Healthcare Crisis Drives Cross-Country Protest: Nigel Brown Transforms Ambulance For Doctors' Journey

In an intriguing blend of art and advocacy, a remarkable protest initiative has been spearheaded by award-winning doctor-poets Glenn Colquhoun, a GP focused on youth health, and Art Nahill, a general hospital physician. Collaborating with renowned New Zealand artist Nigel Brown, they have transformed a second-hand van into an eye-catching mobile artwork—a fanciful ambulance.

This converted vehicle, central to the Hīkoi for Health: A People’s Inquiry, will journey from Kaitaia in Northland to Parliament, collecting healthcare stories and ideas for reform from communities along its route.

The movement emerged from Colquhoun and Nahill's deep concerns about New Zealand’s failing health system, its neglect by successive governments, and politicians’ lack of fresh ideas for its reform. Growing waiting lists, unprecedented pressure on emergency departments, difficulty accessing GP care, and record levels of burnout among healthcare workers all underscore the urgency of their message.

As Nahill states, "I see this journey less as a protest and more as an attempt to create positive momentum for the reform our health system requires. We can’t wait for governments to 'see the light' — we need to shine our passion and ideas so brightly they can’t turn away."

Colquhoun highlights the emotive drive behind the initiative, stating, "Our health system has a mauri—a life force. After 30 years of interacting with patients, it feels like there is some dynamic living thing that connects us all to each other. Protecting this is at the heart of health. I’m angry that it seems so utterly unappreciated by those who are charged with looking after it. I’m protesting because I’m compelled to preserve this mauri."

Nigel Brown's distinctive artwork envelops the recently unveiled ambulance with a striking narrative that portrays the current state of the healthcare system. "In general appearance, this van work is expressive and loose flowing on the set backgrounds. It draws on the artist’s medical and artistic experiences," explains Brown. "This van was designed to be joy and gloom eye catching in a different storyboard way where an audience can respond to different parts and relate it to personal experience."

Inside, the ambulance doubles as a recording studio designed to capture community stories and solutions. Post-Anzac Day, it will begin its traverse of the North Island, engaging communities in critical dialogues about the future of healthcare in Aotearoa. Ultimately, these conversations aim for fundamental reform—building a health system equitable to all New Zealanders and free from political squabbling.

As the ambulance makes its way through various North Island cities and towns, it will spark crucial dialogue and collect stories, culminating in a presentation at Parliament grounds in May. Brown’s artwork, renowned for addressing social issues, adds depth and approachability to the campaign, reinforcing the call for significant healthcare reform in New Zealand.

Background Information:

- The Hikoi for Health will begin after Anzac Day 2025, concluding at Parliament in May

- Communities can register to share their healthcare stories at: healthreformnz.org

- New Zealand's healthcare system is facing unprecedented challenges, with growing waiting lists, reducing access to GPs and emergency department pressures

- Nigel Brown is one of New Zealand's most respected artists, known for work that engages with social and environmental issues.

About the Organisers:

Art Nahill is a Harvard-trained physician and award winning clinical teacher whose career has spanned nearly thirty years. In that time he has worked in primary care, acute and chronic medicine at Auckland and Middlemore Hospitals, and in telehealth. While still working in consultative roles, he reluctantly retired from clinical medicine in 2023 when he felt the failure of government as kiatiaki of the public health system had made the hospital environment unsafe for patients, staff, and doctors. Art is also an award winning poet who has published widely in both the US and New Zealand including four books of poetry. He is a former correspondent for the Boston Globe newspaper in the US and has published numerous articles about the need for healthcare reform here in New Zealand.

Glenn Colquhoun is a poet and children’s writer. His first collection The art of walking upright won the Jessie Mackay best first book of poetry award at the 2000 Montana book awards. Playing God, his third collection, won the poetry section of the same awards in 2003 as well as the reader's choice award that year. He was awarded the Prize in modern letters in 2004 and a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard University in 2010 to explore medical humanities. Ngā Wāhine E Toru / Three Women and Myths and Legends of the Ancient Pākehā, his examinations of oral poetry in New Zealand, were published in 2024. He works as a GP at a youth health clinic in Horowhenua.

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