The EMDRNZ Bicultural Advisory Group currently comprises Diane Clare, Caroline Ripley, Clive Banks, Irene Begg, Glenda Wallace, and Anne Woodside. In this paper, Diane Clare describes the group’s journey together, including contributions from her fellow members.

Much has been written about colonisation and its impact on Māori, with health services failing to significantly improve Māori health outcomes (e.g. Durie, 1999; Rolleston et al., 2020). There are continued concerns that institutions are racist (e.g. Kopua et al., 2021) and that training itself lacks an Indigenous perspective (Abbott & Durie, 1987; Lawson Te-Aho, 1994; Pomare et al., 2021). Psychology is taught from a Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) perspective (Abbott & Durie, 1987; Groot et al., 2018; Levy & Waitoki, 2015); therefore, psychological research practices are questioned as part of these concerns (e.g. Tan et al., 2023).

EMDRNZ was founded in 2012 to offer a professional association for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand. EMDRNZ faces challenges in defining and implementing cultural competence in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand as a bicultural nation. Very few Māori were part of earlier EMDRNZ conversations. Issues of difference and othering are just some of the challenges of adapting EMDRNZ and the practice of EMDR therapy to a bicultural model. It is our duty to address and a stark reminder how much of psychology is developed through a pākehā (white New Zealander) lens.

This paper tells the story of a journey and an ara (pathway) towards a bicultural lens for EMDRNZ. We describe the wai (waters) bringing us to this whenua (land) and to this waka (canoe). The paper describes our ‘why’ regarding what began the kōrero (conversation) about biculturalism and where it sits within EMDRNZ. Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) speaks of sovereignty and partnership as well as bicultural participation and the protection of taonga (treasures) of Aotearoa New Zealand. Put otherwise, all is respected within a bicultural perspective. The journey, in progress, poses us questions, raises possibilities and we invite you to do the same- joining our waka heading towards a bicultural EMDRNZ. On this journey, tikanga (customs) must guide kawa (protocol) and related kaupapa (policies/purpose) to capture a truly Aotearoa New Zealand EMDRNZ.

Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana,
kia tere te karohirohi i mua i tou huarahi.

“May calm and tranquillity be widespread, may the waters that you sail in glisten like greenstone, and may their shimmering light guide you safely on your journey.”

Development of a Bicultural Advisory Group for EMDRNZ

Following the EMDRNZ annual general meeting in 2022, a group was formed to develop a pathway towards Indigenised practice. In April 2023, we shared our ‘wai’ (waters we travelled) and also our ‘why’ (motivations). Collected here are our individual stories. As you read, you may like to consider what was the wai that connected you to this whenua (land). That is, what is the ‘why’ that leads you to seek culturally competent practice and how you can assist in the bicultural waka.

Caroline: my wai and my why

Tēnā tātou katoa,
I te taha ō tōku Pāpā Kō Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
I te taha ō tōku Māmā
Kō Parekohe Kō Pūtauaki ōku maunga
Kō Te Whēke Kō Ōhinematarōa ōku awa
Kō Mataatua tōku waka.
Kō Rāroa Kō Te Paroa ōku marae.
Kō Tamaruarangi Kō Ngāti Hokopū ōku hapū.
Kō Tūhoe Kō Ngāti awa ōku iwi.
Kō Caroline Ripley taku ingoa.

My primary motivation for being part of the Bicultural Advisory rōpū (group) is simply that my people are grossly overrepresented in every negative statistic within Aotearoa New Zealand. The prison population, poor physical and mental health, low education, poverty and all the social issues that come with this. As professionals, we are all aware that the primary reason for this is the aftermath of colonisation. But we are now in the 21st century- 184 years after the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. As Tangata Whenua (Indigenous people), we continue to ‘Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou’ (struggle without an end) (Walker, 1996) every day as we work on healing, re-Indigenising, reclaiming and de-colonising our spaces. Therefore, as a Tangata Whenua wahine, I intentionally and purposefully choose spaces and people such as the Bicultural Advisory rōpū to be among to ensure wherever possible those working alongside my people do so with mana (kudos, strength, respect), aroha (love), manaaki (support/care for) and te whakakoha rangatiratanga (absolute respectful relationships) (Pohatu, 2004).

