Promoting Holistic Well-Being in Aotearoa New Zealand

• In Event: Perspectives of International Citizen-Practitioners Respecting and Embracing Responsibility for Enhancing Holistic Well-Being

Abstract

Issues of holistic education are interwoven with notions of wellbeing within the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand. The political imperative is to weave together Māori (indigenous) and non-Māori knowledge (Durie, 2011), underpinned by Ti Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). Bicultural contexts provide powerful opportunities for cross-sector engagement to develop broad, nuanced and holistic notions of wellbeing with reference to indigenous worldviews.

It is interesting to note that Western notions of wellbeing typically exclude references to spiritual wellbeing. A commonly referenced framework based on the notion of hauora (holistic wellbeing) is that of Te Whare Tapa Whā (Durie, 1998). Depicted as walls of a whare (house), the model includes four aspects of wellbeing: taha tinana (physical); taha whānau (social); taha hinengaro (emotional); and taha wairua (spiritual). Te Whare Tapa Whā features in the health and physical education learning area of the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) and Te Whāriki, The New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2017). The Education Review Office also references the model in its series Wellbeing for Success (2013; 2015a, 2015b; 2016). A notable distinction is the relational positioning of wellbeing in Te Whāriki where the wellbeing of each child is considered to be interdependent with “the wellbeing of their kaiako, parents and whānau” (2017, p.20). This highlights the importance of relationships amongst educators, as well as between students, family, and community in enhancing individual and collective wellbeing. By treasuring and engaging with indigenous knowledge, values, and practices through wellbeing frameworks, there is much potential to be realised for the purposes of holistic education.

A Māori worldview of hauora (wellbeing) is foundational in New Zealand educational settings. However, in policy and practice, this presents a variety of challenges. First, debates about the universal applications of indigenous knowledge, such as Te Whare Tapa Whā, are problematic when they are “uncoupled” from their Māori roots (McKinley, 2005, p. 228). Another issue is the implementation of a holistic perspective of wellbeing within a secular system, which include spiritual wellbeing and contemplative practices in educational contexts. A third issue is how and where wellbeing is placed in a curriculum - within a learning area such as health and physical education or as a core curriculum value. Interestingly, within Māori-medium curriculum and settings, wellbeing is more than a curriculum area, but a way of being (te ao Māori). The development and acceptance of broader educators’ understandings of wellbeing that move beyond a biomedical model common in the health sector offer an opportunity to accept educational responsibility across sectors. Developing wellbeing policy and contemplative practices is emergent and contingent on the growing realisation of a bicultural perspective on wellbeing within Aotearoa New Zealand.

Authors

• Joanna Higgins, Victoria University of Wellington

• Tabitha McKenzie, Victoria University of Wellington

• Suskya Goodall, Victoria University of Wellington

• Grant Zouch, Victoria University of Wellington