My name is Megan, and I'm in my final year of a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy. I'm of Maori, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and Cornish descent. As a person of mixed ancestry, who identifies more with a minority culture in a post-colonial nation, I find myself straddling two different worlds in my daily life, including the way in which I view my health and well-being. Despite being in my mid-thirties, and living in a country where indigenous values and meaning are recognised to some extent within the healthcare system, and in healthcare education, I still encounter difficulties on a routine basis within the health sector. This can, at times, be frustrating. Having a bicultural experience of health and well-being, of personal and community values, the language I use to express myself, and the ways in which I find meaning in my life, I am subject to conflict of some philosophical kind in most things that I do and most places I go. If it can be difficult for me, having the advantage of being born and raised in this country, and belonging to a culture that is specifically touched upon within mainstream education, I wondered how difficult it may be for those from other minority cultures, especially those that are more recent arrivals, and for whom English is a second language. My life's journey has constituted exposure to two main cultural experiences, mainstream western New Zealand, and Te Ao Maori (the Maori world). Here is a picture of New Zealand's population at the 2006 census, the values do not add up to 100%, as individuals who identified as belonging to more than one ethnicity were added to each category that they acknowledged:
(Statistics New Zealand, 2013)
As you can see, 42.8% of the population identified as something other than just European, and 28.2% identified as something other than just European and/or Maori. This tells me that communication and values for over a quarter of the population of New Zealand could be significantly different to what I am accustomed to. In order to be the best therapist I can be, I am going to expand my learning, step outside my cultural comfort zone, and take a look at a world that is right on my doorstep.
Reference
Statistics New Zealand. (2013). Ethnic groups (from 2006 census) [graph]. Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-in-profile-2013/about-new-zealand.aspx