Tōku toa, he toa Rangatira

“My bravery is inherited from the Chiefs who were my forebears.”

Diane: my wai and my why

Te ara the Thames, te maunga London, te iwi Spencer-Mackenzie of English and Scottish heritage (respectively my father’s and my mother’s whānau) with Welsh, Irish, Scandinavian and Spanish ancestors. Te waka: a Boeing aircraft London to Auckland, 1981 then on to Invercargill. Kō Diane Clare ahau.

My wai began at the Thames first to the north and then to the south of the river, then a time near the North Yorkshire moors before emigrating to Aotearoa New Zealand, flying across the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans to bring me here. Arriving at the time of Spring Bok tour demonstrations was a seismic shift in the development of my own awareness about the meaning pākehā were making of our own racism, of colonisation and its impact on the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand.

My arrival in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1981, was my awakening—the mauri (life force) arising in me. I learned how pākehā ancestors colonised this beautiful whenua and its people. Whole generations lost their language and kaupapa, and I witnessed the tears of kuia and matua (elders) as they told their stories of being whipped for speaking the reo and the shame and humiliation this cross-generational trauma entailed. Such grief, loss and distress was humbling and shocking and confronting for me. The Treaty trainings of the 1990s helped my learning about the impact on Māori, and the discarding of tikanga, with health and crime statistics evidence to these inequities to this day. My learning within my work was and is continually challenged by this history, especially when the stories are told by Māori in ways so different from the storytelling of the colonising dominant view. This helped me grasp how much I did not know and to wonder how much we still do not know when indigenous history is told through an external voice.

Coming out in my 30s and being part of an oppressed minority went deeper than my feminist politics of gendered discourses, which had been the focus of my master’s thesis. Coming out of a place of privilege to a place of denigration and othering helped me begin to grasp the enormity of what it might mean to be more culturally competent in my interactions with others, both personally and professionally. As a feminist and a narrative therapist, I had long been learning about deconstructing dominant stories of colonising practices. With curiosity, I was asking questions about these issues. I valued the opportunity to see through the eyes of my Māori clients how many things must be approached differently for the work to be culturally safe.

Anne: my wai and my why

I came from Ireland 37 years ago and lived in Tawa. I initially found it very difficult to be here—it was a ‘dry area’ (no licensed premises) unless you went to one of the clubs and there were too many churches (and we had left Belfast as a young family during the Troubles to get away from churches). I then started working with Māori people in a disability service. I immediately felt an affinity without knowing why. When I subsequently went to Victoria University in 1991 to complete a social work qualification I had started in Belfast in 1974, I started to understand why I felt so connected to Māori people, their culture and their colonised history. Learning about Te Tiriti and all the history both before and particularly after its signing, was deeply felt because of my own people’s history—loss of our land, loss of and suppression of our language and our common English oppressor/coloniser. Interestingly we never thought of Scotland or Wales as our oppressor. As I sat with my back against the tukutuku panels at the wharenui on the many Noho Marae, I was fortunate enough to be part of at Te Herenga Waka Marae, I looked around at the carvings telling the stories of Māori people’s oppression across Aotearoa New Zealand.

I felt more Irish and more at home than I have ever felt. During this social work course I was also very privileged to go to the Ureweras with Tamiti Cairns and to be with his Tuhoe people, who maintained their sovereignty at Maungapohatu and to experience the heartfelt and passionate kōrero spoken in te reo and English. When I think back to those early experiences in Aotearoa, I know why this mahi (work) is so important and dear to my heart.

Glenda: my wai and my why

No tipuna Ireland, Scotland oku

Kei te noho auki Otepoti Otakou, Tokomairiro mouth, Clutha Te wai Pounamu

He manawa whakahirahira ahau ki te noho i roto i Aotearoa. Ko Glenda toku ingoa.

