Pull your head in Te Ururoa

Pull your head in Te Ururoa

I was incredibly alarmed to read and listen to Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell’s ill-informed views surrounding how we ‘deal with’ suicide within our whānau.

I too have the awful horror of experiencing what it is like to try and unpick the tragedy of suicide, its never-ending effects, and to make sense of it in a way that moves us, as whānau, forward. If only he had thought a little more about the power he has to make positive change in our whānau, or to inflict more damage, before voicing his opinion stigmatising those very whānau, my very whānau, whose lives are affected by suicide.

As someone who has lost many whānau and friends (Māori and Pākehā) to suicide, including my husband, nephews, aunty and cousins, and who has worked within the field of Māori mental health for decades, I was saddened to hear this view emerge again from Te Ururoa. He raised it some time back as well. A significant fact that seems to have escaped his understanding is that tangi are not just about the person who has died. The support offered to those left behind is crucial in their recovery, and indeed in combating unresolved grief that may precede further suicides.

Does Te Ururoa honestly think that my children would somehow have learnt anything positive by having their father’s mental health consigned to shame through an act of denying him his rightful place in his wharenui and in his urupa? Does he honestly think my cousins or nephews would have altered their actions by knowing they would be denied their whakapapa? His stigmatisation of those who make this tragic decision lacks insight and is harmful.

Te Ururoa – don’t stigmatise our whānau who are already marginalised. Use your voice positively to combat suicide in our whānau, and to support those left behind, not ‘slam’ us.

Dr. Lynne Russell (Pere)
Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāti Māmoe, Rangitāne, Ngāti Porou
Māori Health Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Health Services Research Centre
School of Government

ENDS

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