Te Rōpū Kawa Whakaruruhau

Some ideas arrive fully formed. Kawa whakaruruhau (cultural safety) at Ara came from a question asked at a marae in Christchurch in 1988. Hinerangi Mohi, a second-year nursing student attending a workshop at Rehua Marae, turned to Irihapeti Ramsden and said: You have legal safety, you have medical safety - what about cultural safety? 

Ramsden, a nurse and educator of Ngāi Tahu descent, recognised the need immediately. The phrase and the kaupapa behind it would go on to reshape health education across Aotearoa and beyond. It was at Ara, at the time Christchurch Polytechnic, that it found its first institutional home. Ramsden later drew this mahi together in her 2002 PhD thesis, Cultural Safety and Nursing Education in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu, completed through Victoria University of Wellington. 

The kaupapa 

At its heart, kawa whakaruruhau asks health practitioners to shift their orientation. Rather than arriving with a predetermined plan, "I know what I can do for you, and this is what I'm going to do", it asks them to recognise that the person in their care brings knowledge, relationships and context of their own. It’s about respect and understanding who you are caring for. 

The concept was taken up by the New Zealand Nursing Council and embedded in nursing and midwifery curricula. It is now used in health education internationally. 

The committee

As Ramsden's health declined, she worked to ensure the kaupapa had lasting institutional support. She asked Elizabeth Hera Cunningham, her relative, friend and fellow advocate, to chair a new advisory committee at Christchurch Polytechnic. That committee became Te Rōpū Kawa Whakaruruhau. 

"It was like a sister handing it over to another sister," says Elizabeth Hera Cunningham (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Irakehu, Ngāti Mutunga ki Wharekauri), KSO JP, who chaired the committee for a decade. "She put things in place, then handed them over to me." 

The committee brought together Ngāi Tahu community members, Māori registered nurses, Māori midwives, the Canterbury District Health Board Director of Nursing and tutors teaching Kawa Whakaruruhau across the health programmes. It met four times a year, supporting curriculum development and advising on how mātauranga Māori could be meaningfully embedded in health education. 

Among its founding members was Dame Aroha Reriti-Croft, who became a powerful advocate for ākonga, taking nursing and midwifery students to marae across the motu (country), including in Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island), to learn the tikanga of those places. 

Today

Te Rōpū Kawa Whakaruruhau continues as an advisory group to Ara's health programmes. It has an external chairperson recognised by Ngāi Tahu and includes membership from across the health and community sectors. The committee endorses programmes, monitors Māori student and staff outcomes and provides cultural advice, including to subcommittees working to embed mātauranga Māori and local narrative within health programmes. 

For Cunningham, the responsibility is both historical and ongoing. "Ara needs to take the lead," she says, "because this is where it came from. This is where it was supported. This is where we knew it could make a change." 

The outcomes that Ramsden sought - improved health for all people, in particular for Māori, remains the committee's purpose. The mahi continues. 

Current members of Te Rōpū Kawa Whakaruruhau: 

• Irihapeti Bullmore (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāpuhi), Te Rōpū chair, Ara Academic Staff Member – Mātauranga Māori 
• Dr Allen Hill, Ara Head of Portfolio - Nursing 
• Annette Finlay, Kaituhituhi 
• Anna Richardson, Ara Principal Academic Staff Member 
• Kirsty Donaldson, Ara Portfolio Manager - Nursing 
• Kylie Clark 
• Irene McEwen, Ara Faculty Operations Manager 
• Dr Jacqueline Martin (Raukawa, Waikato, Tauranga Moana), Ara Senior Academic Staff Member 
• Jade Hancy, Ara Academic Staff Member 
• Janice Groube, Ara Senior Academic Staff Member – General Medicine and Surgical 
• Jay Waretini, Ara Te Ara o Hine Learning Advisor 
• Kaimana Gallop 
• Maarie Hutana 
• Mary Kensington, Ara Principal Academic Staff Member 
• Mel Morete 
• Tate Tiatia (Ngāti Kahungunu), Ara Associate Director, Māori Success 
• Tracey Kirkbride, Ara Principal Academic Staff Member