Whakauae's Director, Dr Amohia Boulton recently delivered a Keynote Address on Iwi/Māori responses to the Covid-19 pandemic at an on-line conference based in Taiwan. The conference audience members, which included mainly Indigenous health workers and activists, were keen to understand the various practices and strategies that Iwi/Māori - and health service providers - adopted during the pandemic, the challenges they faced, and the implications for Māori self-determination.
Until May of this year, Taiwan had had fewer than 200 local cases of Covid-19, however in the early weeks of June the Covid cases began to rise. As a consequence, Indigenous activists and health workers have employed a number of strategies to ensure the safety and health of Indigenous communities, which has resulted in some successes. Indigenous elders from the age of 65 (instead of the Taiwan Ministry of Health's sanctioned age of 75) are now eligible for priority vaccinations; also local checkpoints and roadblocks into Indigenous communties have been established in some areas. However, efforts to protect Indigenous peoples have not always been welcome, and health workers and Indigenous leaders have come into conflict with regional authorities and visitors alike.
In an effort to bring a range of voices into conversation and raise awareness for Indigenous sovereignty, the Millet Indigenous Cultural Foundation convened a series of online forums promoting Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in health. The Millet Indigenous Cultural Foundation (Visit their Facebook page here) was established in 2002 to advocate for Indigenous rights and promote Indigenous culture and preservation. These forums focused on issues such as Indigenous sovereignty in health policy in general, legal aspects to ensure health rights, and viable pandemic practices.
The Chairperson of the Foundation, Sifo Lakaw opened the forum and Dr Boulton's Keynote Address was hosted by Professor Daya Dakasi (Dawei Kuan), Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University/ Board Member of Millet. Translation was provided by Ena Ying-tzu Chang, a postdoctoral research fellow who spent time with Whakauae Research Services when she was undertaking her doctoral studies. Dr Boulton's presentation, entitled Ensuring Māori wellbeing during Covid-19: Sovereignty, Relationships and the Significance of Culture explored the success factors that kept Māori communities safe and free from Covid-19 during the weeks of Lockdown in March and April 2020. Dr Boulton's keynote can be viewed here.
There has been a great deal of interest in the keynote presentation, and as a consequence Dr Boulton has been approached by Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV), an international news magazine to speak to this issue in more detail. Dr Boulton, along with Ngāti Hauiti leader Utiku Potaka, will be interviewed in the next few weeks. We hope to upload that interview to our website in the near future.
