Clive Aspin
Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Tamaterā
Clive Aspin is the inaugural Associate Dean Māori in the Faculty of Health at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington where he is also an Associate Professor in Health. He was born in Waiuku and grew up on his ancestral land of Hauraki. Dr Aspin is a Māori public health researcher whose work focuses on Māori and Indigenous health, HIV, sexuality, and suicide prevention. He was the Executive Research Officer at Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga, New Zealand’s centre of Māori research excellence.He served as a ministerial appointment to the Board of the Health Research Council and as Chair of the Māori Research Committee. He is a founding member of the International Indigenous Working Group on HIV and AIDS.
Indigenous sexuality and colonial ideologies
Based on our current understandings, it is reasonable to assume that sexual diversity has been a feature of human society since the beginning of time. Despite government sanctioned efforts to regulate, control and monitor sexual behaviour, expressions of sexuality, desire and behaviour continue to be major contributors to indigenous health and wellbeing. For indigenous peoples living in colonised societies, these regulations have sought to render invisible and perverse that which has been part of the rich tapestry of indigenous sexuality and identity for thousands of years. In this talk, I will discuss how we can harness the rich reserves of contemporary and historical understandings of indigenous sexuality to enhance health and wellbeing of Māori and other indigenous peoples.
