He kaiwhakatere ahau: A (k)new practice model in the care of rangatahi and whānau

INTRODUCTION: A Kaiwhakatere position funded as part of Te Taitimu Trust’s Ngā Moko Ā Ngā Tūpuna initiative has created a space for a navigation practice model within the context of suicide prevention. The Kaiwhakatere is akin to a “professional auntie” who draws on her knowledge of whakapapa, whenua and whānau to engage rangatahi and whānau and build their connectedness and confidence as Māori. METHOD: Discussions with the Kaiwhakatere (Georgina) and the Chief Executive (Zack) of the Trust have explored the emergence of the Kaiwhakatere practice model. This model draws on Georgina’s social work expertise and her recollections of her own upbringing. IMPLICATIONS: The resulting Taikoko (rising spring tide) practice model of the Kaiwhakatere is grounded in Tākitimutanga to ensure that rangatahi and their whānau are connected to their cultural heritage, to their environment, and to a network of supports and relationships that facilitate their collective resiliency. Early feedback from rangatahi, whānau and education providers has been positive and encouraging.

This article describes the Trust's developing Kaiwhakatere navigator practice model. The use of '(k)new' in the title of this article signals that this practice model is new in a contemporary professional sense, but knew in the sense that it is informed by traditional Māori practices. We begin with a brief overview of Te Taitimu Trust and its work. This provides a context for its Ngā Moko Ā Ngā Tūpuna initiative, of which the Kaiwhakatere is a part. The role of navigators within Indigenous contexts is then showcased as a lead-in to a description of the emerging Taikoko or rising spring tide practice model of the Kaiwhakatere.

Te Taitimu Trust
The original intention of the Trust was suicide prevention and, since its 6 VOLUME 33 • NUMBER 1 • 2021 AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND SOCIAL WORK THEORETICAL RESEARCH ORIGINAL ARTICLE establishment, the foundations of this kaupapa have broadened to encompass the development of life skills and providing tamariki and rangatahi with outdoor, water-based experiences that they might not otherwise have access to.
Our tīpuna used the moana for rongoā, kai, wānanga and navigation where kaupapa, karakia and kawa associated with the moana was inherent; indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. (Te Taitimu Trust, 2018) The recipients of the Trust's work are tamariki and rangatahi who are often described as vulnerable and at risk, including being at risk of suicide. Moving them to the outdoors through a connection to the water and water safety allows the Trust to connect safety in and on the water back to keeping themselves and their friends safe. Connecting tamariki and rangatahi to Tangaroa is seen as an integral part of healing for their hearts and minds. The Trust also works to grow these young people into the leaders of tomorrow (Water Safety New Zealand, 2018).
In May 2010, the Trust held a wānanga to refresh its vision and moved from Tai Mātātū (turning the tide) to Taikoko. To open, Matua Mason [Durie] reminded us of four of the different tidal currents/stages: Taitimu (low tide), Taimātātū (the turn of the tide), Taikoko (spring tides) and Taipari (full tide). He referred to these as metaphor for sequential levels of wellness and used them to guide our wānanga: planning for the future towards finding Taipari (full tide). (Macfarlane, 2019, p. 2) From the wānanga, the six spring tides of Taikoko were adopted by the Trust as the six pillars of wellbeing that are about being grounded in Tākitimutanga (i.e., the tribal traditions of those whose ancesters arrived in Aotearoa on the Tākitimu migration canoe) and the enduring heritage passed down from tīpuna, being connected to the environment, to whānau and to one another for collective resiliency, and being a catalyst for agencies and organisations to work together (see Figure 1). These are explored more below in the description of the Kaiwhakatere practice model.  (Ministry of Health, 2018). The funding is designed to support innovative service delivery models that improve Māori health outcomes, particularly whānau and tamariki wellness outcomes.

