Waitangi Day thoughts

So today marks the day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed - while there are versions and accounts of what it is and what it isn't, it had me asking what it meant for birth among Maori. These are simply my opinions and by no means reflect the opinion of others. I see that the signing changed the face of birth for Maori, customs and traditions wise. It called for the management of births in a hospital setting, it meant the passing of an act that suppressed Maori women from birthing at their kainga (homes) that suppressed our Tohunga from igniting the home fires through karakia (prayer) and oriori (lullaby), where the first rites of Karanga (welcome call) were dismissed and the Whenua (placenta) was discarded as rubbish, where birth now took place on your back and your vulnerability was exposed to male doctors who felt it necessary to use metal instruments to extract our babies, where you had no support because the scary hospital isolated you and your pēpi (baby) was taken from you, tested, prodded and poked at. Possibly an over exaggeration? Well not really. If you put yourself in a position, where you are away from the familiar surroundings of home. What does that feel or look like? Imagine being a Maori woman post 1908 (tohunga suppression act) hapu, in unfamiliar surroundings and feeling vulnerable. Fear kicks in. Cortisone levels rise, which inhibits the hormones that allow our bodies to birth. There is no Oriori to lull you, to centre you, to get you out of your head and into your body. You feel unsafe and totally at the mercy of a place unfamiliar and unknown. There is no birth attendant there to encourage you or mother to welcome your baby, no acknowledgment to the safe arrival and certainly no bonding. Cord cut, baby taken away. What imprint does that leave? The imprint of their own birth being managed not physiological. Who knows! What I know is, it wasn't what it should have been. Birth was no longer ours to oversee and own, the signing meant that such acts could be put in place to manage us in various aspects of our Maori lives. On the other hand, not all doom and gloom came of it. I say that cautiously as I write it, taking into consideration the state of the health and medical industry today. Certainly by no means moving forward, in-fact we are dying at a faster rate. The morals of the health system are declining as it becomes more about bigger hospitals, more sick and more money. Lab rats test new medicines and rats often become part of that medicine, so yes medicine and hospitals have helped in their own ways. The holistic approaches to health and well being are on the increase and there is friction between holistic and medical. Foods are being bulked using synthetic hormones, our soils riddled with chemicals to kill something, which could potentially kill us. Much like birth and the signing of the treaty, we are no longer allowed to just be.