Supporting Hauora Mâori

It is a pleasure to be here tonight to support your kaupapa of advocating and supporting Hauora Mâori and Mâori development and to congratulate the scholarship recipients.
Two years ago I gave out four scholarships, this year I’m delighted to be handing out eight each worth $5,000.
This is a vitally important kaupapa because we also need to grow our own Mâori health providers.
It’s a long road to train to be a medical practitioner so the study choices made early on and the support given, including financial, are real and tangible steps towards the goal of Hauora Mâori.
We need to do all we can to ensure that Mâori – and our rangatahi, in particular – enjoy a high quality of life. An important dimension to this is our health.
I’m proud to be part of a Government that is committed to whânau ora: Mâori families supported to achieve their maximum health and well-being.
I recognise Mâori still experience some health inequalities compared with non-Mâori, but we are working hard to turn this around for Mâori. This has two dimensions.
First, that effort concentrates on ensuring that mainstream health services work better and more effectively for Mâori.
Second, we have also strengthened healthcare provision to Mâori, through the development of Mâori health providers and I am pleased to be able to say that there has been a substantial increase in the number of Mâori health providers.
Here in Tairâwhiti, the Mâori population reflects the total New Zealand Mâori population ie. it is young. Half the population in Tairâwhiti are under the age of 25.3 years.
Many of our young may not go and get kaimoana but many are involved in healthy sports like waka ama and surf life saving and swimming. Thousands of our young people are involved in kapa haka.
Literally hundreds of our young people are involved in weekend sport supported by their whanau. That’s a good thing and something we should encourage more of.
Young Mâori are sophisticated digitally and communicate all the time with each other. I certainly can’t keep up with their texting skills. We just have to make sure that they are safe with who they are texting and talking to.
But the face of Mâori society is changing. We face a fast diminishing resource of pakeke and kaumâtua and marae are struggling to cope with responsibilities of paepae and ringawera. Many whanau don’t go the marae anymore and tangi are being held at home and we have to understand the reasons for that.
In the time I’ve been Minister of Mâori Affairs, there have been many gains achieved by Mâori. More are working, more are participating in tertiary education, Mâori are earning more, their assets base is flourishing, and te reo has been saved from what was once described a “perilous” state.
A couple of weeks ago my ministry – Te Puni Kôkiri – launched a new publication Ngâ Kaihanga Hou – for Mâori future makers.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I hope you take the time soon to visit the Te Puni Kôkiri website and download a copy of it.
The publication reminds us all that Mâori have significant and far-reaching choices to make today. Choices that will influence the kind of future they will live.
Mâori are contributing more and more to the New Zealand and global economy but our challenge is to continue unlocking opportunities for the increased participation of Mâori.
To this end, we need to understand the future drivers of influence that will affect Mâori participation and investment decisions.

The choices we make early in our lives – count!
I went to Mangatuna Native School and so did my cousin Dr Paratene Ngata. I didn’t go to University but he did and like many of you tonight is very passionate about improving our heath and wellbeing.
I don’t go to see my cousin when I’m at home because he’ll give me a growling for not doing this and that but to you all and to the organiser of the conference, Marie, congratulations for bringing so many committed people together it can only be good for us in the long run.
Mâori have to do more to stop smoking and dare I say it watch our eating habits and keep active. And that’s what all these doctors are here for tonight. To keep us on task, that is, making the right choices for our health and our whânau.
Once again congratulations to the scholarship recipients and have a wonderful conference.