TALANOA OPEN ACCESS Whānau Ora and Talanoa: Generating and using knowledge to achieve Pacific family wellbeing and prosperity outcomes
Seini JENSEN,1* Debbie SORENSEN,2 Wilmason JENSEN3
ABSTRACT
Evidence to inform how best to support Pacific family wellbeing and prosperity must be valid. This can be achieved through the use of Talanoa, a culturally congruent methodology for generating and using Pacific knowledges. Talanoa is the mutual exchange of thinking within the context of culturally infused conversations. Pasifika Futures employed Talanoa within Whānau Ora to: codesign an outcomes framework with Pacific experts, including families; engage with Pacific families, staff and organisations in the implementation of Whānau Ora; and support over 14,000 Pacific families comprising nearly 74,000 people (25% of the Pacific population in New Zealand) to achieve over 35,000 positive outcomes across health, education, economic, culture and leadership domains. This paper describes Talanoa and the Whānau Ora journey using this methodology.
Keywords: Whānau Ora, Pacific, Health, Wellbeing, Outcomes, Multi-cultural validity Whānau Ora: An Innovative, Culturally
Anchored, Evidence based Approach
Whānau Ora (family wellbeing) began as a government initiative in 2009 when the Taskforce on Whānau-Centred Initiatives was established to develop an evidence-based framework to strengthen whānau capabilities and support families to become self- determining.1 The Whānau Ora Framework drew on extensive evidence, hui Māori and consultation of what works to build whānau capabilities and outcomes.
Whānau Ora is an innovative and culturally anchored approach to strengthening wellbeing and prosperity for families. The Whānau Ora model moves away from service provision and places families at the centre of decision making.
Whānau Ora recognises that to achieve wellbeing, families need to be supported to strengthen their economic, health, educational and social capabilities.1 Rather than framing families as a problem to be fixed, families are seen as the solution. Families decide their aspirations and are supported to navigate towards achieving their goals and outcomes. The focus in Whānau Ora is aspirational and builds on the potential and strengths of families.
While Whānau Ora has always been inclusive of all families in need, the New Zealand Government explicitly expanded the initiative shortly after it began, to include a focus on Pacific families. Then, following the initial centralisation of the
commissioning of Whānau Ora through Te Puni Kōkiri, Whānau Ora was devolved in 2014 to three, non-government commissioning agencies, moving decision making closer to Maori and Pacific families and communities.2 Pasifika Futures, a Pacific owned and led non- government organisation, founded by the Pasifika Medical Association, was appointed as the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency for Pacific families in 2014. Pasifika Futures has since led the development and commissioning of Whānau Ora within a Pacific Framework anchored in Pacific values and culture. Since 2014, a network of 51 partner organisations has been commissioned to deliver Whānau Ora to Pacific families. Central to the Pasifika Futures
*1. Corresponding author; Director of Performance and Evaluation, Pasifika Futures, [email protected] 2. CEO, Pasifika Futures
3. Deputy CEO, Pasifika Futures
Received: 08.03.2019; Accepted: 13.08.2019
Citation: Jensen S., et al. Whānau Ora and Talanoa:
Generating and using knowledge to achieve Pacific family wellbeing and prosperity outcomes. Pacific Health Dialog 2019;21(4):175-181. DOI: 10.26635/phd.2019.WOS621.
Copyright: © 2019 Jensen S., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Whānau Ora approach is an evidence-based performance focus, with the generation and use of knowledge focussed on improving shared family outcomes.
For Pasifika Futures, a key part of implementing Whānau Ora has been the generation and use of knowledge to support Pacific families to achieve their aspirations. As a Commissioning Agency, utilising an evidence-based performance framework with commissioned partners, has been critical to achieving Pacific family wellbeing outcomes. Talanoa provides the cultural context and anchor that connects our knowledge, tools, frameworks and evidence to the day to day lives of Pacific families. Talanoa is also central to the theory of change and heart of Whānau Ora itself, used by navigators to support co-construction of family plans, goals and actions. The next part of this paper describes Talanoa and how we have used it as a methodology for our knowledge generation and use, and as a performance framework to support the achievement of these results.
Talanoa: A Methodology for Pacific Whānau Ora Commissioning
Talanoa, in the context in which we use it, is more than a tool, it is our methodology, the general principles that formulate our knowledge generation and use. Together with the key values and principles of Pasifika Futures, and connecting to Pacific research frameworks 4,5,6,7, Talanoa, provides a culturally embedded and congruent approach to Whānau Ora Commissioning and knowledge generation and use. On a surface level, Talanoa, refers to a conversation, talking with someone, an exchange of ideas or thinking, a sharing of experience.8 Talanoa is a term shared by Tongans, Samoans and Fijians9 and is a concept recognised by many other island nations including the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Niue and Hawai’i.10,11 At a deeper level, Talanoa is anchored in the epistemology, oral tradition and history of many Pacific cultures. Vaioleti, in his influential article Talanoa Research Methodology, describes Talanoa as “a personal encounter where people story their issues, their realities and aspirations”
(p. 1).8 Vaioleti explains further: “It is a respectful, reciprocating interaction. Talanoa is a good conversation: one listens to the other, when to speak and what one says depends on what the other has to say” (p. 26).8
Samoan researcher Faamanatu-Eteuati also highlights the importance of “the depth of the art of listening” in Talanoa (p. 71.)12 Johansson Fua extends this, emphasising that Talanoa requires deep listening and feeling, “not only to the words being spoken but also to the silences, to the
implied meaning, and the shared understandings” (p. 56).9 Farrelly and Nabobo- Baba stress the significance of the cultural and relational understanding and empathy required in Talanoa 13. Unlike informal interviews or focus groups, Talanoa reflects and recognises the importance of the socio-cultural context of the research or evaluation, it is “a culturally and emotionally embedded reciprocal exchange” (p.
