Wastewater-based epidemiology, the testing of sewage to detect disease and monitor community health, has become a key public health tool in many countries around the world, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, wastewater testing raises ethical and cultural concerns. InAotearoa New Zealand, these concerns are particularly relevant for M & amacr;ori communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an absence of consultation with M & amacr;ori and exclusion of tikanga in public health policies was exposed. Tikanga is defined as a customary system of values and practices that have developed over time and which are deeply embedded in the social context. Kaum & amacr;tua (elders) are responsible for determining tikanga and adapting it to various situations. In this article we share a research collaboration and describe the building of relationships and dialogue between science institutions and a M & amacr;ori community with respect to wastewater-based epidemiology. This collaboration between the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science, Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development, The University of Auckland and kaum & amacr;tua from Te Kei o Te Waka o Tainui aimed to produce a framework for future wastewater testing activities in Aotearoa New Zealand rooted in M & amacr;ori values and aspirations. Over the course of three w & amacr;nanga (discussion sessions), ongoing hui (meetings) and participatory co-design activities, professional and community researchers explored the implications of wastewater collection, testing and data use. Qualitative analysis of w & amacr;nanga discussions and interviews informed the development of a new tikanga (M & amacr;ori protocols) framework for wastewater-based epidemiology. Five interconnected priorities form the basis of this framework: (i) building trust and fostering ongoing relationships, (ii) establishing tangata whenua (autochthonous people of the land)-led tikanga, (iii) acknowledging and accommodating the practicalities of tangata whenua involvement, (iv) collaboratively planning for data ownership and sharing, and (v) recognising the capabilities of M & amacr;ori as healthcare communicators and providers. This framework demonstrates how Indigenous ethical principles and governance can reshape the design and implementation of wastewater-based epidemiology to better support community wellbeing and equity.
During the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic inAotearoa New Zealand, the national government implemented an alert level framework to delay or limit the virus's spread throughout the population. Each level of this system imposed different restrictions, including limiting movement between regions, the size of gatherings and contact between households. As part of a larger study on the impact of this framework on M & amacr;ori communities, this article presents findings from interviews with tangata whenua (Indigenous M & amacr;ori) analysing the impacts of the government's response on tangihanga (funerals), tikanga (customs) and hauora (health) in M & amacr;ori experiences of death during the first two years of the pandemic. Experiences shared by participants indicated that COVID-19 and the pandemic response had profound impacts on tangihanga and tikanga protocols surrounding death and dying, and these impacts were frequently associated with negative hauora outcomes. The role of kaum & amacr;tua (elders) in shaping M & amacr;ori responses to COVID-19 was a strong theme across interviews, with discussions highlighting the unique position of kaum & amacr;tua becoming both more vulnerable in and more valuable to their communities during the pandemic. Participants reported experiences of grief, gratitude and uncertainty under the alert level framework and highlighted the changes to tikanga that arose in that period, and those that persisted after the pandemic restrictions were lifted. Responsibility for their own and their wh & amacr;nau's safety, an obligation to protect their communities, and historic underpinnings shaped participants' decisions. Overall, the pandemic restrictions in Aotearoa shaped participant experiences in a multitude of ways, and these learnings can be used to better co-create the next pandemic response.
Tikanga M & amacr;ori (M & amacr;ori customs, protocols, law) has practical application for communities to motivate long-term and sophisticated responses to environmental problems. A core prescription of tikanga is to "relate well" within an expansive and inclusive web of relationships that extend across space and time. Accordingly, environmental problems are understood and addressed as socioenvironmental problems that affect the web of relationships between people within communities and their relationships with the environment-into the future. These themes will be explored briefly by considering how the community in K & amacr;whia, Aotearoa New Zealand, has responded to concerns about the damage caused by vehicles on the beach adjacent to Maket & umacr; Marae and the "resting place" of the Tainui waka (great migration canoe). The response, led by the Marae but involving the wider community, is arguably also a practical application of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its prescription to "relate well".
Through a voluntary Indigenous M & amacr;ori-led conservation effort in a coastal community, the writers query the human-nature separation that persists in dominant governance policies and practices. In their place, we portray the M & amacr;ori customary practice of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as relational commons, to present an ontological and governance framework of loving, caring conservation of Earth Mother, Sky Father and their children.
This paper draws on material from a research study exploring m & amacr;tauranga M & amacr;ori (M & amacr;ori ways of knowing the world) in relation to hauora (health and wellbeing) in the discourse of kaum & amacr;tua (elders). Local kaum & amacr;tua community researchers worked alongside a team from the James Henare Research Centre at Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland to set up a study which involved six noho w & amacr;nanga (meetings involving overnight stays) in localities in four regions in the northern and central North Island, Aotearoa New Zealand. Foregrounding the voices and lived experiences of kaum & amacr;tua, we found many similarities across groups in their lives as older persons. They enjoyed the company of wh & amacr;nau, friends and especially mokopuna (grandchildren); they undertook responsibilities expected of kaum & amacr;tua in M & amacr;ori society; they faced challenges from illness, disability and bereavement and from dealing with health services. Differences between groups arose from their different localities, with whenua influencing their lives in distinctive ways. It became clear that the health of whenua, shaped by history, geography and socioeconomic forces and differing by locality, is fundamental to kaum & amacr;tua experiences of health and ageing. Whakapapa (genealogy) is foundational to m & amacr;tauranga M & amacr;ori. Whakapapa descent lines link humans, places and the natural world from shared origins through to the present and future. In interpreting our findings, we make the case that whakapapa explains the significance of whenua in relation to kaum & amacr;tua health and wellbeing.
