Introduction

Kaupapa Māori arts therapy is an emerging practice. It is a form of arts therapy that I have developed in collaboration with my clients and that I describe for the first time in this article. It is arts therapy conceptualised within a Māori worldview and works with Māori models of health such as the four-sided construct of Māori well-being, Te Whare Tapa Whā [2]. Kaupapa Māori arts therapy can only be understood in relation to a definition of Kaupapa Māori within the context of the history, development and current practices of Kaupapa Māori health services.

Kaupapa Māori

Kaupapa Māori is quite simply ‘a Māori way’ of doing things, and is based on Te Ao Ma-ori, a Māori worldview (Smith, 1999). Smith (2004) describes Kaupapa Māori as:

• Related to ‘being Māori’;

• Connected to Māori philosophy and principles;

• Taking for granted the validity and legitimacy of Māori;

• Taking for granted the importance of Māori language and culture; and

• Concerned with the ‘struggle for autonomy over our own cultural well-being’.

Moreover, according to Nepe, “Kaupapa Maori... is knowledge that validates a Māori worldview and is not only Māori owned but also Māori controlled” (1991, p.16). A Kaupapa Māori organisation is, therefore, owned by Māori controlled by Māori and operates under the philosophy of Kaupapa Māori or a Māori worldview. According to Smith, “A Kaupapa Māori organisation operates in a Kaupapa Māori setting: one that asserts Māori language and cultural values as integral to its practice” (Smith, 1997; Smith, 1999).

Kaupapa Māori in Health Services

According to the Ministry of Health (1996), Māori health service organisations have been in existence for over 50 years, but their number increased dramatically following the privatisation of the New Zealand health sector in 1990s. The Ministry of Health defined such organisations as ‘by Māori for Māori’ health services, targeted at addressing the specific health needs of Māori (Ministry of Health Policy Guidelines, 1996). They have since evolved into Kaupapa Māori health services, which can be accessed by anyone, and they continue to operate like this today.

The Kaupapa Māori organisation where the arts therapy described in this article took place delivers a range of community support services. For confidentiality reasons, the name of the organisation and the client cannot be revealed. For the purposes of this case study, the client
will be referred to as Waireti, which is not her real name.

The integration of Kaupapa Māori  and arts therapy

Arts therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses creative modalities including visual art-making, drama, and dance and movement to address, inform and improve physical, mental and emotional well-being and to build connections with individuals, families, groups, communities. It is a process that allows the therapist and the client to develop, through the arts, an interpersonal relationship with clear boundaries and shared objectives (Malchiodi, 2014). 

The principles of Kaupapa Māori philosophies can be integrated into arts therapy and applied side by side in practice. There are commonalities between arts therapy practice, the strengthening of cultural identity and a Māori worldview. According to Lammers,

Approaches that connect people with their culture and their communities help to develop a secure cultural identity and increase the potential for change. Psychological treatment and bicultural therapy therefore work in tandem, side by side, and each mutually enhances the other for the benefit of Maori clients. (2012, p.22)

One of the primary goals of Kaupapa Māori arts therapy is to strengthen identity using Māori values, principles, customs and protocols.

The case study

Overview

Waireti is a staff member at a Kaupapa Māori health organisation which delivers a range of support services. A serious allegation was made against her, which was investigated and eventually proven to be untrue. The accusation caused extreme stress for her, and for the organisation, and placed her in a difficult and isolated situation. A client referral was made for me to work with Waireti by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who asked me to help Waireti manage this very difficult and stressful situation.

I was asked to provide some self-care exercises and activities for Waireti and other staff pending the outcome of an employee investigation.

Assessment

The presenting issues were stress and anxiety. The situation was exacerbated by an inability to access other work-based support services due to the pending investigation. The goal was to support and then integrate Waireti safely back into her workplace.

Process

Waireti and the rest of the staff had already received some education about arts therapy, so that they could understand it better as a profession. They were quick to accept and embrace the concepts and philosophies, which was not surprising, given the commonalities mentioned above between arts therapy and a
Māori worldview. They had also witnessed a range of positive outcomes from previous arts therapy programmes with their clients. Consequently, Waireti was willing to participate in an arts therapy process. Waireti and I had worked together before. We had already developed a positive relationship and a mauri,
or synergy, had already been established.

