INTRODUCTION The influence of indigeneity is widely recognised as a health determinant; however the impact of the utilisation of the indigenous language on health care has not been closely examined. AIM To explore the Maori language (te reo) as a determinant of health from a Maori patient's perspective. METHODS Maori patients were recruited through Maori health networks and the snowballing ...

The high risk of metabolic disease traits in Polynesians may be partly explained by elevated prevalence of genetic variants involved in energy metabolism. The genetics of Polynesian populations has been shaped by island hoping migration events which have possibly favoured thrifty genes. The aim of this study was to sequence the mitochondrial genome in a group of Maoris in an effort to character...

The New Zealand case study examines the period of the 1980's in New Zealand that has produced a range of societal changes for Maori, some which are still impacting in 2003. More importantly perhaps, the Maori example is a practical one in that it is not simply a set of ideas removed from practice. In considering the Maori example, there is a need to be clear what the real revolution was that oc...

AIMS To determine whether the lower rates of obstetric interventions in Maori and Pacific Island women from the New Zealand Ministry of Health obstetric procedures report in 1999 existed also in National Women's Hospital (NWH), Auckland data and if so whether they persisted after controlling for parity and obstetric risk. METHODS The study population included 43,367 singleton, cephalic delive...

To evaluate relevant issues around smoker knowledge and misperceptions about tobacco smoking, a cohort group of 1376 New Zealand smoking adults aged >18 years and 607 Maori respondents were surveyed between March 2007 and February 2008. Specific questions relevant to possible misinformation included perceptions related to light/mild cigarettes/tobacco, to menthols, and to RYO tobacco. Overall r...

This study investigates whether socio-indexical labelling operates under a shared or a separate system across the two languages of a bilingual talker-listener. We argue for a shared system, showing that L1 indexical labels interact with L2 indexical labels during speech perception. In particular, we investigate the effect of ethnic dialect on bilingual speech processing by using a novel cross-l...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to estimate the 12 month prevalence of schizophrenia in the Maori population of New Zealand. METHOD Mental health data from two national sources were obtained for the period 2000-2003. A simple count of unique individuals with schizophrenia was used to estimate contact prevalence and a four-list capture-recapture procedure to estimate population prev...

The purpose of this article is to examine how the work of the United Nations (UN) nurtures hybridised constructs of indigeneity, especially through the activities of the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). This article surveys particular aspects of the literature relating to cultural and indigenous hybridisation, and then applies this to the activities of the UNPFII a...

This project aimed to identify the factors that influence Maori women's decision to breastfeed or not. During 2004-2005, a diverse demographic of Maori women and family members was selectively recruited from within a major urban area, small towns, and rural areas. Thirty women who had cared for a newborn within the previous three years were interviewed, alone or together with other family membe...