Whānau hauā: Reframing disability from an Indigenous perspective

Māori directly or indirectly experience disability at a higher rate than any other population group in Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite one in three Māori having some form of disability, Māori have less access to support and health and disability services. Currently, gaps exist in knowledge related to Māori and disability, and this is not helped by disabled Māori being excluded from health and disability policy and service planning forums. With regard to disability frameworks, the medical model and the social model are the predominant northern hemisphere approaches to working with disabled persons. These models view disability in an individualised manner that is not relevant for many Indigenous disabled persons whose worldview is holistic, relational and collective in nature. In this paper, we critically examine current approaches to working with disabled Māori and their experiences as Indigenous disabled persons before presenting Whānau Hauā as an alternative Indigenous approach to disability.