Mahi a Atua: A Māori approach to mental health

Abstract

Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand. European colonisation had a devastating effect on their communities and their way of life. While there is some evidence of a renaissance of Māori culture in recent years, like other indigenous people across the world, they continue to be massively overrepresented in their country’s figures for poor mental and physical health. In this paper, we briefly review the literature on the Movement for Global Mental Health and review the case that has been made for the use of indigenous psychologies in place of approaches based on Western psychiatry and psychology. We present two case histories where an intervention based on an indigenous Māori approach to negotiating emotional conflicts and dealing with mental health problems was used. This approach, called Mahi a Atua, was developed by two of the authors over a number of years. We conclude that indigenous approaches to mental health offer not just an adjunct to, but a real alternative to, the interventions of Western psychiatry. They provide a framework through which individuals and families can negotiate their journeys through mental health crises and difficulties. However, such approaches can also work on a socio-cultural level to promote a positive identity for indigenous communities by celebrating the power of indigenous deities, narratives, and healing practices that were marginalised and suppressed by the forces of colonisation.