At the start, Waireti asked if she could share her background as a life story. This was important in terms of decolonising methodologies (Smith, 1999). Māori have a history of being researched by others and having their stories told to them. Allowing Waireti to tell her life story on her own terms was an important decolonising process for her. Waireti was aware that I incorporated Kaupapa Māori concepts into my work, which made her feel safe, secure and comfortable. Waireti specifically requested that we work from her own Māori worldview.

Holistic processes under tikanga Ma-ori, including karakia (prayers) were used, along with whakawhanaungatanga, or relationship-building, and traditional Māori protocols were followed. Waireti outlined that cultural identity was a healing, strengthening and resilience-building component in her life. This was also where her spiritual beliefs originated and arts therapy allowed her to communicate this without having to find the right words. According to Malchiodi,

Art expression is one way to communicate narratives without words. In many cases, it becomes the opportunity to tell one’s story without the parameters, restrictions and judgments of language. It is this core experience found in creative endeavours that tells us art’s purpose is not merely to exemplify internal conflicts but is actually to provide a way to continuously reinforce our own self-empowering, life-affirming capacity for resilience. (2012, p.31)

Although I mainly followed tikanga Māori concepts, I also considered Western theories and concepts while working with Waireti, although I was mindful of those perspectives, especially when they were at odds with a Māori worldview. According to Durie (2005), “…despite the methodological gulf between the two, there is room for each system to accommodate the other without distorting the fundamental values and principles upon which each rests”. An example
of this accommodation between Kaupapa Māori and Western approaches was the Whare Tapa Wha- mandala activity described below (Refer
to Appendix 1).

Five two-hour sessions were held with Waireti over five weeks. The first session was also attended by all the staff of the organisation where Waireti worked, and the final, fifth session involved a journey with two clients of the organisation. The other sessions were one-on-one sessions with Waireti. In addition, at the end of the process, I met with Waireti so that she could review her case study.

In order to honour arts therapy with Waireti as a practice and process of decolonisation, it is important that I share her life story with readers exactly as it was narrated to me by Waireti, and as it was reflected back to her when I showed her this article.

Waireti’s life story

Waireti was born in 1957 to a father of Scottish descent and a Māori mother. She had three siblings, including an older sister and two younger brothers. Her parents separated, and her mother was often ill, so she and her siblings were cared for by others. When Waireti was 7 years old her mother passed away. Her father took the children to Auckland. Many people offered to support him as a single parent.

Her father decided to seek employment out of Auckland, and allowed his children to remain with the family that were supporting him while he set up a home for all of them. During this time the family supporting the children placed them into the public system, and became their primary caregivers. The only way the girls would be returned to their father was if he provided a woman caregiver to support them, which he managed to do. The girls were ready to be returned to their father in the school holidays, December 1969. Waireti thought that her dream of them all living together had finally come true, but it turned into a nightmare. On the 6th of December 1969, her father died at sea. No one let her know. She found out the next day in a report on the front page of the New Zealand Herald.

Her caregivers were “slave drivers and abusers”. She had no choice but to live with the situation. Finally, when she was a little older, her release papers were signed. Freedom was bliss, but there were no guidelines. There were only constant reminders that “you are nothing not anything at all”. With the belief that she came from somewhere, she decided to search for her late mother’s people, and discovered that she had descended from the tribes of Nga-ti Hine and Nga-ti Kahu. She had a sense of belonging, but did she have a purpose?

Her life lessons became her training ground. She no longer saw difficulties in opportunities, but opportunities in difficulties. She no longer dwelt on sorrowful events, but used the experience to help and support others. This gave her a growing sense of self-awareness, and she was grateful to everyone who helped her on her pathway. She was no longer a slave but doing a service. “I work with people who have a parallel history to my own. Allegations were made against me and although they are not true,
I was stood down until the investigation was over. During this time, I felt isolated and alone. Arts therapy has been a gift for me.” (Waireti, personal communication, 2016)

Kotahitanga: Individual and collective strengths intervention using Māori myth

Our first session involved all the staff, including Waireti, because the situation had affected them all. I made a centrepiece using a large candle and woven mat which I placed in the middle of the room.

