HBRW 2022 - Imagining Decolonisation

Decolonisation – the word alone invokes discomfort and unease for many; but the concept plants a seed of hope in others that we can work towards achieving equality for all who live in Aotearoa New Zealand. What really is decolonisation? Why does it matter and what is our part in it? In this kōrerorero, we look at the legacy of Dr Moana Jackson through the voices of others including those he worked with or mentored.

Mereana Pitman, MNZM for services to Maori and family violence prevention, has worked as a trainer and facilitator for violence prevention organisations. She has been the National Māori Chairperson of Women’s Refuge and contributed to the development of Mauri Ora, a violence prevention framework, by participating in the ministerial Māori taskforce on family violence. She is a co-ordinator of the Ngati Kahungunu Violence-free Iwi Strategy, a project supported by Te Puni Kokiri and based in Hawke’s Bay. She has authored and co-authored a number of publications that address family violence and parenting from a kaupapa Māori research perspective. Ms Pitman has frequently spoken publicly about issues affecting Māori children and young people.

Dr Monty Soutar ONZM has worked widely with iwi and Māori communities, in particular while writing Nga Tama Toa, which told the story of C Company of 28 (Māori) Battalion in the Second World War. He has been a teacher, soldier, university lecturer, iwi chief executive, civil servant and has held a number of appointments on national advisory boards, including the Archives NZ Council, the Guardians of the Alexander Turnbull Library, the First World War Centenary Panel, and the Waitangi Tribunal. From 2016 to 2020, as a senior historian with Manatu Taonga (the Ministry for Culture and Heritage), he led a digital project on Treaty of Waitangi settlements. His latest publication, Kāwai: For Such a Time as This, is part of a series which focuses on the impact of colonisation on Māori. This historical novel trilogy, inspired by true events, narrates the experiences of eight generations of one family, vividly describing both pre-colonial Māori society and the colonial experience from a Māori perspective.

Dr Hinemoa Elder is of Ngati Kuri, Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri and Ngapuhi descent and the mother of two adult children.

She has lived on Te Motu Arai Roa, Waiheke Island for more than 20 years. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who works at Starship Hospital’s Child & Family and Mother & Baby Units and various community clinics. Hinemoa also provides youth forensic court reports and neuropsychiatric assessment and treatment of traumatic brain injury in private practice. She is a deputy psychiatry member of the New Zealand Mental Health Review Tribunal.

In 2019, Hinemoa was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to psychiatry and Maori. You can also find her on Instagram and Tiktok @drhinemoa.

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