Matariki – a time for reflection (even if there’s no guarantee you’ll like what you see) 

To reflect is to review, reset, and re-engage with your self, your whānau, and of course your mahi. This is why you get so many professional think-pieces about Matariki! 
 
For me as wāhine Māori, Matariki has always been part of the fabric of my year, but it’s nice to feel like it’s part of something bigger as it grows in recognition and consideration – people all across Aotearoa engaging in the traditions of Matariki together. This year, it has extra meaning for me in my work, too. 

As an organisation, Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa is working through an anti-racism programme. This work, endorsed by our Senior Leadership Team, is a review of our own work, our systems and processes to identify where system level issues are negatively impacting our clients.   
 
It’s a confronting area of discovery for us: sexual health and wellbeing services, just like so many other areas in the health sector, deals with a diverse group of New Zealanders. And, just like so many other areas, we acknowledge that we have systems and structures that do not support the needs of all New Zealanders. We know this is particularly so for Māori and Pacific whānau.  
 
 We know there is huge mahi to do. 
 
In February of this year, we changed our organisation’s name from Family Planning to Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa – in a way, our own public coming of the dawn. It was a long time coming, too. We have a proud legacy in our organisation; a whakapapa that’s about women recognising the need to help other woman. Our organisation has been there for so many people – wāhine and others – who have needed us to operate as advocates, confidantes, medical providers and often kaitiaki of delicate wairua. It’s certainly true that many people access our services when they are in a spot they’d rather not be, or when they are experiencing confusion, mamae or whakama.  
 
Coming to a place that was about wellbeing rather than planning was a specific language shift, that connects to the prinicples of the anti-racism work, in that it promotes access and inclusion. Likewise the use of the words sexual and Aotearoa are meaningful. Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa casts off a kind of euphemism that we know was a barrier for some. Equity, access and choice remain the philosophical pou of our service, and we think that the new name is a much better platform. 
 
But we learn more about ourselves every day – even since changing our name and embracing new tohu/signs that signal to the people that we are trying to help that we are here for them. Because part of that learning is about who is left out, who is left behind and who is privileged. Again: this is confronting, but we know that even an organisation with a proven track record of trying to ensure equity is a core focus, the experience for some of our (especially) wāhine Māori doesn’t bear that out. And this has significant long term impacts – take STIs as an example, which can impact fertility, which can impact occurrence of pelvic inflammatory disease. Data from a recent survey we undertook, identified that access to the tools of STI prevention was inequitable, including access to condoms, and STI testing if you’re asymptomatic. The data looks even less rosy for our gender diverse whānau. 
 
This is where reflection comes into it; it’s an important job, holding up that mirror, even if you know that not everything staring back is going to necessarily be what you want to see. 

Tania (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga ki Wharekauri) is the Director of Hauora Māori and Equity at Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa and a Hon Associate Professor at the Māori Indigenous Health Innovation Department, Ōtakou Whakaihu Waka (The University of Otago, Christchurch). Tania has been involved in research and teaching with a focus on addressing Māori health inequities for 17 years. The findings of Tania’s PhD thesis have led to the design and development of the CONSIDER statement “the Consolidated criteria for strengthening reporting of health research involving Indigenous Peoples”. Tania sees her role at Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa as an opportunity to advocate for reproductive justice and sexual and reproductive equity in Aotearoa.  Tania is also board member of the Tamai Foundation, and is a māmā to two teenage tama, and a fur baby.