Housework Metaphor for Gambling Public Health Action: An Indigenous Perspective

Housework, those duties done at home or in one’s community to keep and clean and tidy, is used in this paper as a metaphor for Māori involvement in gambling public health action in New Zealand. For over a decade Māori have been developing their own voice, public health actions, gambling services, research and workforce development initiatives to address gambling related harm at a whānau, community, local government, national and now international level. Involvement in gambling public health action has required Māori to utilise our Treaty of Waitangi and now international indigenous peoples’ rights to ensuring legislation and host responsibility requirements are met at all levels in New Zealand society. Housework which is a demanding task required to be done on a regular basis Māori have found never ends. To address this situation Māori have moved their focus to those organisations which have duty of care responsibilities defined under the Gambling Act 2003 and local government responsbilities to involve them in housework duties. By working together, Māori have assumed this will assist in reducing gambling related harm. Efforts made by Māori have been shared at our first international indigenous gambling conference held in New Zealand to warn our local Pacific nation neighbours of the risks associated with expansion of gambling.