We must talk about resilience
Adeath in the wha¯ nau. We are now in a national tangihanga. The kind we never thought we would attend, the kind we never thought possible. The kind that could never be prepared for. We are in the midst of grief, pain and suffering that for many is unimaginable.
I was at a Whangarei Youth Space conference this week speaking about pathways to resilience. Interesting word, resilience. The dictionary defines it as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. The bounce back, you might say.
Recovering quickly is not something I anticipate happening for any of us. This massacre will continue to resonate across time and space, for locals and for Kiwis all over the world and across generations.
The underbelly of grief in Te Wai Pounamu from the earthquakes, from Pike River, and from the history of colonisation are the filters through which many will experience this pain.
For our Muslim citizens who have lost so many, the pain can only be described as unspeakable.
I have been reflecting on where we are as a nation, and where we might discover sources of healing. Working and researching with wha¯ nau with traumatic brain injury offered me some hope. I’ve seen concrete examples of resilience through my research into Ma¯ ori traumatic brain injury.
What I found across marae in cities, and rural and remote locations, was that the bounceback factor was wairua. Wairua is the uniquely Ma¯ ori connection with all aspects of the universe. This was identified as the most important part of healing.
My research participants did not reject mainstream approaches to healing the damage, they wanted access to the same treatments as everyone else. And, they wanted access to Ma¯ ori cultural resources.
Given the head is arguably the most sacred part of the body in our culture, we need access to our own culturally salient practices that strengthen wairua, in order to heal the cultural aspects of the injury. This is the missing piece to maximise resilience following traumatic brain injury.
What are these wairua strengthening practices? It may come as no surprise that activities like karakia, waiata, being on marae, and speaking te reo Ma¯ ori are at the heart of this. These are practices that foster resilience.
You are familiar with the wow factor of the All Blacks’ haka? The hairs going up on the back of your neck. Your tears of sheer joy witnessing, and maybe participating, in this iconic Ma¯ ori cultural act? This haka is just one of many other haka, which create and maintain resilience.
You could easily hold up the All Blacks as a highly resilient group, a highly resilient culture of sport, right? The epitome of resilience. They face very real, brutal physical and psychological exchange that we all accept is part of the game of rugby. Part of the X-factor of their resilience is their use of haka.
The crucial difference for us all right now, this is not a game, this is not a sport. This is our lives, this is our history. We now face the brutal impact of terrorist hatred in a way that changes all of our lives forever.
Our Ma¯ ori tikanga, our cultural practices, of karakia, of waiata, of haka, and our reo offer us such potent resilience. These practices, uniquely rooted in our land, can play an integral part in our collective healing now and into the future.
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder PhD is a Fellow of the Royal Australia NZ College of Psychiatrists, and Ma¯ ori strategic leader at Brain Research NZ.
Tu¯ whitia te hopo. Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Ko¯manawa ake te whakaingoingo ki te parekura whakaharahara o te wa¯. The emotional turmoil within at such a major loss.