I’m a Kiwi, born in New Zealand/Aotearoa, and while I’m of European heritage, my early work life was spent in a Maori educational environment. So, for non-Kiwi readers, Maori are the indigenous people Europeans encountered living throughout New Zealand in the last two hundred and fifty or so years.
They first arrived here around 700 years ago from the Cook Islands/Tahiti region—a perilous 3,300km journey across the broad Pacific Ocean in open canoes. That’s only slightly less than from Europe to North America!
If you’d like to see a short doco on this impressive feat, check out this Youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmGdmLW2HTo
(from about 2min to 5min if you’re pushed for time!)
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Maori and Pakeha (Pakeha is the Maori word for white Europeans) have different views of wellbeing.
Europeans see wellbeing primarily in terms of physical health and the treatment of illness is typically based on western (allopathic) medicine.
Maori, in contrast, see wellbeing holistically. They have a model called the “Whare Tapa Wha,” where “Whare” is a house and the “tapa wha” refer to four (wha) cornerstones, the foundation on which the stability (or wellbeing) of the entire dwelling depends.
The Tapa Wha are:
- Taha Tinana – the Human body
- Taha Whanau – People. Interpersonal relationships with immediate family, extended family and the wider community.
- Taha Hinengaro – the Mind; the Mental realm, including feelings and emotions, mental health
- Taha Wairua – Spirituality or the spiritual realm
You can find full details of each of these cornerstones here:
https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/healthy-living/t/te-whare-tapa-wh%C4%81-and-wellbeing/
Finally, a house is always built on the land. Whenua, in Maori. Traditionally, land is always communally owned, enduring beyond every human lifetime.
It’s an interesting contrast: a tight focus on the physical/medical, versus a multidimensional, holistic approach.
Saying that one model is better than the other would be to fall into the trap of dualistic thinking—which we don’t do here!