Māori public health expert joins Massey

Māori public health expert joins Massey

Māori knowledge about healthy living needs to be resuscitated, says Associate Professor Marewa Glover, who recently joined Massey University’s School of Public Health in a newly created role.

Dr Glover, a behavioural scientist, brings 23 years’ experience working in public health. She started in health promotion before moving into policy, then to research on how to reduce smoking rates.

As an Associate Professor in public health, Dr Glover will supervise Master’s and Doctoral students, and deliver lectures within existing public health papers.

“The next generation of health workers needs to know how to effectively support Māori to improve their health. We have several major public health challenges. Smoking remains our biggest killer, but obesity is running a close second. Stopping interpersonal violence is also a priority,” she says.

Dr Glover recently spoke at the Breathing in context: historical and cross-cultural perspectives on breath symposium at Durham University in the United Kingdom. She also delivered a No Smoking Day public lecture on New Zealand’s goal to become smoke-free by 2025.

A wide range of strategies, including taxes on tobacco, mass media campaigns and smoking cessation programmes, were supposed to halve smoking rates by 2015 to meet the Māori Affairs Select Committee’s 2010 recommendations. Dr Glover discussed these and several new tobacco control strategies being debated. She concludes, however, that the premature rejection of electronic cigarettes by the tobacco control and public health sector has stalled the drop in smoking rates.

“There has been no change in smoking prevalence among Māori and Pacific people since 2006 and 2007, proving that the current tobacco control approach doesn’t work.

“Punitive and top down approaches are totally out of touch with smokers, and out of touch with whānau realities, yet continue to be pushed upon them to no avail. It’s time smokers were listened to and supported to vape, since that’s what they want to do.”

Professor Roger Hughes, head of the School of Public Health, welcomed Dr Glover’s appointment. “I am delighted about Marewa’s appointment to our school, not just because she is a Māori academic with a strong commitment and knowledge about Māori health, but because she is an outstanding public health academic, with a contribution to make to improving the health of all New Zealanders”.

Dr Glover is of Ngā Puhi descent from the Cook and Baker whānau of the Hokianga.

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