Whānau Ora: An Indigenous policy success story

Abstract

A policy success?Whānau Ora (which can be translated as 'family wellbeing') 1 is an innovative approach to Indigenous health and social services policy in Aotearoa New Zealand.The initiative empowers whānau (family) as a whole and devolves to whānau members self-determining processes to improve their cultural, social and economic wellbeing.The initiative's designers aimed for 'the potential of whānau to do for themselves' (Humpage 2017: 480) by minimising their dependence on state-delivered benefits and interventions.Building whānau resilience, and the skills and resources of members to manage their own affairs without interference from others, is critical.Intrinsic to this approach is the concept of a 'strengths' perspective.2 1The term 'whānau ora' can be translated in many ways.For the purposes of this research and consistent with usage in the report of the Taskforce on Whānau-Centred Initiatives (2010: 12), it means 'family wellbeing', where 'family' is defined as Māori who share 'familial ties that extend over two or three generations' and have 'collective interests that generate reciprocal ties and aspirations'.2 Increasingly common also in mainstream service delivery, according to Rapp et al. (2005), strengths-based social work has six hallmarks: it is goal oriented; it requires a systematic assessment of strengths; it sees the environment as rich in resources; it has explicit methods for using these strengths for goal attainment; it is hope-inducing; and the practice of meaningful choice is central and clients have the authority to choose.

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