Suppression & reclaiming

What keeps me well… at this time is, is my faith and belief. I was brought up Catholic, so I’ve got, even though I don’t go to church and all, but I still believe in God and Jesus and, and all of the realms up, up, wherever [they]] are. And, I believe in the rongoā that’s been given to me, to help me to, to get through…

I guess empowering them so that they are able to take control of what’s going on… You know you’ve got to sit down, and you’ve got to listen to what is important to them. Not what is important to me or Harry or Tom, what is important for them and for the whānau, and really grasping and trying to whakamana that whānau to help them to achieve that, that goal.

I would say, ‘Oh if you’re wanting to do rongoā rākau, these are your options.’ So, I’d highlight to them what they might be able to use. And then, because I’m not going to have the time to go and make that. And then I would say, ‘Oh I know somebody if you’re interested,’ you know, ‘this is somebody that you could get that from.’ So, I’ve already kind of said what I think would be good, and especially if I start them on something else and I’ve kind of had anecdotal evidence that that’s okay, then I know that these are the ones that I’m going to be okay with them having with a certain medicine. So, I would say, ‘Oh and you can go to this person and they’ll be able to do that…Keeps me safe from that perspective, and I’m just saying ‘these are your options’. I’m not saying, ‘Oh you should go and have that,’ you know so I’m saying, ‘these are options.’ So, I think that keeps it safe. I haven’t actually had any problems with it.

That’s right, so, but if I was to say, ‘you need to take that,’ you know that could be a problem. ‘You’re going to take that, and this is what you’re going to take’, that could be a problem. So, but I leave that to those who do that every day. And that’s the beauty of rongoā, it’s not about who does it, who provides it for you…  it’s about gaining the access to those who are willing to give the healing, or those who are willing to help them, because the true healing is not from the tohunga. It’s not even from, you know, it is from Io [God], but it’s actually within yourself. And so, it’s being able to find that pathway to be able to heal within yourself… like if someone says, ‘oh I go to the chiropractor, osteopath,’ whatever they [want], I’m like ‘whatever’s going to get you better. My job is to get you never to come back to my room because you’re so good,’ you know. ‘My job is I don’t want to see you again,’ you know.

I think I probably get a lot more [telling me] than some others [non-Maori GPs]. I guess for those [whānau] that I’ve known really well for the 10 years that I have been a GP I probably am getting most of it. But you know I’m sure there’s stuff that they… might not tell me.

I would hope it wasn’t our open trusting relationship perhaps, not being as open and trusting that I would [like], you know. So, it could, it could be that- I try really hard not to have a power difference between us. So, I work really hard to push that down so that we become equals, not ‘doctor knows best, and patient doesn’t’. So, I try to avoid that at all lengths.

I just know that especially in this clinic here we have lots of whānau who are using the rongoā. I definitely hear of kawakawa. What else am I hearing of? That would be the main one at the moment that is on the top of my head.

I guess empowering them. So, that they are able to take control of what’s going on… You know you’ve got to sit down, and you’ve got to listen to what is important to them. Not what is important to me or Harry or Tom, what is important for, for them and for the whanau, and then um and really grasping and trying to whakamana that whanau to help them to achieve that, that goal.

… there are so many different scenarios that I can share. I will talk about, so I would say that whereas initially I don’t think the organisation had any knowledge about rongoā … I remember asking the Medical Director, ‘When you are assessing a patient how do you ask about what complementary remedies, or things that people are taking, how do you approach that conversation with them?’ ’Because I was concerned that some Māori patients were using wairākau, but not telling doctors about it. So, I said to the Medical Director, ‘How do you enquire about that?’ And he said, ‘Oh. I don’t.’ ‘So, what [about] traditional Chinese medicine, vitamins, acupuncture?’ ‘No, actually I don’t ask.’ So that gave me an idea of where I needed to start with in terms of acceptability of that, in this space. 

There have been times where I’ve made or I’ve done talks about rongoā with staff, with volunteers, and with our day unit patients. So, our day unit patients will make things like lip balm and skin cream, and things like that together. And we’ll learn and make [them] all along and we talk about wairua and we’ll talk about what remedies, what things their parents would use for them when they were sick and māuiui when they were young. And in that time patients can go back to remembering great times, remembering great healing, and we talk about the things that their whānau did with them at that time. And I think in a sense that memory triggers a comfort that they can bring forward in a way. So, it’s a great tool for that.