Ngā Moko Ā Ngā Tū puna
The Ngā Moko Ā Ngā Tūpuna funding proposal included a navigator or Kaiwhakatere who could go into homes and the community to help ensure whānau support and participation. The Trust wanted to employ an accredited professional to engage whānau, with the Kaiwhakatere "following a kaupapa Māori pedagogical approach based on the Te Taitimu method" (Te Taitimu Trust, 2018, p. 9). The Kaiwhakatere position has been filled by Georgina Makoare who is now on a journey with rangatahi and their whānau, to encourage them out of their homes and into activities that are about service (e.g., helping load and distribute firewood to those in need), whanaungatanga and building confidence. To set the scene for a discussion of her role, we move next to look at the role of navigators more generally.

Navigators
Navigators who work with Indigenous individuals and families have been employed both inside and outside organisational settings (e.g., hospitals), often with the aim of enabling community members' access to services and helping to ensure equity of service outcomes (Cram, 2014). Navigators on the outside of services connect individuals and families with services, while those on the inside help ensure that people's pathways through a service are smoothed and successfully negotiated. Navigation, therefore, includes the removal of barriers that inhibit people's effective use of services as well as helping ensure the quality of the services being used (Ministry of Health, 2002). In the health sector, patient navigators can support patient care journeys and buffer them from a health practitioner workforce or health organisation that lacks cultural competence (Braun et al., 2012;Hill et al., 2013).
Navigators are more successful if they are not just a clip-on to existing services but have the ability to change the way existing services run (e.g., changing clinic hours, bringing community groups together inside a clinic, strengthening health practitioner competencies). In this way, a navigator might be an educator, translator, coordinator and/or peer mentor (Norris et al., 2006). For example, community navigators employed in home visiting initiatives support the families of babies and young children navigate parenthood and facilitate their access to services and supports. Gerlach (2015, p. 23), for example, describes how, in Canadian Aboriginal infant development programmes, home visitors help buffer mothers' encounters with the child welfare system by "supporting mothers who 'felt like bad parents' as a result of their interactions with the child welfare system." The building of connectedness and shared understanding by navigators helps bring a strength-based lens to engagement, whereby women and their children are seen to be full of potential (rather than a deficit-based view of them being a problem to be sorted out) (Cram et al., 2018).
Workers' strengths-based relational approach provided a critical counter narrative to women's experiences … workers supported women's agency, resistance, and positive identity in their mothering roles, as they navigated everyday structural violence in the form of racialization, poverty and systematic dismissal and discrimination in their THEORETICAL RESEARCH

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encounters with mainstream institutions. (Gerlach, 2015, pp. 24, 29) In 2010-11 we evaluated the Kaitoko Whānau initiative (a navigation service intended to support hard-to-reach and vulnerable whānau) that predated Whānau Ora and was funded by Te Puni Kōkiri and delivered by Māori and Iwi organisations around the country. We concluded that the relationships Kaitoko Whānau built with whānau respected their mana and provided a safe space within which whānau could be Māori (Kennedy et al., 2011). More recently, the Whānau Ora (Māori family wellness) initiative has invested significantly in navigators for Māori and Pasifika whānau, providing coaching, brokerage, advocacy and other supports to whānau to enable them to implement their own plans and achieve their own goals. Gifford and Boulton (2014) write that navigators need to be the right person, namely, someone with whakapapa connections and local knowledge along with strong relationship management skills. Helen Leahy (2019, p. 1) describes the network of Whānau Ora Navigators within Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu as pivotal to whānau tranformation.
Navigation is a strength-based strategy-whānau utilise the kaupapa as a preventative measure before things spiral into a crisis situation. By connecting whānau with appropriate services, reconnecting them with their own whānau supports; and advocating on their behalf, Whānau Ora Navigators try their best to ensure whānau needs are addressed in an uplifting and holistic way. (Leahy, 2019, p. 1) As in other Indigenous navigation services, whakawhanaungatanga-the building and strengthening of kinship relationships-has been identified as foundational to the practice of Whānau Ora navigators (Savage et al., 2017). Whakawhanaungatanga has also been recognised in the Indigenous Approach to the Living Standards Framework 2019 as central to ensuring Māori wellbeing and empowering whānau intergenerationally (Office of the Associate Minister of Housing, 2020). Navigators can therefore help unleash the potential of whānau when they have the right disposition, work in strength-based relational ways, and are prepared to understand and be responsive to the lived realities or context of the whānau they work with.

