Responsibility for the homeless?

By MisTy

The overwhelming fear when you fall asleep, you are at your most vulnerable. The long dark, harrowing hours endured every night, a fight with your inner fears. The reality of your situation, the judgements, the abuse. The stigma attached to those who find themselves homeless. The pain and anguish associated with the people in this YouTube clip may have been two years ago, could easily be time-stamped present day, the stories remain similar if not worse. Life on the streets with the loss of family, the substandard housing called emergency accommodation. Families are living in overcrowded situations or poorly converted garages. Is this a solution for the homeless?

White Privilege: A call to Pākehā social workers

By Novice Pākehā decoloniser

Three years ago, I began a journey of critical reflection, what McIntosh (1989) refers to as, ‘unpacking your knapsack’. It wasn’t until I started my Bachelor of Social Work that anyone had challenged my positioning in society. I had never had to think about what my culture was. I started confused, in denial, maybe even defensive. I used to say, “I don’t really have a culture”, I used to believe, “colour doesn’t differentiate us”. Slowly, I started to recognise that as a British Pākehā, my culture had been invisibilised due to the dominance of Western society. My culture is so embedded in society that it goes relatively unnoticed.

Southside stigma

By Nakia WD

I was born in and have lived in South Auckland my whole life. Growing up I had never given much thought to how the media portrayed my home or the way it influenced people and their ideas/attitudes, but that changed the older I got. When I started university a common question I was posed with when meeting people was – “Where do you live?” – I was always hesitant to answer and would sometimes reply with “Manukau” as for some reason this sounded “better”.

Identity

By Polly Neshan

“When you come to work, you have to put your Palagi hat on”. This phrase was commonly expressed to me by my Samoan supervisor while I was on my first placement of my social work degree. When I had first heard it, I remember feeling shocked and a bit offended at the statement, however, I was more surprised that I had immediately understood what she had meant by it.

Ripple effects of He Whakaputanga & Te Tiriti O Waitangi continue

By AnonSWstudent

Ko wai hoki koe? Who the hell are you to share your opinion on Māori and historical trauma? First and foremost, it is appropriate to acknowledge tangata whenua, for words cannot describe the battles your ancestors, tupuna and whānau have endured and are continuously enduring of what happened in the past to this day. So, I would only feel like it’s appropriate and respectful of me to acknowledge them for I will be sharing my perspective on what I have learnt about Māori and its historical trauma.

Elder abuse is important too!

By ElderAbuseAdvocater

Before coming into this degree elder abuse was not an issue I thought much about. When someone mentioned elder abuse, my mind went toward physical abuse cases I heard about in care homes, however not much beyond that. To me it seemed like an issue that was present but not talked about a lot in the community. Now coming to the end of the degree, my perspective has changed significantly and I have become more informed about the issue.

Media representation and social work

By AnonSW

*This is purely based on observations and personal experiences.

Media representations serve to re “present” or to create a new reality (Te Kete Ipurangi, 2020). Social work does not always get the media representation it wants. The reality is that it tends to get more negative than positive attention. Whilst social workers do their best to protect vulnerable and marginalized children or groups, the media would still have individuals blaming social workers for not being able to protect our young tamariki. Due to many years of biased representation of social workers working with families, it is normal to witness negative comments and critics from the public. When there is positive news being highlighted this tends to be overlooked by the majority.

MAN, or mouse?

By Manly Man

Are you a MAN, or mouse? Man up, stop being a fafa, toughen up, you’ll be all good dox. Common sayings that I hear when I turn to “the boys” for advice. Depression and suicide within the Māori and Pasifika men have risen tremendously since records began 13 years ago. The conversation of men struggling with depression or having suicidal thoughts, comes with a feeling of taboo or tapu around it. In an article by Newsroom we see the struggle for Pacific men to reach out for help “in Pacific communities, there is still substantial tapu around mental health and hesitancy to seek help from mainstream community mental health services”. It’s as if we are not allowed to talk about it as men, it’s as if as soon as the topic of suicide or depression comes up, an aroma of weakness is spilled.

Children of Aotearoa, New Zealand – A Pacific perspective

By Jaime Trust

New Zealand is one of the most diverse nations in the world and is a country that is so accepting of different cultures and nationalities. That’s not to say that it’s easy living in a predominantly white country. Don’t get me wrong, living in New Zealand has opened up many opportunities for our Pacific people and has allowed Pacific cultures to build better lives here. However, there are still challenges that Pacific Islanders, and many other indigenous cultures face till this day. According to Statistics New Zealand, Pacific people make up 8.1 percent of the New Zealand population of 5 million. Still, we are still a marginalised group.

Knitpicking or not?

By A women who knits

After making over $70 million last year, the Warehouse claim that they are struggling. They will cut over 1000 jobs after taking the government’s wage subsidy of over $65 million.  The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern announced her disappointment and commented that she was “angry” (RNZ, 2020b). After this was reported, MP Paul Goldsmith argued that her comments were not needed and she should ‘stick to her knitting’ (RNZ, 2020a; Wade, 2020b).