Distinctly African health-promoting human occupations are under-researched in occupational therapy (OT). Many OT interventions in South Africa are exogenous and may be inaccessible to many. African dance that produces neurogenic tremors (ADNT) is an occupation that may already be accessible to many and a potential resource for health and could be used in OT. The study aimed to explore, describe and explain the nature and enactment of ADNT among professional dancers in Cape Town, SA. Case study methodology was used. Interviews, focus groups and participant observation were used. Four themes emerged from the study (1) Triggers: Improvisation, Energy and pushing beyond limits. (2) Essence of self: Embodying Africa through dance. (3) Leaving and returning to the body and (4) Creatures of the soil: Connected to the ground and beyond…for health. ADNT elucidated four African philosophical constructs: ubuwena, isintu, ubuntu and kwantu;

Sexual violence (SV) is a global public health problem, which disproportionately affects women. Research exploring how women who have been subjected to SV experience mental health and substance use services has largely neglected the views of racially and ethnically minoritised women. This review aims to understand their perspectives of such services, synthesising the data from 11 studies. The main themes of the review are: 1) Women required a holistic approach to care, which included receiving treatment that was delivered in a personalised and culturally relevant way, and opportunities to discuss the racial trauma that they experienced; 2) Women required support from healthcare professionals to process the emotional pain from the abuse and begin the healing; 3) Women were helped in their healing journey through interpersonal relationships which included community connection, collaboration and empathy.

Conflict is absolutely inevitable between people and countries. Conflict is often the result of divergent ideas, cause and effect incompatibilities, deliberate antagonism, power, authority and control differentials towards the equity and equality demography of subjugated, and colonised indigenous peoples. This creates a vacuum of oppressed indigenous peoples who have been subjugated and categorised in the lower-species spectrum with flora and fauna defined as savages and barbarians. This thesis investigates and examines the historical British Imperial Settler language of subjugation, a differential of privilege and racism, the stiff-upper-lip of the patriarchy feudalism notions of paternal superiority. Further to this notion, is the examination of the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery which imposed Christianised legal sovereignty over non-Christian native peoples, their lands, natural resources, assets and slavery as ‘discovered,’ an

Within Te Ao Māori, hapūtanga is a significant process deeply embedded with ancient mātauranga, which was traditionally inclusive of Tāne Māori. In modern times maternity services in Aotearoa can be mana diminishing for Tane Māori and therefore detrimental to whānau ora. This presentation will discuss the key conclusions from Te Rau o Tāne that reinforce the importance of working towards a maternity system that will consider the historical damages that have separated tāne Māori from their pōkaitanga and hapūtanga. To re-evaluate how midwives as well as the New Zealand Maternity system understands, views, and values the important role of tāne Māori within their haputanga requires the continued honouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. These key points are critical to research further to uphold the obligations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and ensure that tāne Māori, whānau Māori and pēpē Māori are thriving within the midwifery care that we are so privileged to provide in Aotearoa.

This presentation seeks to deepen understanding of decolonizing education, an approach to teaching and learning which holds that social justice requires the dismantling of Eurocentric imperialism and its evolving forms. Specifically, it brings literature on decolonization, subculture, and informal learning in conversation to propose a theory of decolonial underground pedagogy, a conceptual framing that enables observations of how minority-led subcultures foster critical consciousness and decolonial action by emphasizing informal learning, community engagement, and nonhierarchical relationships. Through the suppositionless Philippine methodology of pakapa-kapa, I analyze decolonizing experiences found in three minority-led subcultures: punk rock, skateboarding, and unschooling.

Climate activists in Aotearoa have driven the nation towards a zero-emissions future. However, Māori and Pacific activists have highlighted the structural violence of the movement and calls to decolonise are gaining momentum. Using interviews with Pākehā and Tauiwi climate activists, this presentation explores how Pākehā and Tauiwi climate activists articulate their solidarity with Pacific activists when considering climate change’s impacts in the Pacific. Participants were concerned with the physical impacts of climate change yet many lacked awareness of its broader socio-cultural effects. Nonetheless, they identified that their approach to frontline support needed reform. This required enacting ‘neighbourly’ solidarity, prioritising relationality, and accountability as a shift away from inaction. These strategies may be critical in guiding Pākehā and Tauiwi activists to support climate justice and the broader move to decolonise.

