By Deb Stanfield
This 12 months I learn Dr Hinemoa Elder’s new e book Wawata: Moon Dreaming. I purchase the e book at my native bookstore, and be taught what I can from her about mātauranga Māori and the fantastic thing about te reo Māori. I be taught that Whiro is the Māori identify for the brand new moon – the lunar part underneath which I begin to mirror on what occurred in 2022. I’m impressed by what she whispers to herself: “To persevere, regardless of my potential to see at midnight.” She tells herself that Whiro is a “protecting time for insights, a time to name on that deep core of resistance and combat for what is true” (p. 36). This voice speaks to me as a social employee.
Hilary Mantel, who is legendary in Europe for her historic novels, died unexpectedly this 12 months. I learn a few of her work too – what I take pleasure in most is the knowledge she shares about what it’s like to jot down in regards to the previous. She talks in regards to the many gaps in historical past, the complexity of how we keep in mind, our inconsistencies, falsities, and the way as a society our reminiscence is political – primarily based on glory or grievance – hardly ever on onerous, chilly info.
Dr Elder additionally writes in regards to the previous and the affect of tūpuna, those that have gone earlier than us. “Our ancestors attain ahead into our lives as a supply of power in our unusual trendy world, a supply of historic knowledge and expertise” (Elder, 2022, p. 11). Mantel talks about how we make sense of the world primarily based on who our ancestors are. “We feature the genes and the tradition of our ancestors, and what we take into consideration them shapes what we consider ourselves, and the way we make sense of our time and place” (Mantel, 2017).
Within the midst of all this knowledge, of wāhine and girls, I mirror on 2022 and attempt to make sense of it. On the outset we’re obsessive about ‘mandates.’ We mirror on notions of collectivism, individualism, private freedoms. We glance to what we all know from the previous to make sense of the current – we evaluate seat belts and helmets with masks and immunisation. We’re involved with fact and search methods to deal with misinformation and disinformation in methods many people by no means anticipated to. We watch the far right mobilise with and prey on the disenfranchised and the colonised and dig deep in our social work kete to know this ‘unusual trendy world.’
At instances in 2022, it felt as if time had stopped, or worse, that sure facets of our historical past had merely by no means occurred. The Roe v Wade ruling, when the constitutional proper to an abortion within the USA disappeared, left many people breathless, disoriented. These lengthy fought-for human rights we took as a right had immediately disappeared. We surprise how this shift to the appropriate may prolong out and what it means for Aotearoa. As Margaret Atwood says: “Whoever says ‘it could’t occur right here’ is unsuitable. Something can occur anyplace, given the appropriate situations, as historical past has demonstrated time and time once more” (2022, p. 251).
Social staff had been topic to quite a few investigations and reviews in 2022; it was a tragic 12 months, with appalling outcomes for some kids and whānau. Investigations which scrutinise our behaviour and suggest how to not repeat it are helpful to an extent however inevitably go away us with troublesome questions. What does whānau-centred practice mean? What do we mean by a devolution of power? How can we preserve baby security whereas determining who’s chargeable for that security? Why does our child safety decision making process continue to let us down? How can we reply to this clear relationship between poverty and whānau well-being? Social staff are good at critically analysing the systemic points at work, and from this come sound methods ahead, for many who are listening.
In 2009 Hilary Mantel wrote On Being a Social Worker primarily based on a short position she had as a social work assistant in England. She writes so completely about actual individuals, the poor who get the worst docs, the abused who nobody listens to. She provides them names and faces and homes them in locations you’ll be able to see, hear and odor. She held the middle-class occupation of social work (me) to account for not seeing these individuals clearly and compassionately, for theorising their misery. She was livid, and ashamed of her nation.
We’ve that very same fury and disgrace in Aotearoa. The Abuse in Care Royal Commission left us baffled that human beings can behave in such methods in direction of one another. We’re horrified by social work’s position on this, by such institutional blindness. Sadly this disaster nonetheless exists. We’ve persevering with proof of institutional abuse – for instance, there are exceedingly excessive numbers of kids and youth incarcerated in YJ amenities who dwell with neurodisabilities or problems. Luckily we have social workers who do not “watch from the sidelines.”
I hope that earlier than Hilary Mantel died she had a possibility to be taught extra about social staff. What we do to return to phrases with the historical past of our occupation, its position in oppression, its operate in a capitalist society. This isn’t a snug dilemma, it sits closely in our hearts. I hope she discovered that we attempt to not be disabled by it, that by understanding the mechanics of it, and remembering our function, we are able to make a distinction: “To work in solidarity with those who are subject to structural disadvantage – to work with and for rather than on.”
We don’t all the time know what’s across the nook, however we are able to predict. Most of us had been shocked by the pandemic, others nonetheless, (ie microbiologists) had been simply ready for the inevitable. Social staff may also anticipate the long run. We’ve the instruments to know, to foretell, or anticipate outcomes primarily based on sure realities and excellent storms. We are able to anticipate that with sure insurance policies or laws, whānau will both endure or thrive. We all know, or can moderately argue, that sure company practices will both contribute or to not whānau well-being. We must always belief this perception, and be revered for it.
Hinemoa Elder introduces me to the phrase: Ngā Ika a Whiro – and interprets it to imply Whiro’s Military. “The identify for a bunch of skilled warriors” (p. 33). I think about these tūpuna, these warriors, on the faces of tangata whenua featured on the entrance web page of my native newspaper, which reported earlier this month on the formal Crown apology at Te Kūiti Pā. I hope we are able to be taught from these individuals, these occasions, be humble and keep in mind. There’ll all the time be a supply of power for resistance – as long as we search for it, then take care of it.
Wishing you all an impressed 2023! The RSW Collective.
Picture Credit score: Colin Hansen
References:
Atwood, M. (2022). Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional items 2004-21. Chatto & Windus.
Elder, H. (2022). Wawata: Moon dreaming. Penguin Random Home New Zealand.
Mantel, H. (2017). Silence grips the city . BBC Reith Lectures. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2017/reith_2017_hilary_mantel_lecture%203.pdf
