Dr Jacquie Kidd

Ngāpuhi

Jacquie is a leader in co-produced Māori health research at a community level. Jacquie is more of a quiet leader who usually prefers not to be ‘front and centre’. She was brought up in a mostly Pākehā environment but had a strong bond with her Ngāpuhi kuia (grandmother), Tirohia Amy.

Jacquie’s Māori side came to the forefront while she was a single mother of two daughters, doing her nursing training to get off the benefit and provide a good role model for her children. She soon realised that the teaching she was hearing was racist and aimed at her people, so her wairua was woken up in that environment.

After completing her nursing training, she worked in Te Oranga Tonu Tanga at Otago District Health Board (DHB). She undertook a year of further education with Te Ngaru Learning Systems, being taught and supported by the amazing Kaiako (teachers) such as Paraire Huata, Terri Cassidy and Tuari Potiki.

Jacquie has been involved with Te Runanga o Aotearoa, New Zealand Nurses Association as treasurer, Te Ao Māramatanga as a committee member and secretary, and is currently the president of the International Association of Contemporary Ethnography across the Disciplines. In her role as president, she is strengthening the indigenous and social justice streams across the global south.

After more than ten years of practising as a mental health nurse, Jacquie now teaches postgraduate mental health nurses and has developed a whānau ora-based assessment tool for her students. Although her nursing passion has stayed with mental health, Jacquie has responded to requests to bring her mahi into the area of mate pukupuku Māori (cancer). As a community-focused qualitative researcher, her focus is on ngā kōrero hauora o ngā tāngata (talking about the wellbeing of the people). She has completed research projects that explore the whānau ora and health literacy perspectives of Māori with cancer and chronic illness, including working with kaumātua (elders) and colleagues to develop a framework for whānau ora (Te Korowai) that has informed her subsequent work.

Jacquie is currently co-leading Oranga Tū, a whānau ora-based project that aims to improve the lives of Māori men with prostate cancer (funded by Movember). She is also working on projects about improving Māori diagnosis and treatment of lung and colorectal cancers. Her passion right now, though, is learning Te Reo Māori (Māori Language) through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, where she is enrolled in Te Pōkairua Reo (Rumaki) Te Kaupae Rima.

Profile By

Rawiri Blundell, Māori Health Manager, Pinnacle Health NZ, Hamilton, Ngati Porou ki Uawa 2018

He Rangatira Our Leaders

Donna Blair

Ngāi Tahu

Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu

Hon Dame Tariana Turia

NGĀTI KURI, TE RARAWA, TE AUPŌURI, NGĀPUHI

Few people can deal with pressing problems in the present and, simultaneously build platforms relevant to the future. Tariana Turia has shown how both are possible. Well before entering Parliament, she fostered community cohesion and responsiveness to adversity and disadvantage. She did so in a manner that led to strong, sustainable leadership within her whānau, hapū and iwi and helped generate greater awareness for health and the positive roles communities might play.

Dean Rangihuna

Ngati Porou, Ngati Hei

He has extensive experience in crisis resolution, forensic, adult, child, and youth inpatient services, focusing on reducing restraint and seclusion incidents for Māori.

Dr. Alexander Stevens II

Ngāti Kahu ki Whaingaroa, Ngāpuhi

Almost twenty years later, Alexander has used his passion and knowledge of addressing historical sexual violence trauma, mental illness, addictions, and well-being to support Māori and Pacific communities across Aotearoa, where he has worked with over 3,500 men with childhood experiences of sexual violence.