consideration of health inequality for the Maori people remains contentious. Thus, it could be possibly echoed loud that through this essay, an insight on the history of New Zealand has been learnt. Further, it has been also found that there are various Maori people who are imprisoned as of now and thus requires some severe step and consideration from the phase of justice. This has been showed up due to poverty and the living standard that Maori people exhibits. 

To help the Maori people establish the right set of participation to receive equality in society, I will emphasise the capabilities and opportunities that nursing practice holds. In this regard, the qualities that I will potentially try to increase will include self-awareness, synthesis, evaluation, description, and critical analysis. I will also try to spread the knowledge and data with my peer and folks so that the collaborative approach might lead to a change in Maoris's society. While it is not possible to fight against the Non-Maori's mindset, the medical aspects can change their perspectives. For this purpose, I will acknowledge more on establishing quality medical providences for the Maori people every month. I will seek help from Change.org so that this thing comes into consideration as well. At the same time, respecting all the issues that comes in between the service line the line of duty produces a major challenge for the nurses. That is why it becomes essential for the nursing practitioners to thrive to improve their relationship with the people of Maori. In this regard, I undersign that my basic knowledge about Maori people is strong but the overview about their culture and issues are insufficient. Lastly, I will also seek help and accountability from the upper management of the health care organisation so that potential benefits could be driven and delivered directly to the places of Maori habitats to spread relevant harmony with peace. For this purpose, I will perceive a strong research about all the aspects of health issues that are faced by the people and community of Maori. This will potentially help me to provide a better health care and outcomes for the Maori people.