Shifting Perspectives: Whānau Healing

‘Shifting Perspectives: Whānau Violence’ is a set of cards that outline the journey of Marama, a wahine Māori experiencing whānau violence.

The journey travels through the development of violence in her relationship, and her experience with approaching response services. The story is based off the experiences of many wāhine who had negative interactions when seeking help from response services.  

This resource is developed to help people understand and visualise this complex journey, providing an opportunity for users to reflect on common assumptions and reimagine new possibilities.  

‘Shifting Perspectives: Whānau Healing’ is an extension of the first ‘Whānau Violence’ resource. ‘Whānau Healing’ picks up the story where Marama and Jack left off. However, this extension introduces a hopeful perspective to the journey, exploring pathways of healing, light, and reaching out for help.  

There are two card decks within the ‘Whānau Healing’ extension, one from Jack’s perspective, one from Marama’s. Creating two separate pathways shows how the same situation can be understood in different ways. Jack’s story unpacks the story from the perspective of a tāne, recognising that healing is a whole whānau process. Jack’s story also explores how reconnecting with Te Ao Māōri can be a pathway to healing. Marama’s story emphasises the need to persevere when reaching out for help.

These stories were developed through asking questions like ‘What is needed for healing?’, and ‘What does it mean to find the ‘light’ in these situations?’. It was identified that light is often found in interactions with the right people and involves whānau reaching out for help. These cards are an encouragement to whānau that pathways to hope do exist, and a challenge that healing begins with asking for help.