I am Irish and Scottish and was raised by Caribbean folk in London, so I have had an unusual upbringing and view of the world. I always sensed a need to stand up and advocate for those seen as other. When I arrived in Aotearoa I was shocked by the way white kiwis were unwilling to engage in bicultural ways of working.

I was engaged from the start of the EMDRNZ Board and wanted to find ways we could embrace this kaupapa. We have tried this over time, but it has not been an easy journey. To add flavour to this last June, I found out my Irish mother was still alive, and my nana and uncles had emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1970s. My uncle married into Ngāpuhi from Northland, and I found I had 53 whānau who welcomed me. They spoke of being anglicised and this has been a further step for me in understanding the impact of colonialism and my place in righting the wrongs.

Clive: my wai and my why

I am the oldest of four and was raised by my mother. She spoke Māori as her first language and did not speak English until she was aged 6 years. Our mother raised us in the Hawke’s Bay and her whānau are Ngāti Porou on the East Cape. My father was first generation New Zealander with an English mother and Australian father. I always felt psychology as a profession needed to lift its game around working with Māori. To get access to this, I had to do 7 years of training. I love EMDR and the adaptive information processing (AIP) model and how it helps with people managing their health and wellness. We might have to look at the way kaupapa Māori would be in EMDR as bicultural practice means different things to different Māori. Although curious and interested, I want to avoid tokenism and I know Whina Cooper transformed my thinking on that.

Irene: my wai and my why

Ko Pukeamoamo te Maunga, ko Ohau te awa, ko Muaupoko te Iwi, ko Begg te Whanau,

Ko Moncreiff Begg toku papa, Ko Edna Burt toku mama, Ko Irene Begg toku ingoa.

My maternal grandfather came from Glasgow, Scotland. My maternal grandmother from Armidale, NSW, Australia and my paternal grandparents from Scotland, Aberdeenshire. I spent my early years in the Waikato area and attended a little primary school in Rangiriri, a significant area in Māori history where many battles took place. Our kura (school) was 90% Māori and I enjoyed going to the local marae as part of our school week, learning tikanga practices. I was privileged in my social work days to work with Ngāti Awa Social Services to be one of the first social workers in schools to be offered to learn te reo in the te atarangi classes that Ngāti Awa Social Services offered their staff. I remember those 5 years with immersion in the culture of Ngāti Awa and I learned so much from their people. Based on my early beginnings and being surrounded by wonderful learning opportunities in my kura and then working with tangata whenua with Ngāti Awa and Tuhoe whanau, I realised how much I missed this in my mahi today and I wanted to see a more enriched bi-cultural approach to our ma mae tanga mahi (trauma work).

My why is to see how we can encourage more provincial based trainings, go where the need is most, encourage more kōrero with hapu/iwi providers in the rural areas and where there is a high population of Māori, and take our training to those areas in a way which is comfortable to tangata whenua and bring a more enriched and bicultural focus to the delivery of our trainings by undertaking they are, at times, noho marae or wānanga based. In my rohe (home territory) I am working on discussing my enthusiasm at local forums I attend with my peers and letting them know that EMDRNZ would like to have more Māori therapists undertake the training.

Towards Indigenised Practice

Nickerson (2017) strongly articulated the challenges when working with difference, particularly challenges about othering and colonising practices. He explored the issue of cultural competencies, drawing on Sperry’s model (2011). Nickerson emphasised how the AIP model can be useful to deconstruct cultural forces and their impacts. We consider and reconsider the very essence of what are adaptive/maladaptive means and to whose tikanga. Nickerson considered the significance of cultural kaupapa (purpose) and its meaning for the clients, while learning to adopt humility and curiosity about other cultures. These ideas resonate with our wish to overcome cultural bias such that EMDR practice itself becomes Indigenised for all.