In 2021, the Graduate Diploma of Learning and Teaching at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa moved to a pass/not yet model of assessment in an attempt to undo power relationships inherent in grading and invite all participants to engage in a rangatira ki te rangatira relationship of learning. This presentation maps the shift of one student from having to “play pākehā” in the institution to being authentically present as Māori with her Pākehā lecturer. Manaakitanga is central to the success of both Kaiako Pitomata (student teacher, a term which speaks to the emergence of the teacher within) and Pouako. The trust established invited radical engagement in a programme that claimed to recognise and value indigenous ways of knowing and demonstrating that knowledge. Rather than assessments requiring a correct and predetermined answer, they were designed to reveal the journey of Kaiako Pitomata and establish the knowledge they would seek out next.

Across Aotearoa there are chronic shortages of qualified Maori health practitioners and systemic ethnic health inequities. This study, focussing on the discipline of occupational therapy, explores Maori graduates' recollections of the institutional barriers that impacted on their study.This qualitative study interviewed seven Maori occupational therapy graduates using purakau - an innovative Maori narrative inquiry method. Purakau were collected via kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) semi-structured interviews. They were analysed using the framework of Pu-Ra-Ka-U which draws on traditional Maori knowledge.The institutional barriers identified were i) cultural dissonance, ii) cultural (in)competency and iii) the limitations of (western) pastoral care. This study highlighted how racism is embedded within the western tertiary education system.

Variable approaches to equitable care prompted the organisation nationally to establish an internal Maori caucus (Te Rito harakeke ) who spearheaded the development of an equity charter which was adopted by the collective body of CEOs around the country. This was followed by Equity being named as a priority in the new national strategic planning process, and a clearly stated commitment from the organisation’s leadership. Te Tai Tokerau had established supportive care roles in partnership with iwi providers prior to these movements, but a significant full division Equity project was carried out in 2019 and an equity action plan established for our division. This presentation will document some of the positive learnings and the challenges faced in this ongoing journey.

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), Māori whānau experience health inequity, socioeconomic deprivation, and discriminatory health care practices. Atopic Dermatitis is a chronic skin condition that disproportionately affects Māori tamariki (children) and international research comments on the holistic challenges that coincide with caring for tamariki who have Atopic Dermatitis. To date, there has been no research in Aotearoa exploring the experiences of Māori parents who may encounter disproportionate challenges when caring for their tamariki. This small qualitative study, using Kaupapa Māori methodology, aims to explore the experiences of Māori parents who are living with and caring for one or more tamariki with Atopic Dermatitis in their homes. Kaupapa Māori guided the study's design and process using a kaupapa kōrero approach. Culturally appropriate engagement was paramount to the study and drew on kanohi-ki-te-kanohi interviews to holisticall

"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." Lilla Watson, Aboriginal Australian activist. As a white South African immigrant to Aotearoa, my presentation is a personal reflection on some of the benefits of decolonisation for myself and other white Tauiwi / Pākehā, and the ways in which my liberation is bound with decolonisation. This presentation will reflect on my captured identity that I discovered after reading Baldwin (2015). I will reflect on my predetermined worldview that remained hidden from my view until reading Reid et al. (2019) and Ife (2016). These readings revealed a richer, deeper potential for my identity and worldview, and in turn the ways I could benefit from decolonisation. While these findings are personal, the process provides an avenue of reflection available to begin aligning with decolonisation.

Māori are severely over-represented in the prison population of Aotearoa New Zealand, making up over half of all prisoners, despite being only about 15 percent of the national population. These Māori statistics are well known to the general population, and tend to add to racist perceptions of Māori in general. There is substantial literature on Māori imprisonment to be found within criminology and related fields, but it mostly focuses on ‘fixing’ the prisoner. There is very little existing research on the experiences of those who work in prisons, and little if any research on the experiences of Māori educators working in prisons. The question of working as a Māori educator in prison was explored in this dissertation using Kaupapa Māori as a framework that aligns with Māori cultural practices and perspectives. The two sources of data used to investigate the question were, first, collecting information from the literature, and second, w