Kaiwhakatere
This description of the role of Kaiwhakatere begins with an overview of the source of Georgina's practice model; that is, her own upbringing, described here in her own words (indented below).

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the "background". Her priority is firmly fixed on whanaungatanga and uplifting the mana and confidence of whānau. This approach is similar to other Māori health practitioners who describe themselves as professionally Māori; that is, they weave their professional training into their strong foundation of who they are as Māori to be both clinically and culturally competent when they engage with whānau (Hollis-English, 2012). On top of this, their relational practice means that their "theory of change" is essentially one of whanaungatanga leading to whanaungatanga leading to whanaungatanga, as their relationships with clients are strengthened as the primary platform for any other changes to occur (Mauriora ki te Ao, 2010). Te Taitimu Trust and the Kaiwhakatere exhibit this approach within their community-driven work with rangatahi and their whānau, including the importance of creating opportunities for rangatahi to connect, build and strengthen their relationships with one another.
Alongside community-driven approaches, strategies for building youth identity, resilience and culture are becoming more widely recognised as key to Indigenous youth suicide prevention (Advisory Group on Suicide Prevention, 2005; Ngā Pou Arawhenua, Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee & Suicide Mortality Review Committee, 2020). Sometimes young people's lives are chaotic and/or they are shy, lacking in confidence, and do not have chances and supports to fulfil their potential. They can be drawn out of themselves through the opportunities to build connections with others which, in turn, strengthen their collective resilience. In other words, whanaungatanga gives them a network of people they can call upon for friendship, support and help in times of crisis or despair (Penehira et al., 2014). As the Kaiwhakatere, Georgina can fill one of these supportive roles, a kind of professional auntie, for those who might otherwise not have or be able to call upon someone who fills this role in their lives. In turn, she is able to connect with many rangatahi and whānau through whakapapa, uncovering her auntie status within genealogy to make her role more than just a metaphor.
In her first months as Kaiwhakatere, Georgina was a key liaison between rangatahi and whānau and the Trust's fundraising activities that allow rangatahi to attend Trust wānanga and other events. This often meant she followed up the rangatahi who had attended a Trust wānanga to see what additional help and support the Trust might be able to provide to them and their whānau.
So, after every wānanga here's the list of people; here's the list of kids we can connect with, and the navigator goes out and makes the connection. (Zack at Evaluation hui, 9 April 2019).
As there are whānau costs to rangatahi involvement in wānanga (e.g., accommodation, food, entry to swimming pools), the Trust provides opportunities for them to work together with the Trust to fundraise to cover these costs. These opportunities include firewood days, where whānau come out and help chop and stack firewood (See Figure 1), and hangi fundraisers. As Zack says, the fundraising is about "not giving them a hand, but a hand-up" (Evaluation hui, August 8, 2019). While explicitly about fundraising, these activities enable whānau to engage with the Trust and with one another, often through spending the day outside working together. The firewood and other fundraising projects provide an opportunity for whānau to come "outside" and work together with those from the Trust for a common kaupapa. It is also interesting that the motivation for whānau to do this is so their tamariki and rangatahi can attend a summer camp that is all about connectivity with the environment. Rangatahi (and their whānau) collect skills (e.g., picking watercress) as well as knowledge about whakapapa and whenua that they may not have had (e.g., learning the location of their house where their nan

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THEORETICAL RESEARCH grew up). As the Kaiwhakatere, Georgina is often able to walk alongside rangatahi and whānau to share this knowledge with them.
I love doing that stuff: the firewood, doing a hangi with the kids, showing them how to pick watercress… and how to clean it. The fact that they're eating what they picked when they have a kai and they're loving it and sometimes if there's enough, they're picking enough to take home for their whānau as well, so they feel good about that. It's basic, simple stuff but there so much learning in it that's so good for the soul, for the wairua. (Kaiwhakahere, April 16, 2020) She was able to point out to one of the rangatahi that he was from the marae that was just across the way from where the firewood was being split, and that his grandmother had lived in a house close to the marae. She described how this rangatahi put his chest out with pride. This seemingly casual sharing of mātauranga provided a very real connection for rangatahi and whānau with their tūrangawaewae, even though they may not call it that or have visited it before.
It's the first time he's ever been on a marae, at 9 [years old], and yeah he too has whakapapa to my marae … he just loved it, it was so good for him. (Kaiwhakatere, April 16, 2020) Georgina's mahi with rangatahi and their whānau reflects the Trust's overall strength-based approach of supporting tamariki and rangatahi to realise their potential. She is able to connect with whānau in a way that puts them at ease. When she moves though whanaungatanga with whānau she can see them visibly relax when they realise that she's connected to them (through whakapapa and/or through experiences) and not there to judge them. They also find out that her interest is in helping them achieve their moemoeā through options such as strengthening their involvement in Trust activities. Georgina is also able to observe

