BACKGROUND: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child confirms a child's right to adequate food, and to the highest attainable standard of health. For indigenous children, these rights are also recognised in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, Indigenous children endure higher rates of obesity and related health conditions than non-indigenous children, including in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). For indigenous tamariki (Māori children) in NZ, high levels of obesity are interconnected with high rates of food insecurity. Therefore there is a need for action. This study aimed to investigate policy options that would safeguard the rights of indigenous children to healthy food. We explored with key stakeholder's policy options to ensure the rights of indigenous children to healthy food, through a case study of the rights of tamariki. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 15 key stakeholders, with experience in research, development or delivery of policies to safeguard the rights of tamariki to healthy food. Iterative thematic analysis of the transcripts identified both deductive themes informed by Kaupapa Māori theory and literature on rights-based approaches and inductive themes from the interviews. RESULTS: The analysis suggests that to ensure the right to adequate food and to healthy food availability for tamariki, there needs to be: a comprehensive policy response that supports children's rights; an end to child poverty; food provision and food policy in schools; local government policy to promote healthy food availability; and stronger Māori voices and values in decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: The right to food for indigenous children, is linked to political and economic systems that are an outcome of colonisation. A decolonising approach where Māori voices and values are central within NZ policies and policy-making processes is needed. Given the importance of food to health, a broad policy approach from the NZ government to ensure the right to adequate food is urgent. ...
BACKGROUND: To summarise the evidentiary basis related to causes of inequities in chronic kidney disease among Indigenous Peoples. METHODS: We conducted a Kaupapa Māori meta-synthesis evaluating the epidemiology of chronic kidney diseases in Indigenous Peoples. Systematic searching of MEDLINE, Google Scholar, OVID Nursing, CENTRAL and Embase was conducted to 31 December 2019. Eligible studies were quantitative analyses (case series, case-control, cross-sectional or cohort study) including the following Indigenous Peoples: Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Métis, First Nations Peoples of Canada, First Nations Peoples of the United States of America, Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan. In the first cycle of coding, a descriptive synthesis of the study research aims, methods and outcomes was used to categorise findings inductively based on similarity in meaning using the David R Williams framework headings and subheadings. In the second cycle of analysis, the numbers of studies contributing to each category were summarised by frequency analysis. Completeness of reporting related to health research involving Indigenous Peoples was evaluated using the CONSIDER checklist. RESULTS: Four thousand three hundred seventy-two unique study reports were screened and 180 studies proved eligible. The key finding was that epidemiological investigators most frequently reported biological processes of chronic kidney disease, particularly type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease as the principal causes of inequities in the burden of chronic kidney disease for colonised Indigenous Peoples. Social and basic causes of unequal health including the influences of economic, political and legal structures on chronic kidney disease burden were infrequently reported or absent in existing literature. CONCLUSIONS: In this systematic review with meta-synthesis, a Kaupapa Māori methodology and the David R Williams framework was used to evaluate reported causes of health differences in chronic kidney disease in ...
Background: There is evidence of Indigenous and ethnic minority inequities in the incidence and outcomes of early psychosis. Racism has been implicated as having an important role. Aim: To use Indigenous experiences to develop a more detailed understanding of how racism operates to impact early psychosis outcomes. Methods: Critical Race Theory informed the methodology used. Twenty-three Indigenous participants participated in four family focus group interviews and thirteen individual interviews, comprising of 9 Māori youth with early psychosis, 10 family members and 4 Māori mental health professionals. An analysis of the data was undertaken using deductive structural coding to identify descriptions of racism, followed by inductive descriptive and pattern coding. Results: Participant experiences revealed how racism operates as a socio-cultural phenomenon that interacts with institutional policy and culture across systems pertaining to social responsiveness, risk discourse, and mental health service structures. This is described across three major themes: 1) selective responses based on racial stereotypes, 2) race related risk assessment bias and 3) institutional racism in the mental health workforce. The impacts of racism were reported as inaction in the face of social need, increased use of coercive practices and an under resourced Indigenous mental health workforce. Conclusion: The study illustrated the inter-related nature of interpersonal, institutional and structural racism with examples of interpersonal racism in the form of negative stereotypes interacting with organizational, socio-cultural and political priorities. These findings indicate that organizational cultures may differentially impact Indigenous and minority people and that social responsiveness, risk discourse and the distribution of workforce expenditure are important targets for anti-racism efforts.