Māori resilience: Navigating wellbeing in tertiary counselling settings

Abstract

WHAKARĀPOPOTO: Abstract

Persisting colonial practices in tertiary education continue to impact student wellbeing through the failure of tertiary institutions to provide culturally responsive approaches. Working as a counsellor within a clinical context repeatedly conflicts with positioning myself as Māori within a practice that sits in a wider institutional structure where Māori values, ways of being, doing, understanding, and knowing are not actively acknowledged and valued.

Using a Kaupapa Māori worldview, this research asserts Mana Motuhake and Rangatiratanga within student wellbeing services in tertiary education settings and more specifically, counselling practice. This study tells the stories of Māori students and Kaupapa Māori practitioners, in their way, in the hope to affirm, validate and voice Māori experiences. Student and practitioner narratives share culturally supportive models of therapeutic practice that cultivate strong identity, required in creating resilience and retention within tertiary settings.

This research is significant in two ways. The centrality of Te Aō Māori and the research approach itself, as it holds space for the participant whānau to fully express their experiences, and their pūkenga (skills) from their authentic self, at the same time ensuring a duty of care in providing support that is culturally responsive and inclusive of holistic approaches in which to create a high level of workforce competency (Mane & Toki, 2019). Six pūrakau, three tauira (students) and three Kaupapa Māori practitioners’ stories are presented and reflected on. Six key themes were drawn from the research and as a result, have informed the recommendations of this research.