Crafting a way to reach cancer patients

‘‘Ma¯ori are 20 per cent more likely to get cancer than nonMa¯ ori, and nearly twice as likely as non-Ma¯ori to die from cancer.’’

This quote from the Ma¯ori Cancer Leadership Network in a recent presentation to Waikato District Health Board is what has driven Marlborough Cancer Society centre manager, Felicity Spencer, to find creative ways to reach Ma¯ ori whanau struggling with the disease.

‘‘One of the main things for us in our service at the moment is equity. We understand that Ma¯ ori often get the majority of cancers – the incidence might be the same, but the impact is almost double, and that has a number of factors,’’ Spencer said.

‘‘Things like being able to access treatment in a timely manner, or being diagnosed early, or going to your doctor, or attending screenings – can really affect the outcome that a nonMa¯ ori and a Ma¯ ori person have,’’ she said.

‘‘Bringing awareness to that inequity is part of encouraging our cancer services and our health services to redesign and change the way that we respond to it,’’ Spencer said.

‘‘The burden is not on Ma¯ ori to get more pro-active – the burden is on us as a community to really find ways of removing barriers for people accessing services, regardless of age, income, or ethnicity,’’ she said.

‘‘People should have access to those services – it’s one of the biggest advocacy roles we have in cancer for New Zealand,’’ she added.

It is this which inspired the Toi Ora activity days held during the school holidays at the Ukaipo Rangitane Cultural Centre in Grovetown.

Members of the public were invited to join in a series of free workshops highlighting Ma¯ori traditional crafts, such as ko¯hatu/hope stone painting, weaving with Harakeke, crafting clay taonga/treasures, and mindful movement classes.

‘‘It was an initiative that arose out of feedback from families,’’ Spencer said. ‘‘Often programmes are targeted at adults, and they requested something they could do with their children.

‘‘This is a first, and not the typical kind of thing we would do – we’ve called on friends and colleagues strong in this area to help us,’’ she said.

Spencer said that as a Ma¯ ori, she was able to draw on her own strengths in theming the activity days as a Ma¯ori art activity initiative, and hoped to run a variety of different themed days in the future.

‘‘This was not just for our Ma¯ ori whanau,’’ she said. ‘‘We wanted to share the beauty of the arts that we have and their meanings, and how they relate to us all.’’

She explained that she hoped that activity days such as this would give people an opportunity to come into their services in a way that they felt comfortable with.

‘‘No-one likes putting up their hand and saying ‘I’ve got cancer, what can you do for me?’,’’ she said. ‘‘So it’s really just creating opportunities for people to engage with our services and be able to avail of them.’’

Spencer said that while they got referrals from the hospital oncology team, general practitioners and other health providers, people could also selfrefer.

‘‘It’s really hard to walk in the door of our office and ask what’s available or what support there is, so we don’t want the burden to be on our whanau to have to come and approach us – we want them to be able to access us in any way they can,’’ she said.

Felicity Spencer demonstrates the making of a traditional clay instrument during a Toi Ora activity day at Grovetown.