Distinguishing Cultural Experiences from Psychotic Symptoms with Māori young people

Abstract

This is a transcript of a presentation and conversation between Wiremu NiaNia, Allister Bush and Lewis Mehl-Madrona. Here, they speak about navigating the distinctions between cultural experiences and psychotic symptoms among Māori young people. This presentation took place in the winter of 2022, during the Two-Eyed Seeing conference, hosted by the Coyote Institute.

The following are the opening remarks from their presentation.

Wiremu NiaNia: He rere tiwha tiwha, he rere tiwha tiwha te pō, tiwha tiwha te ao. Ka tū te tai turia o Rehua, i turia te matahau a Tu. Tu te ihiihi, tu te wanawana, tu te whakaputa ki te whaiao, ki te ao marama. Tihei mauri ora. Tihei uriuri, tihei nakonako. Ka tau hā whakatau ko te rangi i runga nei.  Ka tau hā whakatau ko te papa i raro nei. Ka tau hā whakatau ko te matiku mai i Rarotonga koe ia i rukuhia manawa pouwaho koe ia i rukuhia manawa pouroto. Whakatina kia tina te more ki Hawaiki e pupuana hoki wawauana hoki tarewa tu ki te rangi. Heke panuku, heke tangaroa, whano whano, haramai te toki, haumi e! Hui e! Taiki e! E akunui akurahi, nā matawaka o ngāpito o te ao. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou. 

This greeting speaks to the darkness that surrounds us in the deep unknown. That we would seek light in order to find a glimpse of each other. That we would look for the brightest constellations to illuminate our path. We mihi to Ranginui, our sky father, the heavens who gave us the stars and who gave the moon to follow and the sun to warm us. We acknowledge Papatūānuku, our earth mother who gives us sustenance as we journey on her as human beings. And then, tihei mauriora means life to all things. Tihei uriuri means that I'm relating to each iwi (tribe), all of us who are spiritual beings, relating us all to one another. Across the ocean, across the land. And all these words are cemented by hara mai te toki haumi e! Hui e! Taiki e! It is done!

We greet you all. We mihi to all the Indigenous people who are present, and all your ancestors. Anei ra te mihi kia koe hoki Lewis, nahau i whakatu tēnei hui. Kia a koe hoki Albert Marshall. Anei te mihi ki a koe. Tēnā koe, Tēnā korua hoki. Kai te mihi, kai te mihi, kai te mihi.  Nō reira mai i a matou te iwi o Aotearoa. Tēnā koutou katoa. Ka huri.

Allister Bush: Mauriora ki a koutou katoa, greetings everyone. I join with Wiremu in greeting you all from Aotearoa, New Zealand. In particular, as Wiremu has also done, I acknowledge the Wabanaki cultures and Darren Ranko for welcoming us all to your land, even though we're all on Zoom. I acknowledge all our elders from all our places of belonging and particularly Albert Marshall, who spoke on day one. I acknowledge Murdena and Albert who gifted us the wonderful notion of two-eyed seeing. I'm grateful to all the organizers of this two-eyed seeing conference and in particular, you Lewis, for all your work on our behalf, bringing all of us together at such a challenging time. My name is Allister Bush. I work as a Pākehā or New Zealand European child and adolescent psychiatrist at an Indigenous Māori mental health service in New Zealand. I've had the good fortune of working, writing, and teaching with my good friend Wiremu NiaNia over the last 17 years.

I will make a few comments about what this talk might encompass before handing over to Lewis, to introduce yourself, even though I know everyone's already familiar with you, Lewis.

This conversation will focus on voices and visions which people might experience, and which are of particular interest to psychiatrists because these experiences can be quite confusing and oftentimes there are Indigenous perspectives which are ignored in psychiatry. We bring these perspectives as an example of two-eyed seeing. Wiremu has his own concept of working together which he calls tātaihono, which he will explain later. So our talk together will focus on psychiatry perspectives, but also Māori healing perspectives on voices and visions. We hope to provide some guidance for Western mental health clinicians and ways of exploring Māori and perhaps other Indigenous meanings around voices and visions. Lewis, I hand over to you to introduce yourself.