Our approach helps us consider the social dynamics and settings whereby the dominant cultural view colonises all over again the ways we work with our clients. This can be demonstrated by considering microaggressions (originated by Chesterton Pierce 1970 in the Black American context). Microaggressions are both explicit and implicit, often creating a bind for those who are subject to oppressive practices as to whether to speak up or not. The bind is that to speak up may increase a rift in the relationship, and to not speak up feels safer but at a cost to our mana and wairua (respected status and spirit). Weingarten (2003) described microaggressions as ‘common shock’ occurring often, and if we blink we miss the multitude of everyday events—but this still effects our mind, body and spirit. Any form of discrimination we witness, let alone experience, directly impacts us. As therapists, vicarious traumatisation occurs as we bear witness, and cultural trauma is part of that. Weingarten encouraged us to witness with compassion to enable the healing to occur at a personal and at a social level.

'If you tell the truth you are in trouble
But if you see the truth and you keep quiet

Your spirit begins to die’. (Ben Okri, Dangerous Love, 1996)

White and Epston (1990) described stories unfolding through landscapes of action and identity; a dual landscaping that connects to our consciousness. Through this we track meanings and beliefs and values, such that we then work with both landscapes of identity and of action. Further to this, White (2000) spoke of the ‘absent but implicit’ whereby in our landscapes of identity we may not always attend to what is not said, not described and not acceptable or understood, preferring to attend to the dominant story and disregarding that which is the contrast to the problems and to overlook the preferred values.

We are at risk of othering based on our compass being always set to the dominant culture or our preferred view and disregarding the pathway of the waka on which our clients and their ancestors travel. We risk disregarding their being, their wairua and their turangawaewae (place to stand). Giving value to what people hold precious and attending to these preferred values and beliefs requires a re-set. We must learn to become more conscious of the assumptions that are out of step with the culture of the people who consult with us. As we walk with them through their landscapes of identity and action, we must be aware that the map we use may not reflect their territory and that it is influenced by our lens. Therapy is only just when it is a cultural fit (Tamasese & Waldegrave, 2003).

In the rich taonga of Nickerson’s book we see how we might journey towards Indigenised practice. He takes us through an array of ways to adapt the eight-phase model with culturally aware history-taking through to culturally based targets and the dismantling of dominant cultural privilege, and recognition of our own prejudices as part of that. Nickerson adds that the challenge is ‘weaving the cultural dimension into all phases of treatment, starting with a careful assessment’ (Nickerson, 2017, p. 29). This would be a good foundation for EMDRNZ so that our kaupapa (policies) and kawa (procedures and practices) may be more culturally safe for Māori, not just for pākehā. In her address to the New Zealand Psychological Society Conference in Hamilton, Dame Tariana Turia, DNZM, challenged ‘mature intelligent people’ including psychologists, especially Māori psychologists to consider post-colonial stress disorder as a condition. She stated that this is ‘a recognised condition facing Indigenous people worldwide’ including many Māori (Delvecchio et al., 2007; Duran, 2006; Duran & Duran, 1995; Durie, 1994).

Our Conversations Together in the Bicultural Huis

Kawa helps us to inform kaupapa and will be useful to think about further as we review the EMDRNZ Constitution. We discussed how we all have good intentions and seek to be more respectful of Māori kaupapa and that there is more work to do on the welcome, the blessing of kai (food), eating kai outside the workspace and adjusting annual conferences to meet these challenges. We noted how some things conspire to come across as disrespectful of kaupapa Māori even though there is no such intention. We talked about having Te Tiriti in the EMDRNZ constitution and in te reo. Glenda said we need to come from kindness, with words and without words, as in the work of Wiremu Wehi, who has spoken in previous discussions about the need for cultural changes to EMDRNZ. Wiremu provided us with a symbol for our therapy space walls, a triangle, two waving lines descending to a cloud shape to represent a mountain, a river and the land, indicating to Māori clients we are open to walk beside them in discussing their world view. Wiremu suggested having this image in full view would be the first indication to Māori clients that our kaupapa may be culturally safe (see also Graham & Masters-Awatere, 2020 and Kopua & Skirrow, 2023; for a further discussion).