It was dark, with the lights off and a candle burning. We started with a Mother Earth karakia (prayer) as a ritual to connect the participants with their ancestors and to open ancient spaces (see Appendix 2).

This was the first time the staff had seen each other for over a week. I observed affection for each other, and relief at being given a space to reconnect and actively support each other. Māori believe that there is a link between personal well-being and collective synergy, which in this instance was the team. According to Durie, “When the collective energy is low, personal well-being is threatened” (2005, p.82). Conversely, strengthening the group energy will impact positively on individual well-being. This is strongly aligned with the Māori concept of Ahi Ka-, or home fire. When Māori people return to their home they replenish their Ahi Ka-, both internally, by healing spirit and soul, and externally, by nurturing relationships with whanau. In the past, Māori returning home after long periods away would sit around a fire and share stories as a process of rebuilding their Ahi Kā.

The participants were given a selection of images from Māori mythology. They were asked to choose an image that they felt a connection with, and reflect on the quality it held for them. Then, using a kōhatu, or stone, they were to create an image or symbol on the stone that reflected the quality or strength that they chose. In this experiential, I decided to use a kōhatu as a base material to emphasise Maori beliefs around the links between nature and people. According to Marsden,

Land, water, and air are essential ingredients of life, to be respected, cherished, and sustained. Everything in the Māori world has a life force, the mauri, and contamination or degradation of natural resources is seen to damage and diminish the life force, and affect the well-being of people. Traditional Māori values contain the common Māori belief that all biophysical things and sites, plants, trees, animals and human beings have a certain amount of tapu, mana, and mauri. (1988, para.1)

This is a view held not only by Māori but other Indigenous peoples generally. According to Hawai’ian historian Lilikala- Kame’eleihiwa, “The principle of indigeneity is essentially based on a worldview that emphasises the link between people and their natural environment as a fundamental starting point for indigenous peoples” (1992, p.23).

The kōhatu also brings an energy of strength, resilience and withstanding time. Waireti realised this, and shared her thoughts. On her ko-hatu she created an image of a kete (basket) of knowledge on one side, and on the other side a feather with the word ‘offering’. She explained what her stone represented for her in her own words: “Stones are not hard as others perceive them but solid as a foundation to life” (Waireti, personal communication, 2016).

I had in the centrepiece my candle and some kōhatu that had been completed in other interventions. Waireti gave her ko-hatu to me at the end of this session as a gift for providing her with the space to express, explore and examine what she needed. She felt it would add to my collection and bring energy to the centrepiece in future sessions with other clients.

Session two: Whare Tapa Whā self-care mandala

The second session was a one-on-one session to examine what Waireti needed. The goal was to identify and establish self-care strategies and develop personal strengths. The directive was to draw a circle on the page and create an image to represent what she might need at that moment in the four cornerstones of health: Hinengaro (Mind), Tinana (Body), Wairua (Spirit) and Whānau (Family). I explained the concept of Whare Tapa Wha- as a holistic approach to well-being from a Māori worldview through these four dimensions of mind, body, spirit and family (see Appendix 1). I asked Waireti if she was alright with me doing this activity alongside her in order to encourage and support her participation and she was happy for this to occur.

We started with our karakia. The candle was lit and her ko-hatu from the previous session had been added to mine. Waireti started using black and white, in her preferred medium, pencil sketching. She started to draw a spiral from the centre. She shared an explanation around the energy of the spiral and how it is not stagnant and always grows. Waireti is very philosophical about difficult times being a part of learning and growing. According to German author Andreas Wieck, “Every person has an inherent power that may be characterized as life force, transformational capacity, life energy, spirituality, regenerative potential, and healing power which is a potent form of knowledge that can guide personal and social transformation” (1992, p.24).

