Global conference provides affirmation on progress of rongoā Māori
Our Māori Health Lead Pollyanne Taare and Head of Māori Health Partnerships Eldon Paea shared the progress of our rongoā Māori service at a global event in Canada last month. Pollyanne says it was great affirmation that we’re on the right track.
It was such an incredible honour for Eldon (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Moriori, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) and myself (Ngāti Porou) to represent ACC, Te Rangapū Hauora Māori (the Māori Health team), our whānau and tūpuna (ancestors) in Vancouver.
We were at the Healing our Spirit Worldwide conference on behalf of those people who had set the foundation three years ago to ensure rongoā Māori stood strong in ACC.
The conference honoured indigenous teachings and explored wellness, governance and self-determination. We presented on Indigenising Health Services in Aotearoa New Zealand, sharing the success of rongoā Māori, and it was a real career highlight.
Our presentation was well received. We had a huge amount of positive feedback and many indigenous health services kaimahi (staff) and providers from around the world wanted more information on our work.
I have some great learnings from this conference. My intention was to bring knowledge back home to help grow and enhance our service from a global, indigenous perspective when, in fact, we were the ones who took this over to Vancouver.
Striving to evolve our rongoā Māori service
We know we still have work to do and a lot to learn, but we also have a lot to share. We will always strive to evolve our rongoā Māori service to ensure we’re meeting the needs of whānau, as well as our practitioners.
For me, ACC offering rongoā Māori reflects our new strategy as an organisation, Huakina Te Rā, coming to life. It shows tangata whenua (people of the land) and tangata Tiriti (people in Aotearoa by right of the Treaty of Waitangi) have worked together to address inequities by enabling a mātauranga Māori healing option for our kiritaki (clients).
This is something that many indigenous providers around the world are still working through with their governments and organisations.
This experience made me extremely proud to be Māori and to work for ACC. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved to improve access, experience and health outcomes for our people and for all those who’ve healed spiritually, mentally and physically through rongoā Māori.
Māori Health Lead Pollyanne Taare and Head of Māori Health Partnerships Eldon Paea present at the Healing our Spirit Worldwide conference.
Building towards rongoā Māori conference
This experience will be hugely beneficial as we prepare to host our inaugural ACC Rongoā Māori Conference in May 2024.
Our conference will bring the rongoā community together with health clinicians and researchers to share information, knowledge, experiences and rangahau (research). We want to ensure that rongoā remains a taonga and is given the mana and recognition it deserves.
What is rongoā Māori?
- Rongoā is traditional Māori healing comprised of many different techniques, including mirimiri (bodywork), rākau rongoā (native flora herbal preparations), karakia (prayer) and more.
- Rongoā Māori has been offered as a rehabilitation service by ACC since June 2020.
- ACC data shows rongoā Māori claim volumes more than doubled in the 12 months to August 2023, with almost 29,000 rongoā sessions delivered to kiritaki.
More information on the ACC Rongoā Māori Conference is available at the online hub.
