Māori, Pacific and Asian psychologists more likely to experience racism – report

A total of 293 participants (psychologists, academics and students) took part in the survey, Kia Whakapapa Pounamu. Photo / Supplied / Sam Low
By RNZ
A group of researchers are calling for the psychology sector to “urgently address” the barriers affecting Māori and other minority groups, after a study revealed they are more likely to experience racism than other groups.
Researchers from the five-year project Working to End Racism and Oppression (WERO) have released new research “highlighting psychology’s failing to provide a culturally safe environment for its own”.
Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Mahanga), the report’s lead researcher, said the project was an expansion of decades of research, beginning with Max Abbott and Tā Mason Durie’s 1987 research paper Whiter Shade of Pale which “outlined evidence of monocultural (Eurocentric) dominance within training programmes to become a registered psychologist”.
Waitoki said the project aimed to continue the documentation of where racism occurred.
“If those voices aren’t heard, then it’s easy to not do anything about it or not do enough to make systemic change.”
A total of 293 participants (psychologists, academics and students) took part in the survey, Kia Whakapapa Pounamu, which was conducted from March 25 to June 30 2023.
Racism and bullying
The report found 47% of Māori, Pacific and Asian psychologists and psychologists in training had experienced racism in the past year, with Māori respondents particularly affected.
“Māori who were socially assigned as Māori were more likely [71%] to report experiencing racism in the last 12 months,” the report said.
Māori were also more likely than others (81%) to witness racism in the past year, and scored “significantly higher” (76%) on the microaggression scale, due to racism.
Cultural labour
The report found significant gaps in cultural competency among colleagues, with 56% of respondents indicating they frequently encountered low levels of understanding regarding the Māori culture.
As a result, Māori were more likely (78%) to perform cultural labour, with many Māori psychologists expected to provide guidance on culturally safe practices, “often without appropriate report”.
“Those socially assigned as Māori were more likely to state that they were the sole advocate for Māori issues at their workplaces [61%] or that they had dual responsibilities to the employer and Māori communities [55%] ‘most’ or ‘all’ of the time.”
One Māori participants said “an underlying expectation is that us Māori are able to pick up the slack for the programme in terms of their lack of cultural competency”.
“This burden is unsustainable, particularly when Māori represents a small fraction of the psychology workforce,” the report said.
The expectation to take on double duties by carrying out cultural labour (for example, by providing guidance as a cultural advisor and relationship management with communities) was often reported by Māori and Pacific professionals.
“More than two-thirds of Māori had people assumed that they would do a waiata, karakia or mihi within the last 12 months [70%], and this was more common amongst those socially assigned as Māori [83%].”
Māori participants outlined in the survey an “underlying expectation” that Māori must “pick up the slack for the programme in terms of their lack of cultural competency”.
“For example, if a lecturer is asked something ‘Māori’ it’s like we are turned to, to affirm or deny that,” a Māori-Pākehā participant said.
A participant who was the only Māori student in their cohort said there was an expectation that they were the “cultural expert” amongst their classmates.
“[I was] placed in situations where I was frequently asked to advise other students on culturally safe practices or ‘how to work with Māori clients’ but was unable to offer appropriate knowledge since I was also a student trying to learn.”
A Māori psychologist said when she raised an issue about mispronunciation of her name, and how “hōhā” it was to correct people over and over, a non-Māori colleague said that it was her role to teach her.
“It became an awkward situation as I don’t view this as my role to have to teach her. She can access te reo programmes through our workplace.”
A westernised approach
Mātauranga Māori was also not treated as scientific knowledge, with 79% of those surveyed indicating that indigenous knowledge was not given the same weight as Western approaches, the report found.
“Mātauranga Māori is tokenised and treated as an afterthought in professional training,” a Māori participant said.
“Although culture is said to be important, it is rarely integrated into assessments, evaluations, or professional placements, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi is often missing from these contexts.”
Findings not a shock, researcher says
Waitoki, a clinical psychologist and associate professor based at the University of Waikato, said the findings of the report were not a shock.
“This is why this study is so important because we do have figures to say that even though there’s a stated need to increase the workforce and the number of Māori psychologists, [racism] is an ongoing thing.
“But the system has yet to adapt to make that a safe place for Māori to come into.”
Psychology taught in Aotearoa came from a westernised perspective, which was why cultural competency was important, she said.
From a Te Tiriti o Waitangi lens, Māori had the right to a psychology that was derived from their own worldview and mātauranga Māori must be preserved as a taonga, she said.
“The people [psychologists] work with have the right to a psychology that’s relevant to them, because we’re not all the same, we’re all different.”
Waitoki quoted a saying by psychologist Linda Waimarie Nikora: “’If psychology is as good as they say it is, why aren’t our people being healed?’
“I think that’s a beautiful question because it says, ‘if it’s as good as you think it is, why isn’t it working?’”
Waitoki hoped the workforce and psychology discipline would adapt and one day be able to teach a broad range of perspectives.
“But the thing is, it’s such a big system to have to change.
“You do need to start somewhere, but our universities and our profession [must] have a higher standard about what they think cultural content should be and guest lecturers are not enough.”
Waitoki said mātauranga Māori needed to be incorporated throughout the entirety of study, from undergrad all the way through to completion, and that psychologists who come from overseas must go through a series of professional development or “lifetime learning”.
Is now the time for an apology?
According to the study, New Zealand was following behind an international trend of apologising to indigenous peoples for the harm caused to them by psychologists.
“The Australian Psychological Society (in 2016), the American Psychological Association (in 2021), and the Association of Canadian Psychology Regulatory Organizations (2021) have issued apologies to Indigenous peoples, minoritised ethnic groups and/or individuals affected by racism,” the report said.
More than three-quarters of participants in the Kia Whakapapa Pounamu survey thought now was the ideal time for New Zealand to issue a formal apology.
“It is timely for an apology, partly because we need to make a statement about what psychology’s role has been in New Zealand towards perpetuating racism and oppression,” Waitoki said.
“We have imported the same psychology that other nations are apologising for. And society’s attitudes towards indigenous peoples and racialised peoples like African-Americans, that attitude is also prevalent in New Zealand.”
The New Zealand Psychologists Board, the New Zealand Psychological Society, and the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists were establishing a process to develop an apology statement in consultation with the National Standing Committee on Bicultural Issues, the report said.