Toni Shepherd
Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Rapuwai, Waitaha
Toni is a Māma of four, a scholar, an activist, an environmentalist, a clinician who is devoted to protecting the integrity of whakapapa. Working as the Tumu Whakarae of Starship Child Health, Toni leads TamaAriki Ora who are embedded in the daily fight for child health equity and social justice. Their mission to ensure that we continuing moving towards a mokopuna-centric, whānau focused and whānau led child health system.
Te Ahi Kaa - The fight for racial justice in health care
Māori experience worse health outcomes than the wider population in Aotearoa - shorter life expectancy, higher mortality and morbidity rates for a range of diseases. To ensure a health system that responds to the aspirations and needs of Māori we are charged with driving transformational change in the healthcare system. The way we have been working for the last few decades has not significantly improved Māori health outcomes. It is clear we need to do things differently. We need to embed tino rangatiratanga and we need to address racism –and colonisation including social, economic, cultural and historical impacts. This session will be informed by front-line insight of the fight for racial justice in health care – from community experience and collective action, to the academy, health policy and system reforms. The panel will describe the challenges and challenge the descriptions.
