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MASSEY is published by Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand

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MASSEY has a circulation of 75,000.

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A national leader in Mäori-centred research

Mason Durie came to Massey in 1998 to head up the University’s new Department of Mäori Studies after almost two decades in clinical practice as a psychiatrist and two years on the Royal Commission on Social Policy.

Those two years on the Royal Commission, one of the biggest research efforts New Zealand has seen, greatly affected the way he approached his job – even though at the time some politicians dismissed the massive report as the biggest doorstop ever produced.

“For me it was an intensive course in social policy and research into social policy,” Professor Durie says.

“Although the politicians had a problem with it, the state has used it. Many things, particularly in volume two about the Treaty of Waitangi, are accepted now. It is a valuable resource used by thinking people.”

He says historians will probably put the Royal Commission in the context of the fight going on at the same time between then Labour prime minister David Lange and his finance minister Roger Douglas on how far New Zealand should adopt a ‘new right’ agenda.

“Historians may say we didn’t support Douglas. If we had gone the other way, the ‘new right’ development would have escalated very quickly.”

What marked the Royal Commission out from earlier similar exercises was the effort it made to hear from Mäori communities.

“I was very much aware at the end of that experience that the way Mäori saw social policy and the way Mäori were articulating their aspirations for development had a different base and a different reality from what others were saying,” says Professor Durie, whose roots lie deep in Rangitane, Ngati Kauwhata and Ngati Raukawa.

In his work as a clinician, Professor Durie was already looking for ways to describe the different ways Mäori considered their health needs, influenced in part by his exposure while studying at McGill University in Toronto, Canada, to pioneering work on what was then called ‘transcultural psychiatry’.

“When I went to Massey, I built on what I had gained in my understanding of health and what I had gained in the understanding of social policy. I began to look at Mäori-centred approaches to research where you put Mäori experience, Mäori values, Mäori aspirations at the middle of your methodology.

“You don’t say, ‘how do I adapt this approach to Mäori?’. You start from the premise ‘what is important to Mäori’ and build around it.”

Professor Durie says Massey’s research is Mäori-centric, rather than comparing Mäori and non-Mäori.

“We do not do any bicultural research. I would not claim to be an expert on Pakeha health. Well, actually, I am,” he laughs.

In te ao Mäori, the Mäori world, Professor Durie is known as a softly spoken man who should always be listened to.

He is seen as someone who is able to stand above narrow rivalries, which is one of the reasons he was chosen to serve for six years as the secretary of the Mäori Congress.

The medical community also values Professor Durie’s input through his work on bodies such as the National Health Committee and the Mental Health Foundation.

Professor Durie sees the role of Mäori Studies departments in universities as being to facilitate

research into Mäori development in its broadest sense.

He has launched a raft of projects, many reflecting his health background, which are building up an unprecedented amount of empirical data about Mäori life and society.

The largest is Te Hoe Nuku Roa, a longitudinal study of 700 Mäori households, which is in its seventh year.

Every three years researchers visit each of the households to quiz whanau members on what they do, what they eat, their health condition, their use of Mäori language and what it means to be Mäori.

Two major projects, Te Rau Puawai and Te Rau Matatini, are linked to the development of a Mäori health workforce.

Te Rau Puawai targets people already working in health and encourages them on to degree pro-grammes with scholarships, support and mentoring.

Te Rau Matatini aims to expand and extend the Mäori mental health workforce.

“To do that we looked at a number of problems, such as how do you make the primary healthcare sector more able to handle mental health problems so you don’t have to wait for people to be admitted to hospital.”

The Mäori Studies Department has developed close links with other researchers, working with Auckland and Otago universities on a major survey of child nutrition.

“It is a national study looking at 3000 children aged from five to 15, 1000 of whom are Mäori. So our contribution has been to help shape the protocols and to help shape the design of the programme and then to train field workers who can interact with Mäori clients and get the best results out of them.

“As part of a World Health Organisation project, we are collaborating with the University of Auckland on a mental health prevalence survey, which has never done before. Everyone can tell you how many people go to hospital, but no one can tell you the actual pre-valence in a community of certain mental conditions.”

Much of the department’s work comes under the heading of heritage research, such as Dr Monty Soutar’s oral history of the Mäori Battalion C Company, which recruited from the East Coast.

“We have a project, Toi te Kupu, that has been going since 1995, which is about how best to provide resources that will encourage or lead to better Mäori language skills.

“We have analysed and catalogued a whole range of Mäori language resources – some written, some videos or recordings – and talked with teachers and schools.

“Part of that study is looking at what are the characteristics of households where Mäori is spoken. While education is a good start, unless you have that transferred to households, it will not be a core Mäori experience.

“As part of that, Ian Christensen has done some interesting work on cues – when you talk Mäori, when you don’t talk Mäori.”

As well as producing new knowledge, the research programme is growing the academic workforce. Te Hoe Nuku Roa, for example, has already produced four doctorates and three masters theses.

The programme has also ensured the department remains attractive for Mäori. Student numbers have remained stable at about 250 full-time equivalents, almost half of them doing extramural papers, while Mäori Studies departments at other universities have shrunk as Mäori students venture into other fields of study.

Fifteen years ago a common complaint of Mäori people was that they were over-researched, and many communities were hostile to academics.

Professor Durie says now that better methodo-logies for Mäori research have been developed, Mäori people are flooding into the field.

“The fundamental issue was that researchers were not attuned to the Mäori situation, so there was no gelling between researcher and researched.

“If the methodologies you use and the rationales you use are not linked to Mäori realities, they are not going to have much impact or be of much use to anyone later on. That is in no way discounting Western methodologies. It is saying, though, that the approach you use needs to have account of the values of the people you are researching.

“We have also been very much about getting an empirical basis to research, that although we are looking at a Mäori methodology, we also do recognise you need an empirical base, where it is quantitative research as much as qualitative.”

The research emerging from Massey is now being used for planning by government agencies, local government and iwi runanga.

“We needed to move beyond rhetoric and get evidence. In the world we live in we need empirical data.”

Massey has recognised Professor Durie’s contribution by creating a new role for him, Professor of Mäori Research and Development, which he will take up later this year once a replacement has been found to head Mäori Studies. He will graduate with a Doctorate in Literature in December.