Matatini: Pressure’s off when we gather
It will be no surprise to you to know that I have been at Te Matatini at Wellington’s Cake Tin this week. Although I’d have liked to think you’d have to be living under a rock not to know about Te Matatini, it surprises me how often Pa¯ keha¯ friends and colleagues look at me blankly when I say ‘‘Matatini,’’ or when I try to contextualise, ‘‘you know, the biannual national kapa haka champs’’.
And by that stage they have an inkling they are not getting away from me before viewing at least one YouTube link or one live stream on Pouaka Whakaata Ma¯ ori ( Ma¯ ori
TV). Ha! Well, I am one of the many thousand unofficial ambassadors for the event.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a mere openmouthed fan of the art form. Frankly, I’m in awe of these composers and artists. Like any great art, it transports you to another realm, to places you never thought you could go.
The beguiling grace, zeal and terrifying explosive energy is extraordinary. It reminds me of seeing Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn as a little kid, and of crying with overwhelming emotion watching Placido Domingo perform.
There is a similar exquisite mastery and nuance borne of dedication, tenacity and total bloody-minded hard graft. The only way to get that good at anything is blood, sweat and tears. No short cuts. These performers don’t have holidays in the usual sense of the word. They devote up their summers, their weekends, their lives, to their art – their passion.
I have been there doing free blood pressure checks through Brain Research NZ and Ageing Well National Science Challenge. When I started at Brain Research I read the contract with the Tertiary Education Commission and was heartened to read it agreed to produce worldclass research across the nation and translate it into innovative treatment, therapies and interventions for ageing-related brain disorders.
One key outcome of the contract states Brain Research NZ will contribute to Maori health and wellbeing by working in communities, and supporting Ma¯ ori to determine their own pathways to brain health.
Not a bad target, I thought. One of the regular questions asked of me, as Ma¯ ori strategic leader, by our more than 400 researchers and clinicians, was how to encourage more Ma¯ ori to choose research careers and participate in research. One obvious way, to my mind, was to be visible where Ma¯ ori people are gathering and to be useful. Hence, we are at Matatini for the second time.
Taking people’s blood pressure was my way of connecting in a useful way with the audiences and providing something they might not have got around to doing. We completed hundreds of checks. One of the most notable findings from 2017 was the vast bulk of the readings were normal.
I remember my colleague, Professor of Neurology Alan Barber (Nga¯ ti Porou) being particularly surprised. He expected a lot more to be higher than normal. This is not an unreasonable expectation. If we look at some of the numbers, we Ma¯ ori have three times the rates of strokes compared to non-Ma¯ ori, for example.
We have a number of health challenges that mean we might have higher than safe levels of blood pressure that increase our risk of stroke, and stroke at a younger age, than
Pa¯ keha¯ . The state of science that tries to explain why this might be is very poor. We simply don’t know. When all the likely culprits for making this more likely are taken out of the equation, the risk remains high.
So, what is going on here? Maybe our Matatini punters are not a representative sample of Ma¯ ori. Maybe those with high blood pressure didn’t come to our tent. Or, there is a Matatini effect – something about being at Matatini that contributes to lowering the resting blood pressure.
Maybe the effect of being around other Ma¯ ori – we call that wairua – and being around our language and specific cultural practices is protective and keeps our blood pressure healthy. Is there a mother lode of oxytocin released? We need studies to answer these questions.
Thanks, kings and queens of Matatini for your health-giving properties. And, just maybe, for lowering our collective blood pressure and helping to prevent strokes.
He waiata, he akoranga. There is more to a song than its tune and actions.
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder PhD is a Fellow of the Royal Australia NZ College of Psychiatrists, and Professor of Indigenous Health Research at Te Whare Wa¯ nanga o Awanuia¯ rangi, and Ma¯ ori strategic leader at Brain Research NZ.