Table Of ContentCOLLABORATIVE AND INDIGENOUS
MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY
This book examines a collaboration between traditional Māori healing and clini-
cal psychiatry. Comprised of transcribed interviews and detailed meditations on
practice, it demonstrates how bicultural partnership frameworks can augment
mental health treatment by balancing local imperatives with sound and care-
ful psychiatric care. In the first chapter, Māori healer Wiremu NiaNia outlines
the key concepts that underpin his worldview and work. He then discusses the
social, historical, and cultural context of his relationship with Allister Bush, a
child and adolescent psychiatrist. The main body of the book comprises chapters
that each recount the story of one young person and their family’s experience of
Māori healing from three or more points of view: those of the psychiatrist, the
Māori healer, and the young person and other family members who participated
in and experienced the healing. With a foreword by Sir Mason Durie, this book
is essential reading for psychologists, social workers, nurses, therapists, psychia-
trists, and students interested in bicultural studies.
Wiremu NiaNia was apprenticed as a child to a spiritual healer of the NiaNia
whānau. In 2005 he became the cultural therapist at Te Whare Mārie, the Māori
mental health service at Capital Coast District Health Board. He is now an inde-
pendent healer, writer, and consultant.
Allister Bush is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Te Whare Mārie, the Māori
mental health service in Porirua, and at Health Pasifika (integrated Pacific men-
tal health service, Capital Coast District Health Board).
David Epston is an honorary clinical lecturer at University of Melbourne and
an affiliate faculty member at North Dakota State University.
Writing Lives
Ethnographic Narratives
Series Editors Arthur P. Bochner, Carolyn Ellis
(University of South Florida) and Tony E. Adams
(Northeastern Illinois University)
Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives publishes narrative representations of qualitative
research projects. The series editors seek manuscripts that blur the boundaries between
humanities and social sciences. We encourage novel and evocative forms of express-
ing concrete lived experience, including autoethnographic, literary, poetic, artis-
tic, visual, performative, critical, multivoiced, conversational, and co-constructed
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ries; employ literary modes of scene setting, dialogue, character development, and
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tation, reflexivity, and evocative storytelling. Proposals and manuscripts should be
directed to [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].
Other volumes in this series include:
Bullied
Tales of Torment, Identity, and Youth
Keith Berry
Evocative Autoethnography
Writing Lives and Telling Stories
Arthur P. Bochner and Carolyn Ellis
Staring at the Park
A Poetic Autoethnographic Inquiry
Jane Speedy
Transcribing Silence
Culture, Relationships, and Communication
Kristine L. Muñoz
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Lives-Ethnographic-Narratives/book-series/WLEN
COLLABORATIVE AND
INDIGENOUS MENTAL
HEALTH THERAPY
Ta¯taihono — Stories of Ma¯ori
Healing and Psychiatry
Wiremu NiaNia, Allister Bush,
and David Epston
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
The right of Wiremu NiaNia, Allister Bush, and David Epston to be
identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: NiaNia, Wiremu, author. | Bush, Allister, author. | Epston,
David, author.
Title: Collaborative and indigenous mental health therapy : tātaihono,
stories of Māori healing and psychiatry / by Wiremu NiaNia, Allister
Bush, and David Epston.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016026432 (print) | LCCN 2016046190 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138230286 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138230309 (pbk.) |
ISBN 9781315386423 (ebk.) | ISBN 9781315386423 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Māori (New Zealand people)—Mental health services. |
Traditional medicine.
Classification: LCC RA790.7.N7 N53 2017 (print) | LCC RA790.7.N7
(ebook) | DDC 362.196/89008999442—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016026432
ISBN: 978-1-138-23028-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23030-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-38642-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book is dedicated to Te Kaihanga and Te Ao Wairua
The names of all young people and their family members referred
to in this book have been changed and some other details have
been altered to protect their identities. Each of their stories has
been shared with their permission.
Winner of the 2014 Ashton Wylie Unpublished Manuscript Award
CONTENTS
Foreword by Sir Mason Durie viii
Pepeha (Wiremu’s Introduction) x
List of Abbreviations xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Context 15
3 Hey, Moko, Slow Down! 42
4 George and the Thing 54
5 The Lesson 80
6 ‘I Will Not Leave My Baby Behind’ 89
7 Into the World of Light 103
8 Tātaihono 141
Glossary 166
Ngā Mihi (Acknowledgements) 170
Index 173
FOREWORD
In T ātaihono three mental health practitioners—Wiremu, Allister, and David—
share their experiences and insights gained by moving outside conventional
psychiatric frameworks. Throughout the book first-hand accounts are used to
illustrate how unlikely relationships evolved into working partnerships and how
those partnerships provided a basis for a comprehensive approach to advancing
the health of patients and their families. As a result the trio has been able to
articulate a model of care that will be increasingly relevant in a world where
global migration and cultural diversity already demand multiple perspectives.
The advancement of health, education, economic growth, environmental sus-
tainability, societal equity, and fairness will all require a capacity to share knowl-
edge and learning and to work outside accustomed frameworks.
The model of care that emerges from Tātaihono draws on two quite different
worldviews—science and indigenous knowledge. Although the two are based on
seemingly divergent philosophies, when applied together the divergence can be
replaced by a synergy that dwarfs the scope of either acting alone. By straddling
mind, body, and spirit Tātaihono has been able to reveal the comprehension and
skills needed if the combination of the two approaches can augment recovery
from stress or illness. Too often mental health treatment and care have focussed
exclusively on the mind without due consideration for wairua (spirit), tinana
(body), or whānau (family). Similarly traditional indigenous healing has often
been largely associated with spiritual renewal, though not necessarily with health
gains in other dimensions.
Indigenous approaches are strongly aligned to time-honoured healing meth-
ods and in that context are enhanced by time. In contrast, clinical practices place
greater emphasis on a readiness to adapt to fresh knowledge; they are enhanced
by new discoveries and constantly changing scientific evidence. In that respect,
Foreword ix
whereas indigenous healers revere old knowledge, medical practitioners are
encouraged to use new knowledge to give effect to fresh evidence.
The interface between medical practice and traditional healing has often
been a site for frank disagreements, mutual ridicule, and shared loss of respect
each for the other. Disputes at the interface reflect differences in the two bodies
of knowledge—science and indigenous knowledge—as well as differences in
methods of practice, understandings of health, and outcome goals.
Tātaihono also highlights the significance of therapist backgrounds. Engage-
ment in any therapeutic encounter is a two-way process that is shaped by the
cultural starting points that each party brings. Rightly, T ātaihono is a reminder
that therapists need to be conscious of their own cultural perspectives and how
those viewpoints might affect treatment and care.
More importantly, however, T ātaihono illustrates how those seemingly immov-
able barriers can be overcome without either approach forfeiting basic tenets.
Three principles for collaboration stand out. First, the temptation to understand
the other by using, for example, the tools of science to ‘explain’ indigenous
approaches, or using indigenous worldviews to comprehend scientific approaches,
leads nowhere. Mutual respect is necessary. Second, collaboration requires a will-
ingness to acknowledge that neither approach has all the answers. Third, in the
end the purpose of any healing process is to benefit the patient, using methods
that most align with each case. Therein lies the challenge—to determine which
approach is likely to be the most appropriate and whether there is an indication
for the application of both in parallel.
Tātaihono makes a significant contribution to the literature. It is testimony to
the importance of spirit as a key element in the journey towards mental health
and of the benefits derived from the application of two bodies of knowledge.
Mauri Ora.
Sir Mason Durie
Emeritus Professor, Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand
