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Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand 2nd Edition
Very excited about the 2nd Edition of Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand being published by Cambridge Press in December 2015. I’ve contributed two chapters and I have excerpted the introduction of each chapter below: 8. Navigating the ethical in cultural safety Caring is an ethical activity with a deep moral commitment that relies on…
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The closure of remote Aboriginal communities: What is the role of nurses in Indigenous disadvantage?
The view expressed by Tony Abbott (Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs), that taxpayers shouldn’t be expected to fund the “lifestyle choices” of Aboriginal people living in remote regions in support of Colin Barnett’s (West Australian Premier) decision to close 150 remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia reflects the repetition of the colonial project and Aboriginal…
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Learning to listen: Mental health and migration for CALD communities
In Victoria the goal of the Victorian Mental Health Reform Strategy 2009-2019 is to achieve better social and economic outcomes for people with mental illness, their families, carers and friends. Specifically Reform Area 6 outlines areas for reducing inequalities. The Cultural Diversity Plan for Victoria’s Specialist Mental Health Services, 2006-2010 suggests that achieving more culturally responsive services…
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Passion and knowledge: The craft of being a mental health nurse
I was honoured to contribute a foreword to the final edition of the Hive (the Australian College of Nursing’s quarterly publication showcasing member’s experiences) for 2014. The issue focuses on mental health, both on the importance of nurses looking after their own mental health and profiling the work of mental health nurses. I’m particularly interested in the issues of epistemology and ontology in psychiatry and mental…
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To surveil and marginalise or to keep our hearts open? The aftermath of public violence.
Last week I visited the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, which was the country of the Pydairrerme band of the Oyster Bay tribe, before being invaded and settled by Europeans. As a a recent arrival in Australia (from New Zealand in 2013), I see it as my responsibility to develop a local nuanced understanding of settler-colonialism, the dispossession of…
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Ethnic migrant media: Weaving ourselves a home
Exploring the role, benefits, challenges & potential of ethnic media in NZ . Paper presented at the Ethnic Migrant Media Forum, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Also available as pdf from conference proceedings DeSouza keynote. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa, it’s an honour to be invited to speak at this forum where we are…
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“Kiwi food is okay for Kiwis, but it isn’t okay for us”: Special food in the perinatal period for migrant mothers
I attended the 5th International Conference on Nutrition and Nurture in Infancy and Childhood: Relational, Bio-cultural and Spatial Perspectives from Wednesday, 5 November 2014 – Friday, 7 November 2014. Those who know me or follow my work will know that I am deeply interested in eating and thinking about food. I’m interested in how food structures our days and…
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Nursing in media-saturated societies: implications for cultural safety in nursing practice
Nairn, DeSouza, Moewaka Barnes, Rankine, Borell, and McCreanor (2014). Nursing in media-saturated societies: implications for cultural safety in nursing practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Journal of Research in Nursing September 19: 477-487,doi:10.1177/1744987114546724 Great to be published in the Journal of Research in Nursing September 2014 issue on ‘Race’, Ethnicity and Nursing, Edited by: Lorraine Culley. I had the pleasure of…
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Mind the gap: Cultural safety in Australia
In August 2014 there was a wonderful story of how “people power” had freed a man in Perth, whose leg had become caught in the gap between a platform and train on his morning commute. You can watch the video here. What struck me about this story was that people taking part in their “regular” commute noticed…
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What does it mean to be political?
A critique does not consist in saying that things aren’t good the way they are. It consists in seeing on just what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established and unexamined ways of thinking the accepted practices are based… To do criticism is to make harder those acts which are now too easy. ―…
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‘This child is a planned baby’: skilled migrant fathers and reproductive decision-making
Article first published online: 13 MAY 2014 De Souza, Ruth Noreen Argie. (2014). ‘This child is a planned baby’: skilled migrant fathers and reproductive decision-making. Journal of Advanced Nursing. doi: 10.1111/jan.12448 Risk management and life planning are a feature of contemporary parenting, which enable children to be shaped into responsible citizens, who are successful and…
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Happy Mothers’ Day
I’ve written a lot about maternity, an interest derived from my clinical nursing practice and an interest in the intellectual and political ways in which women’s bodies have been mobilised in nationalist state interests. My interest in ‘maternity’ (the initial life-changing journey of being pregnant, giving birth and nurturing and the corporeal processes of the transition to…
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Babies on board: Families in detention
The rather time-worn yellow sign “Baby on Board” seen in the back window of vehicles is meant to encourage safe driving, but also is a public announcement of one’s new status as a parent (It’s also a pun referring to pregnant women commuters in London, as an incitement for commuters to offer their seats to pregnant women). In Australia, when…
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Enhancing the role of fathers
First published in Viewpoint, March 2014 Issue of the Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand. Reference as: DeSouza, Ruth. (2014). Enhancing the role of fathers. Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand, 20(2), 26-27 (download 3.2 MB pdf DeSouza Migrant Dads). Mkono mmoja haulei mwana. A single hand cannot nurse a child. Kiswahili proverb I spent the first ten…
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Korean migrant mothers on giving birth in Aotearoa New Zealand
Cite as: DeSouza, Ruth. (2014). One woman’s empowerment is another’s oppression: Korean migrant mothers on giving birth in Aotearoa New Zealand. Journal of Transcultural Nursing. doi: 10.1177/1043659614523472. Download pdf (262KB) DeSouza J Transcult Nurs-2014. Published online before print on February 28, 2014. Abstract Purpose: To critically analyze the power relations underpinning New Zealand maternity, through analysis of discourses…
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Who is a ‘good’ mother?
Cite as: DeSouza, Ruth. (2013). Who is a ‘good’ mother?: Moving beyond individual mothering to examine how mothers are produced historically and socially. Australian Journal of Child and Family Health Nursing, 10(2), 15-18. Introduction Far from being a matter of individual choice, motherhood and mothering are shaped by larger systemic, social and historic forces. In this…
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From bystander to ally: Can small acts help?
I’m interested in what moves us from being bystanders and witnesses to injustice to being moved to act. This has been prompted by several incidents since I arrived in Australia and a few days ago, the savage beating to death of a transgender woman of colour. In our increasingly surveilled and fear based society, there seem to…
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I wish we cared about every new baby, the way we care about the Royal baby.
As a child I was enchanted by the idea of princesses and fairy godmothers and obsessed with the story of Sleeping Beauty. I even directed classmates in a play version of it in the playground of my Nairobi primary school. In case you aren’t familiar with the story, three good fairies arrive to bless the…
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Cartoons displace the blame for social consequences of neoliberal policy away from real culprits
Over the last few years I’ve been involved in various public health and health promotion programmes related to healthy eating and weight management (Clinical Guidelines for Weight Management in New Zealand Adults and the Clinical Guidelines for Weight Management in New Zealand Children and Young People) as well as a social marketing strategy called Feeding our Futures. I’ve…
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Postcards From The Edge
Postcards From The Edge: Exploring the confluence of Bollywood, the Indian diaspora in New Zealand and neoliberal multiculturalism One of the highlights of May was getting mail (remember that? with stamps and everything) from New Zealand containing a fabulous catalogue and postcards created by Bepen Bhana for his solo exhibition. The envelope was beautifully wrapped in cloth and…