Rees Tapsell - Maea te Toi Ora: Maori Health Transformations

TE KANI KINGI

Research into Mori mental health has been neither extensive nor consistent, and for these reasons, building a comprehensive profile of patterns and trends has always been a challenge. Notwithstanding these difficulties, it is possible to gain an understanding of relevant concerns, highlight major issues and, at least, review the existing research and available evidence.

This introductory chapter carries out that purpose, providing a foundation for the book and a rationale for its focus on Mori mental health. Until recently, data on Mori mental health was at best vague, and it was difficult to determine the extent to which mental health problems affected Mori. While research and enhanced data collections have improved our understanding of contemporary issues and concerns, plotting the history and development of Mori mental health has been far more challenging.

The perspectives were too often derived from the impressions of non-Mori: those unfamiliar with Mori society, who were, ultimately, unable to divorce their own cultural bias from clinical assumptions.

The issue of diagnosis and interpretation of illness was a major concern. While afflictions of the body would manifest in tangible forms, diseases of the mind were less audible, less understood and more open to incomplete interpretation and prejudice. Putting aside the complexities of diagnosis, mental health problems can be defined according to a set of parameters that govern the extent to which behaviour is accepted or otherwise classified as abnormal. Often these parameters are founded on notions of normality, which, more often than not, are grounded in cultural bias. What is rational and clear in one system of knowledge may become distorted and misread if it is analysed within the constructs of another.

Illustrations such as this reveal the challenge of interpreting historical descriptions as evidence of mental health or illness. Nonetheless, the earliest impressions of Mori mental health were inevitably informed by the perspectives of non-Mori, however flawed and regardless of their accuracy and intent. A cautious and considered approach is therefore needed when examining what was written, what was said and what was implied.

Putting these issues aside, there are at least two broad conclusions that can be made about Mori mental health. The first is that mental illness (as defined according to Western criteria) is likely to have existed within Mori communities before European contact. This conclusion is simply based on the notion that mental disorders have been known to occur within all cultures and that it is most unlikely that Mori alone could have developed the means, biological or otherwise, by which such conditions (now termed mental disorders) could have been avoided. Leaving aside the difficulties in equating these words with psychosis or other serious disorders, the words themselves suggest a departure from the norms of the community and at least a recognition of abnormal states of mind.

Within traditional waiata, further examples of mental distress can be found. The Ngti Whakaue waiata tangi Te Atua Matakore Even when accounting for our imperfect understanding of the circumstances that led to this event, it is known that the act of suicide is most typically preceded by significant emotional turmoil (often stress or depression).

In considering how these types of manifestations of the mind might have been perceived by Mori, Sachdev Beaglehole held a similar opinion:

the phenomenon of mental disease brings a catch of anxiety and fright to the Maori (as it has to the Pakeha in the past and still does to many Pakeha today) which he tries to understand in

While both Beaglehole and Sachdev appear to support the idea that mental illness was unfamiliar to Mori, they do not rule out the presence of abnormal states and the use of cultural paradigms to explain them. However, in the end, they favour a Western view and appear to regard the Mori explanation as a proxy for more informed opinion. That is, cultural frames were often used by Mori to explain issues that (in their mind at least) were clearly evidence of mental illness.

The second assumption about Mori mental health leads on from the first and centres on the idea that the current comparatively high rates of Mori mental illness are a recent phenomenon. Again, the available data are scarce and should be interpreted cautiously, yet it is sufficiently consistent enough to suggest that mental health problems were not of major concern to Mori in traditional times.

A broad analysis of writings on Mori during the 1800s reveals the emergence of two main themes. The first is that early descriptions of Mori (at least in terms of their health and well-being) were largely positive. Life expectancy was on a par with other parts of the world, and while the population was not immune to illness and disease, the impression was that of a sophisticated society that was healthy, robust and resilient. The second is that by the end of the century an entirely different picture was presented and real concerns were being raised about the ongoing survival of the race whether or not Mori would be extinct within a generation or two. In 1814, John Liddiard Nicholas, a London iron founder, accompanied Samuel Marsden on a journey of exploration to New Zealand. The expedition was intended to establish a Christian mission, though it also provided an opportunity for Nicholas to observe Mori and to later publish a two-volume book on his observations. An extract is provided below:

I never thought it likely they could be so fine a race of people as I now found them. They generally rose above the middle stature, some were even six feet and upwards, and all their limbs were remarkable for perfect symmetry and great muscular strength. Their appearance was pleasing and intelligent.

Other observations were even more revealing and provided additional insight into the public health behaviours and nutritional habits of Mori:

So simple a diet accompanied with moderation must be productive of good health, which indeed these people are blessed within a very high degree I do not remember a single instance of a person distempered in any degree that came under my inspection

While it would be misleading to suggest that Mori were immune to illness and disease or that the stresses and strains of living were not significant, these observations provide useful descriptions of daily life, the values that shaped Mori behaviours and the comparative light in which Mori were viewed.