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Nga mihi mahana kia koutou katoa o ngâ neehi ma o Aotearoa. This brief article is designed to celebrate the evolution of kawa whakaruruhau from its inception to the present. It provides just a glimpse of the journey through the lens of a Mâori nurse and pays tribute to the influence Mâori have had and still have on the movement of kawa whakaruruhau/cultural safety in Aotearoa me te Waipounamu.
Almost 25 years have passed since the challenge of cultural safety was first raised at hui Waimanawa Otautahi (Christchurch) in early 1988. Mâori nursing students at that hui identified two major issues: firstly, their own cultural safety (including the tremendous power of socialisation working against their Mâori identity throughout the education process) and secondly, the inadequacies of that process in preparing students to deliver culturally safe services to the tangata whenua, te iwi Mâori.1
Over the ensuing years, many developments have occurred, principally the...