resilience

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in some significant changes in tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand. This situation report identifies the current situation and the issues and challenges for social work degree students at the Eastern Institute of Technology’s campuses in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti. The report highlights the resilience of tauira in these challenging times. It also proposes a way forward for future learning that supports tikanga and the diverse needs and realities of tauira.

The disastrous earthquakes that struck Christchurch in 2010 and 2011 seriously impacted on the individual and collective lives of Māori residents. This paper continues earlier, predominantly qualitative research on the immediate effects on Māori by presenting an analysis of a survey carried out 18 months after the most destructive event, on 22 February 2011. Using a set-theoretic approach, pathways to Māori resilience are identified, emphasising the combination of whānau connectivity and high incomes in those who have maintained or increased their wellbeing postdisaster.

This article focuses on the cultural resources that made Māori carers resilient when providing care to an ill family member at the end of life. Caring often took place against a backdrop of poverty, personal factors, racism and a lack of health literacy affecting access to resources. The action values of aroha and manaakitanga, compassionate giving, caring, receiving and sharing established a resilient foundation upon which whānau engaged in the illness-to-death trajectory.