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and intervene in any unsafe practices by talking with whānau about health and safety regulations when they engage with the Trust, and she supports them to connect with other support services (e.g., parenting programmes).
Her visits with whānau are not about taking a service delivery (e.g., social work) approach that focusses on solving whānau problems in order to fix things. Rather, visiting with and connecting with, whānau is more about building a trust relationship with whānau. This marks her practice as very different from the formal services (e.g., Oranga Tamariki) that whānau might usually encounter. This difference, and reports of whānau negative experiences with these formal services, provides a rationale for why a Kaiwhakatere service is needed for whānau. Overall, her approach is about enabling whānau rangatiratanga and working with them to strengthen the "good stuff". Whānau, in turn, are able to dictate their level of engagement with the Trust more generally, and Georgina can remain linked through Facebook for any whānau that may need to step back or take time out due to other events and/or pressures in their lives.
Towards the end of 2019, a small group of rangatahi was referred to the Trust by schools that felt they would benefit from going on the Trust's January 2020 summer camp. Georgina's initial approach to the whānau of these rangatahi was to talk with them and get their permission for the Trust to engage with them as a whānau and to see how she could help them get their rangatahi onto the camp. This was about going to see them, introducing herself and the Trust, whakawhanaungatanga, and getting permission from them for the Trust to be there for them. Often these rangatahi and their whānau members then engage in the Trust's fundraising activities as well as wānanga. These provide the rangatahi with opportunities to connect with whānau and whenua, which for some is a new experience. Feedback from the receptionist at one of the schools attested to the improved engagement and wellbeing of the rangatahi, and she attributed this to their experiences with the Trust.
This referral pathway was expanded in the first half of 2020, when the Trust made more formal approaches to three schools in their community to talk about the Trust's work and ask if there were any rangatahi they felt would benefit from being referred to the Trust. A referral form was developed that explicitly asks the schools if whānau are aware that a referral is being made, as well as the reasons the school is making the referral. One of the main reasons for referrals is that schools are concerned that rangatahi are not well-connected with their peer group. Schools see this as a potential barrier to the rangatahi fulfilling their potential. Once a referral is received, Georgina follows her process of visiting with a whānau, including the rangatahi, to talk more about the Trust's activities and invite the rangatahi to be involved. The ongoing nature of the Trust's activities means less pressure on rangatahi, as the activities are the Trust's usual business rather than being implemented specifically for rangatahi. Rangatahi can therefore opt in and participate in a low-key way. Georgina has already noticed that some rangatahi who are quiet and a bit hesitant to join in can change from silent passengers in the van on the way to an activity to being very chatty on the return trip. She takes this as a good sign.

Taikoko practice model
The practice model for the Kaiwhakatere role is emerging, guided by the Trust's strategic direction (see Table 1) and informed by Georgina's upbringing.
Central to the Trust's work, and therefore the Kaiwhakatere role, is the creation of opportunities for rangatahi and whānau to be ordinarily Māori. Helen Moewaka Barnes (2000, p. 4) writes that "it is ironic that the concept of maori (Ryan, 1995), arising from the meaning of ordinary, is now seen as THEORETICAL RESEARCH the other." To regain the ordinariness of being Māori the knowledge of how to be Māori and the skills of how to do Māori are being shared by the Kaiwhakatere within the context of the Trust's activities and her own interactions with whānau and rangatahi. Learning how to set a table in a whare kai (see Figure 2), for example, means that rangatahi gain both a skill as well as an understanding of manaakitanga and mahi tahi. Similarly, going out with the Trust to cut, stack and deliver firewood is an opportunity for mahi tahi and to participate in the conversations and sharing that occur when people travel, work and eat together. The engagement of rangatahi in these activities and the ordinariness of being Māori is being positively received and having small but important impacts on rangatahi and their whānau. The challenge within a developing practice model is to capture the extraordinariness of navigating rangatahi and whānau to have ordinary Māori experiences that build knowledge, skills and collective resilience for suicide prevention.

