FROM SOCIAL DIVERSITY TO UNITY IN DIVERSITY:

EXPLORING HEALTH PROMOTING PATHWAYS FOR OUR COMMON FUTURE AND HAUORA

Sione Tu’itahi

Executive Director

Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand

Keynote address, 19th April 2016, 14th Annual Asian Forum, Auckland

OUR PRESENT REALITY• We are an increasingly socio-culturally diverse society at all levels – local,

national, global, reflecting the social evolution of humanity

• But like most countries in the world, our NZ societal system is significantly imbalanced because it was not designed to cope with diversity; inequities in health, income, education, housing and a damaged environment are some of the consequences

• Because it is a system, when one part is not working well, the whole system suffers as we now witness in the world today – economic crisis, climate change, forced mass migration, extreme poverty and riches, war and conflict

• Every group in the system suffers but most vulnerable members suffer most –women, children, Indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, small nations

• Talking about the Asian workforce capacity in NZ provides opportunity to reflect and explore how might address this systemic imbalance for our common future and wellbeing

DIVERSE AND GLOBALISED SOCIETY

• Not only diverse but we are a globalised community whose inhabitants are closely interdependent and interconnected socially, economically, culturally, and technologically

• Either we thrive together or perish together; no one is an island anymore

• Values such as domination, competition, unity in homogeneity, and win at all costs, which largely inform our current approaches to organising our societal affairs are increasingly ineffective and obsolete

• Socio-economic models based on these values are divisive and destructive, creating extremes of wealth and poverty, unbridled consumerism and unsustainable patterns of living and development in all human spheres and our socio-cultural and natural environments

LEARNING FROM OUR PAST AND PRESENT

• Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) was established as an equitable partnership between Tangata Whenua (Maori) and the Crown/European settlers, and to address concerns about the wellbeing of the former. But in practice, it was and still is a very imbalanced, depriving process for TangataWhenua, despite recent efforts by both parties to address the imbalanced and unjust system. This is because of underpinning values of domination, competition, and divisive, win-loose, ‘power over’ approaches

• Migrating to the country in the 1960s, Pasifika peoples found and still find the whole system very imbalanced against them. Largely through their persistent advocacy, things have slightly improved but there is still a long way to go

• We can all learn from these two experiences and make sure history and current affairs will not be repeated for more recent migrant groups such as the Asian communities

CHANGE OUR SYSTEM WHEN REALITY CHANGES

• Our current socio-economic and political system is our own construct based on selected values

• Even if originally designed well, social constructs and systems and their values and principles – such as public policies and institutions – will have to change if the context and needs change, otherwise consequences will impact on all

• “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

• “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstein

NEW VALUES AND MODELS NEEDED

• Inclusive and more equitable approaches such as collaboration for collective impact and common goals are a move in the right direction

• Reframing our individual and collective/institutional relationships as autonomous complementary components ( and not competing parties) of a whole system is another useful construct

• Unity in diversity, rather than unity in conforming homogeneity, is an effective and instructive guiding principle that can inform new and more equitable models of power and resource allocation for collective impact and wellbeing, and addressing the systemic imbalance that result in inequalities

• Operating on the principle of unity in diversity, all components of the human body, have different functions but are related and connected to the one goal of maintaining the wellbeing of whole human being – including all of its components

TE TIRITI AND OTTAWA CHARTER

• Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its three articles provide a sound and equitable foundation for building new approaches to a more equitable and prosperous society in the New Zealand context.

• It can also be a model for other nations where Indigenous peoples and ethnic minority group reside

• The Ottawa Charter and its five action strands of: Build healthy public policy, create supportive environment, community action, develop personal skills, and re-orient the health system, can also be an additional useful framework:

OTTAWA CHARTER ACTION STRATEGIES EXPLORED AS HEALTH PROMOTIONAL PATHWAYS

• Build healthy public policy: All sectors and levels can build healthy public policies. Build at the front end and as part of the original thinking rather than an after thought

• Create supportive environment: Not only in health but across all sectors

• Community action and community development: Ethnic and cultural communities can lead in this sphere. You are the ones you have been waiting for. Shape your future and create your own reality or others will create it for you

• Develop personal skills: Complement mainstream knowledge systems with your own knowledge systems. For example, spiritual wellbeing hardly features in mainstream discourse and practice. But spiritual health and wellbeing is essential and central to many ethnic and cultural groups. Spiritual health promotional approaches can complement health promotion that focus on the physical and mental dimensions only

• Re-orient the health system: Not just the health system and not just the health sector. Introduce equally important health systems that are effective but more culturally appropriate and meaningful to your population group. Let’s work together to re-think the value system that inform and shape our current societal system

TOWARDS A MORE BALANCED SYSTEM

• Paradigm and values that inform our current societal constructs and system have led into unjustifiable imbalances in our socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental wellbeing as a national and global society

• Laying the foundations for a more balanced and equitable societal system must be based on new values and principles that acknowledge our essential inter-connectedness and essential unity in diversity, with models that move beyond domination, competition and adversarial approaches to collaborative, win-win and co-constructive frameworks that contribute to our collective wellbeing and sustainable development

• It is insane, as Einstein said, to expect new results from the same old practice.