I observed that the spiral was dark, in black and white, and then Waireti introduced colour. She shared that she does not usually use colour, as she is not confident in her ability to use it. I explained that it is not about the outcome and that the process is more important. Waireti does beautiful pencil sketches, and to freely create was new to her. As she was creating her image, Waireti suddenly asked me who Hine-nui-te-po- was. I explained that she was the guardian of the spiritual world, who resided in the darkness. She then related this to the image she was creating. Waireti felt that this space was at the start of her spiral and that she was in the dark. Her image reminded me of the Māori visual assessment tool ‘Tihei Wa Mauri Ora’ by Piripi and Body (2010), which I described to her. I explained it to her, then I Googled it and showed it to her (see Appendix 3). It is a visual assessment tool based on Māori concepts of creation, and was developed to incorporate spirituality and sacredness into healing from a Māori worldview. “Nature provides examples of this regeneration in the continuous growth of plant life. It is within these natural formations that Māori view themselves and the world around them” (Piripi & Body, 2010, p.35).

This metaphor of Māori creation philosophy allows a shift from darkness into light. We discussed the potential of being in that darkness, and how in nature seeds are planted into the darkness of the soil and then blossom and grow. Waireti’s image started in darkness, before the colour green was introduced.

Within the duality of Te Kore, or the state of absolute nothingness, there is also a state of absolute potentiality which can be brought into the being of all things. The goal is to paint a picture and bring to life the most appropriate metaphoric concepts of creation by recalling the movement from the darkness to light, or human conception through to birth and growth in the same way that plant life also develops. These are different analogies for continuous life forces moving towards the emergence of light and life. (Piripi & Body, 2010)

I had considered introducing this discussion prior to starting this session but Waireti raised it herself. I also created my own mandala next to Waireti. She was happy about this and explained that she liked the energy of working side by side. She noticed that I had water in my image. I explained that water is what I use for self-care. She asked what I did if water was not available or accessible, and I was not sure. She suggested that I visualise water flowing through me. I acknowledged how helpful that was and I thanked her for sharing it with me. There is always something you can learn from each other in arts therapy and I was grateful in that moment to be in a profession that recognises other knowledge and concepts that are not only creative, intuitive and spiritual, but reinforce the client as the expert.

After two hours, we still hadn’t completed the process, and Waireti asked if she could continue her image in the next week’s session. I shared my image with Waireti, because I had created it alongside her. She felt that she could have gone on for hours and that it was uplifting being in a creative environment with a like-minded person. She didn’t feel alone anymore.

Session three

The investigation had been completed prior to our beginning this session. Waireti had been reinstated, and was cleared to go back to work. I contacted her, and discussed doing this session at her work place, to help support her reintegrating back into her work role. We talked about how this session might help disperse some of the possible awkward energy at work.

During the session, Waireti added more colours to the spiral in her artwork. She felt the energy was shifting and used blue and purple colours to illustrate this. She explained that she didn’t usually use so much colour, but it felt right today. Then, at the base of her image, she added feathers, which represented a dreamcatcher. She shared that this was like capturing the bad dream and transforming it into something positive. The worst was now in the past. She shared that it was not finished yet, as she needed more time with the image and it would reveal itself to her in stages. Near the end of our session, Waireti suggested that we make some more rocks to add to the centrepiece, representing different elements. I already had air and earth, so we added water and fire. This provided a good opportunity to check and review how Waireti was feeling.

Waireti shared that she wanted one more session to complete her image. She felt she was nearly there with processing what had happened. She was feeling much better within herself. She was philosophical, and felt it had created learning for everybody.

I thought about her resilience and wondered about how her journey back to her mother’s people had given her the healing she needed and the strengthening of her own cultural identity. There were themes of transformation and shifting energies in this session. Waireti also shared that this space sustained her, although she needed to ground herself when she was feeling creative because she could stay up for hours once she had creative ideas. We talked about using karakia and breathing to settle herself. She shared about how she was and said that she had been wondering how she would feel coming back into work today. She was surprised that she felt quite good. The CEO came to see her when she started the day, and she felt supported, which helped. This session was important to her.