Caroline helped us explore ways that EMDRNZ could begin to include more kaupapa in its work. She spoke to how a powhiri (formal ceremonial welcome) may not be possible at this stage of the organisation’s development, but to aim instead for a mihi whakatau (a less formal form of welcome). Caroline reinforced the need to ensure culturally appropriate practices in conferences and training sessions, including a respectful opening and closure, and avoiding tokenism. Caroline suggested that for EMDRNZ to integrate a framework for acknowledging tikanga Māori would be likely an organic process, developing over time.

Conversations With the EMDRNZ Board

In April 2023, the Board was updated on our initial conversations. A question arose about engaging with mana whenua for all conferences from the outset. Curiously, there was initial confusion about the concept of ‘host’ as this is not who is organising the conferences (EMDRNZ), but it is the mana whenua (the people on whose land we stand) who are the hosts (see McClintock et al., 2012).

By July 2023, the group identified a number of issues to be explored within the EMDRNZ Board- including how we could increase Māori membership of the group and, ultimately, of the EMDRNZ Board. Caroline and Clive, as mana whenua, met with the Board in August 2023, who confirmed their commitment to the principles of Te Tiriti- including the importance of actively working to decolonise training and make it a welcoming space for tangata whenua. Under discussion is the possibility of taking training to the provinces and within a marae context and about funding for Māori for training and representation on the Board.

Conclusions

As a Bicultural Advisory Group, we met five times in 2023. We began with our ‘wai’ that connects us to this whenua, our ‘why’ for bicultural practice, and our aspirations for an Indigenised EMDRNZ, which the Board is now journeying towards. The waka we travel in, with Te Tiriti principles to guide us, ensures we work as partners- seeking to enhance participation and to ensure there is protection of the taonga of this whenua. We have begun our kōrero, to begin to develop kawa, structuring and scaffolding our kaupapa, as EMDRNZ reviews its Constitution. Aotearoa New Zealand is a bicultural nation and our training and organisations must reflect this- partnering with mana whenua at every stage.

We feel encouraged and confident that there is movement towards these principles and some of the work is in progress is heartening. Irene and an EMDR trainer are planning the first Marae-based EMDR training in May 2024 at Matata, Eastern Bay of Plenty. The waka is on its way from the mountains to the awa. You are warmly invited to consider this mahi and your wai to the whenua and how bicultural practice could become embedded in the kawa and kaupapa of our organisation. We journey together and we create the solution in partnership step by step.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive

Glossary of terms

(approximate as some words are almost impossible to accurately translate)
Ara: pathway or river
Aroha: love, deep affection
Awa: river
Hui: meeting, conference
Iwi: tribe or community of people
Kai: food
Kaupapa: principles and policy framework
Kawa: protocol, etiquette
Kōrero: discourse, discussion, talk
Kuia: mother or female elder
Kura: school
Ma mae tanga mahi: trauma work
Mahi: work
Mana: kudos, respect, status
Mana whenua: Indigenous people, Māori
Manaaki:
Matua: father or male elder
Maunga: mountain (tipuna maunga: ancestral mountain)
Mauri: life force or essence
Mihi whakatau: informal general welcome in Māori
Moana: sea, ocean
Poroporoaki: final farewell, or closure ceremony
Pōwhiri: Māori formal welcoming ceremony
Rangatiratanga: Māori principle of self-determination
Reo: (or te reo) is the language (as in te reo Māori)
Rohe: home territory
Tangata whenua: people of the land
Taonga: treasure
Tikanga: customary practices, ways of doing things
Tipuna: ancestors, grandparents
Tukutuku panels: woven panels within the wharenui/marae
Turangawaewae: place to have rights to stand
Wahine: woman
Wai: water
Wairua: spirit
Waka: canoe or boat
Wānanga: a place of education using tikana Māori
Whānau: family group
Wharenui: communal house or meeting house
Whenua: land