Polynesia in Review-Polynesia: MĀORI ISSUES

When the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic reached New Zealand, Maori moved quickly to avoid the loss of life we had experienced with previous introduced diseases, especially the 1918 Spanish flu. We assumed from the outset that we would be marginalized and that we would have to rely on our wits and our own resources. Our oral traditions about the Spanish flu informed us of what lay ahead. We wasted no time in taking all the necessary steps to keep the disease out of our communities. The rest of the country also took precautions, although not as stringent as ours, and to date, like many other Pacific nations, we have been spared the huge loss of life suffered in other countries. We joined in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests, urging New Zealand yet again to examine and remedy its own racism, especially in government departments.