Session four

This was our final one-to-one session, and Waireti asked that it be held away from work. We met at a venue that she chose. I set up our session space, I lit the candle in the middle of our centrepiece, and we started.

During this session Waireti added more colour to the blue and the violet in her artwork. She told me again that she didn’t normally use lots of colours and that she mostly drew in black and white, but she wanted to challenge herself. She then completed the following poem:

From darkness came the light. From the light came beautiful colours. The birth of the rainbow. From the rainbow came vision. This vision awakens illusions that become one’s reality. It awakens the oneness that lies within. Use the gifts bestowed upon you with great love (Waireti, personal communication, 2016).

She then glued feathers on her artwork, and finally announced that she was finished. We sat and drank water outside, close to nature, because she wanted to share with me a space where she often sat to contemplate life. We looked out over the backyard at the trees, the river and a grass oasis. She explained that she liked to spend time here with nature.

We then discussed a mutual project that she would like to do at work, using art and creativity to transform a space and make it feel more sacred. Waireti had started painting her own Pou, or fence post, to decorate the garden at work, and we were waiting for resources to continue this work as a collaborative project.

We also talked about taking other clients of the organisation on a journey into nature to collect their own ko-hatu, or stones, as a process for reconnecting them with nature and each other, particularly after all the stress in the previous few weeks.

Session five: Collecting kōhatu

Waireti and I, along with two clients of the organisation, went on a trip to collect kōhatu at a beach. I noticed that Waireti was very enthusiastic about the benefits of this for clients and staff. One of the goals of this journey was to reintegrate Waireti back into the work environment by taking a positive journey with clients of the organisation before new clients were admitted into the residential care house where she worked. It was considered a viable process for cleansing negative energy. The organisation accepted our proposal to do this, and agreed to provide transport for the journey. They could see the benefits for Waireti, the other clients and the rest of the staff as well.

We drove through the countryside and we stopped at our first seaside bay to have morning tea. Waireti told stories about the area, because this was where she had grown up. She showed us the house she was raised in until her mother passed away. This journey was a positive strength-building activity for all of them and Waireti felt that sharing her background was a good healing process for her.

It was interesting hearing about the local community and where her family cemetery was located. I felt my role in this was to just listen to her stories. Her dialogue about the landscape was a creative strength-building process, because she took us back to various times in her childhood. The trip felt like a sacred pilgrimage.

Collecting stones from her home and bringing them back to her workplace was helpful for Waireti and provided her with healing on many different levels. This is a process outlined by Busch (2001): “A healing connection can be achieved by uniting the past with the present and then weaving together inner and outer landscapes”. Ultimately, this experience strengthened Waireti’s personal identity, while reinforcing ancestral knowledge and ethnic pride.

Our next stop was to collect stones. Waireti had a woven basket and she wandered along the beach looking for what she wanted. She reminded me of an ancient wise woman collecting her gifts from nature. I found a stone in the shape of a heart. We discussed how long this may have taken to get to this shape and how special it was. The two clients also brought their infant children, and they gathered stones with us. I observed a shift to positive energy as we wandered, connected with the natural environment.

Our next stop was at another beach that was sandy, and we collected driftwood and shells. This was where Waireti grew up. She felt that watching the children run and play was like watching herself back in time. Getting out of the city and being connected to nature was uplifting for us all. We discussed how our treasures and collection would be used to create a sacred space at the back of the house.

We also took photos of the scenery. Waireti and I thought this could be a great mural to paint on the wall behind the garden, to remind us of the beauty in nature when living in urban areas. When we returned, a client shared her feelings and said, “Wow – what a day!” I felt that the purpose of reintegrating Waireti back to work with staff and clients, while cleansing negative energy, had been achieved. We also had another arts therapy project to look forward to, as organically we moved from one creative space to the next.

We made a spiritual connection to nature, ancestors and sacred places. Relief from stress was achieved. Positive energy and better synergy was evident within the group. They all had natural resources they had collected ready for future arts therapy sessions, and they were looking forward to those.