TAIOPE
Whanaungatanga-working together Fundraising events (e.g., fi rewood, hangi) enable whā nau to strengthen relationships, with the Trust and with one another. These activities encourage whā nau involvement in a strengths-based way that maintains their mana.

TAIOHI
Resilient youth-confi dence The Kaiwhakatere's mahi with rangatahi refl ects the Trust's overall strength-based approach of supporting rangatahi to realise their potential. The Kaiwhakatere strengthens their connectedness with things Mā ori by sharing her knowledge and skills with them.

TAIPAKEKE Whā nau
The Kaiwhakatere visits with whā nau are about the Kaiwhakatere building a trust relationship with whā nau so they can share their inspirations, aspirations and moemoeā .

TAIAO
Connection to the environment The fi rewood and other fundraising projects provide an opportunity for whā nau to come outside and work together with those from the Trust for a common kaupapa.

TAIPUMAU
Enduring heritage-mā tauranga The seemingly casual sharing by the Kaiwhakatere of mā tauranga provides a very real connection for rangatahi and whā nau with their tū rangawaewae, even though they may not call it that or have visited it before.

Conclusion
Reports and commentaries about the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples among those taking their own lives by suicide have grown increasingly clear in the past 15-25 years that the suicides of Indigenous peoples must be understood within the context of their experiences of colonisation. Similarly, the solutions proposed to eliminate these deaths by suicide, and the loss of individuals and their future generations, must address this legacy and the need for decolonisation and societal transformation if Indigenous peoples are to live good lives; that is, lives full of "purpose, hope, belonging, and meaning" that promote health and wellness (White & Mushquash, 2016, p. 5).
This includes dismantling structural forms of racism, settling land claims, promoting community self-determination, healing from intergenerational trauma, and reducing social inequities that contribute to high THEORETICAL RESEARCH

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levels of hopelessness and distress among many Indigenous communities. (White & Mushquash, 2016, p. 4) Although being Māori used to be about being ordinary, colonisation turned this on its head through the marginalisation and exploitation of Māori by newcomers to this land. The dismantling of this change is about the reclamation of Māori as ordinary and ensuring that Māori, rangatahi included, have access to the means to both be and do Māori (Henare et al., 2011). Te Taitimu Trust creates ordinary experiences for rangatahi through its wānanga and haerenga that are (extra)ordinary by virtue of strengthening of the collective resilience of these young people. This, in turn, is key to the Trust's suicide prevention work.
The incorporation of a Kaiwhakatere role within the Trust recognises the important roles that Georgina had been fulfilling as Zack's wife and partner in the Trust. Funding for this position has enabled her to cease her work as a formal social worker and begin to explore and expand a practice model of being a professional auntie. Whānau Ora navigators and navigators working within government agency and organisational settings (e.g., hospitals) primarily navigate whānau to people, places and organisations that can support them to fulfil their aspirations for health and wellbeing. Georgina, on the other hand, navigates rangatahi and whānau to and into a whanaungatanga network through pathways of ordinary Māori experiences.
It is anticipated that the Kaiwhakatere role will continue to develop over the next 12-18 months as more feedback is gathered from rangatahi and whānau about what they value about Georgina walking alongside them and rangatahi being able to experience the Trust's activities. The goal during this time is to provide additional "proof of concept" that whānau benefit from an authentic trust relationship with a Kaiwhakatere who is committed to seeing young people safe and fulfilling their potential.
Acknowledgement: Many thanks to the staff of Te Taitimu Trust and the reviewers for their encouragement and feedback.