SNN_July 2021 Issue_web low res

NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST 32
Burwood Academy
Trust Update
We shine a spotlight on the Emerging Researcher First Grant
Te Ao Marama, Rachelle Martin and Cate Grace
Dr Rachelle Martin is one of nine recipients
of this year’s Emerging Researcher First
Grant’s offered by the Health Research
Council (HRC).
Rachelle will receive $249,000 over three years to fund
her project, Flourishing together: including tāngata
whaikaha in health policy development.
The research project emerged from Burwood Academy’s
Flourishing scoping study she conducted with Cate Grace,
in which they interviewed 40 people living with the
experience of illness, injury or long-term health conditions.
“It became really clear that many of the things that
needed to change to allow them to flourish, were about
societal changes,” says Rachelle.
It’s more than people having a voice. “It’s about allowing
them to decide the focus and scope of discussions—
allowing them to talk about the issues that most matter to
them rather than just responding to policy that has
already been developed,” she explains.
While the application process centred around her skills
and achievements as a researcher, for Rachelle, this
project is all about others. “I want to research a way that
makes space for disabled people—tāngata whaikaha.”
Rachelle uses this Māori phrase as it aligns with a
strengths-based approach to disability and lines up with
the affirmative language that New Zealand disabled-led
organisations and strategy documents use. “People in
search of empowerment rather than people with deficits,
difficulties and problems,” she adds.
This study aims to develop strategies and tools to allow
tāngata whaikaha to equitably contribute to policy
discussions and planning. To do this, issues related to
housing and home (kāinga) will be used as the exemplar
for the project.
“Kāinga in the broader sense of housing—a home that
allows play and recreation and relationships and
connections with the community, is a fundamental issue
for people,” says Rachelle.
In her many discussions with disability advocacy group
representatives, Māori health providers, and policy
advisors within governmental departments, kāinga was
a priority. Challenges with genuinely and meaningfully
including the voices of tāngata whaikaha were
also highlighted.
“It’s a really significant space to work in, and I feel very
privileged—part of my role will be creating the space but
not determining the direction,” says Rachelle.
Rachelle has conceptualised the projects to explicitly
improve health outcomes for Māori – directly in terms of
housing policies, and in the long term, by ensuring
tāngata whaikaha Māori are empowered to participate in
and influence the planning of other health-related policy.
Her consultation and collaboration with tāngata
whaikaha Māori, and Māori researchers and
organisations have contributed significantly to the
development of this research.