New model to help sustain Māori midwives
Jay Waretini-Beaumont – Ara, Te Pūkenga: A personal autoethnographic review into becoming and remaining a Māori midwife has led to the development of a mana motuhake model to empower Māori midwifery students and practitioners.
Midwife and Māori Liaison at Ara, Te Pūkenga School of Midwifery, Jay Waretini-Beaumont, completed her Master of Māori Indigenous Leadership at the University of Canterbury.
The multidisciplinary degree was wānanga-based, and led Waretini-Beaumont to her home marae in the North Island for the first time since she was five years old.
“I whakapapa to Ngāti Rangi, at the foot of Mount Ruapehu,” she says. “The two-year taught programme started on my own marae with my great-grandparents buried across the road. Being welcomed on that first day was very moving. I went on a spiritual pilgrimage around who I am and where I come from and what got me here.”
In her role as Māori Liaison, Waretini-Beaumont ensures Māori midwifery students are feeling safe and heard, while also achieving academic success.
“In my research, I was inspired by an elder who reminded me that my students are looking for a representation of themselves in the literature and it's simply not there at the moment. My story will likely share similarities to experiences in their lives.”
Starting with a literature review into the sustainability of midwifery as a career, Waretini-Beaumont conducted a comparative analysis of the experiences of indigenous peoples around the world.
“Other indigenous cultures quite often face the same issues as Māori do in the health workforce. Education systems are not set up for us, and there are struggles to maintain cultural identity in a Eurocentric world. In Aotearoa, there is a midwifery workforce crisis and associated retention issues – and for Māori midwives, there is an additional layer of complexity in being indigenous in this country.”
The literature review formed a foundation to reflect on her own personal experiences in her autoethnographic review.
“I wrote a personal reflection telling the story of my life and my journey to becoming a midwife,” she says. “This was a raw experience as it was not all happiness and jellybeans in there – it was confronting to address things that I’d previously preferred to keep inside.”
In the process, Waretini-Beaumont created a model for mana motuhake – self-determination and empowerment – that she hopes can lead to both personal and social change.
“Mana motuhake is about revitalising our innate abilities to achieve, grow and be unapologetically Māori in a world that does not always welcome that. It’s also about taking an intergenerational approach to addressing the trauma of colonisation. I'm the first person in my family to reach tertiary education, to graduate with a degree, to speak my mother tongue and to wear moko kauae.”
The model itself is shaped like the reproductive system and features an egg, ovaries, fallopian tubes and a uterus.
“The egg that we all start off with has layers protecting the DNA inside. Outside forces and experiences – such as events in childhood and the effects of colonisation – all have an impact on this ovum, or egg. As a result, some of us start out with stronger eggs than others.”
The ovaries, where the egg begins its journey, speak to whakapapa and the environment around us.
“Our spiritual connections, the people before us and around us, and the lands we stand on – these are our form and foundation.”
The fallopian tubes represent pathways to future potential, Waretini-Beaumont explains.
“In my te Ao Māori world view, the world started in darkness, just like we do – we come from darkness into a world of light. This is about identifying the potential we have and the paths we wish to take. The uterus then represents the connections we make with others, the knowledge we gain along the way, and the collectivism of our resources and networks."
By working through the mana motuhake model and applying it to life experiences and goals, Māori learners and practitioners can gain a better understanding of who they are, where they are and what they need to do next.
“It's a journey that is holistic, spiritual and personal. There is a power we get from being indigenous in this country, and when I looked at my experiences through this model, I was able to identify that I was intrinsically connected to the atua and tūpuna, and born with mauri and mana – spirit and power. But colonisation had created a disconnect and a loss of who I am and where I fit into the world.”
She says there is the broader context of a workforce crisis in which Māori represent just 9% of all midwives in Aotearoa, despite Māori whānau accounting for 25% of the country’s births.
“Many of my Māori colleagues are leaving midwifery. What sustains me isn't the same as what will sustain somebody else. That’s why I created this model – it accommodates individual differences in circumstances, experiences and purpose.”
When Waretini-Beaumont was studying midwifery, she was the only Māori learner in her class, so she is encouraged that 30% of the learners at Ara’s School of Midwifery are Māori. Now, she is introducing the mana motuhake model to this next generation of midwives.
“We talk about colonisation a lot and how we can challenge that by being unapologetically Māori and standing in our own strength. For me, it’s about being an ancestor my descendants can be proud of.”
Ko Ruapehu te maunga Ko Whanganui te awa Ko Aotea te Waka Ko Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Uenuku, Whanganui, Ngāti Apa ngā iwi Ko Uenukumanawiri te hapū
Ko Marangai, Ko Tirorangi, Ko Raetihi ngā Marae Ko Waretini te ingoa whānau Ko Jay Waretini-Beaumont toku ingoa E noho ana ki Ōtautahi i te taha o te whānau
I was born and raised in Ōtautahi and have whakapapa linking me back to Whanganui. I have worked as a Māori midwife since graduating from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in 2014. Midwifery has been my career goal since I was a child and I now see myself at the other end of midwifery, working within the midwifery school at Ara, Te Pūkenga and the New Zealand College of Midwives as Māori Liaison and Advisor. I chair our regional group Māori Midwives ki Tahu and am a trustee on the board of Ngā Maia, our national professional body of Māori midwives. These roles fuel my most recent passion: sustainability of the Māori midwifery workforce and meeting the needs of whānau. I am a mother to three wonderful daughters ranging from ages 17-7. Being their mum is my joy and the reason I continue to apply myself to further learning. Outside of work and home life I enjoy being outdoors, connecting with the whenua and being among whānau and friends. The perfect day to me is a sunny day on a nice beach with a book and my guitar.