321).13 As such Talanoa “requires that researchers to partake deeply in the research experience rather that stand back and analyse.
Talanoa, then is subjective, mostly oral and collaborative, and is resistant to rigid, institutional, hegemonic control” (p. 24).8 It also supports the generation of authentic, compelling knowledge and enables the co-construction of actionable evidence and effective solutions.
Talanoa is more than just good, empathetic, conversation. Talanoa is the transformative space that enables self-determination for Pacific families and communities. Talanoa requires a Pacific social-cultural context for it to be valid.
Without Pacific cultural knowledge, relationships, skills and understanding, it is not Talanoa.
Cultural congruence is a concept Karen Kirkhart introduced in her discussion of multicultural validity and evaluation theory.14 Kirkhart argues that validity is the foundational element in good evaluation and research. According to Kirkhart the purpose of evaluation is to “produce accurate, trustworthy understandings and judgement from which sound and just actions may be taken” (p. 400).14 Kirkhart extends validity further explaining multicultural validity as the “accuracy or trustworthiness of understandings and judgements, actions and consequences, across multiple, intersecting dimensions of cultural diversity” (p. 401).14 Talanoa supports the development or strengthening of trusted relationships, and creates an expectation and responsibility, to ensure knowledge gained is used for the benefit of Pacific families and communities. It is the socio-cultural context of Talanoa that creates valid, culturally anchored and potentially transformative knowledge.
In summary, the application of cultural congruence for research or evaluation theory is always culturally embedded, and therefore requires multicultural validity. For research or evaluation to support multicultural validity, the theory and context of practice must be culturally congruent.14 We maintain that Talanoa is a methodology that establishes cultural congruence between the theory of evaluating Whānau Ora and the cultural context of
application of Whānau Ora for Pacific families in New Zealand. Talanoa is uniquely suited to and effective for both understanding and generating solutions with Pacific families and communities in New Zealand. Talanoa ensures multicultural validity in evidence and supports the creation of actionable evidence.
Talanoa in Practice: Whānau Ora
One of the initial ways in which Pasifika Futures used Talanoa was in the design and development of the Pasifika Futures Whānau Ora Outcomes Framework (The Outcomes Framework) in 2014 (Table 1). The Outcomes Framework measures and frames what is important to Pacific families in New Zealand and describes their aspirations of prosperity and wellbeing. The four key aspirational outcomes for Pacific families are;
succeeding in education through lifelong learning; healthy Pacific families living longer and better lives; economically independent and resilient families with financial freedom; and leading and caring for families, communities and country.
Getting to the final product of the Outcomes Framework required many levels of Talanoa.
Firstly, face to face engagement with Pacific families and communities across New Zealand, provided space to both introduce ourselves as the newly established Pacific Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, and engage in conversation about family aspirations, priorities, challenges and solutions. The national Talanoa covered 12 regions of the North and South Islands of New Zealand, engaging Pacific families from Invercargill to Blenheim, from Porirua to Manukau to Northland. Over 1100 Pacific families took part including families from the Tokelauan, Tuvaluan, Niuean, Cook Island, Fijian, Samoan, Tongan and Pacific Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex (LGBTQI) communities.
Recognising the diversity of the many cultures, communities and ethnicities that make up the Pacific community was an important principle in the Talanoa. Pacific families engaged in discussion, at times in their own languages, within their own community spaces, to share their stories, talk about their priorities, challenges, aspirations and solutions. Deep understanding of the socio-cultural context of Pacific families was important in those facilitating and supporting the Talanoa to being able to respond to, make sense of, validate and translate the Talanoa into a framework to measure and frame family aspirations into outcomes.
Talanoa with Pacific experts in health, education, economics and culture was another important part of the design of the Outcomes Framework.
Talanoa with Samoan, Niuean, Cook Island and other Pacific technical experts, facilitated both knowledge sharing as well as the development of important relationships. Workshops and discussions with technical leaders helped refine and test different versions of the Framework.
Developing and understanding the theory of change, programme logic and research literature behind achieving the aspirational outcomes of Pacific families was also key to organising the framework into short, medium and long-term outcomes and measures.
Educational success was a strong aspiration for Pacific families, heard across the country.
Families told us learning was important for the whole family, throughout life. Families wanted quality education and they wanted to achieve well in school. Families talked about the high value they held for education, and how success in education was important to enable meaningful jobs and careers with higher incomes, for the whole family and the next generation. This Talanoa is the outcome of Educational Success through Lifelong Learning.
Health was important in that it was necessary to allow families to live longer, better quality lives so that parents and grandparents would continue to play their important roles in the lives of their children and grandchildren. This was translated into the outcome of families being supported to Live Longer, Better, Healthy Lives.
Talanoa with Pacific families allowed us to hear that financial freedom was an important aspiration. Parents and grandparents want the next generation to enjoy financial prosperity and to be free of crippling debt, financial stress and insecurity. They want pathways to increased income and business ownership This is the outcome for families of being Economically Independent and Resilient with Financial Freedom.
Families wanted to strengthen Pacific leadership and positive community connections for caring, safe, and empowered families and communities.
Families told us that that Pacific leadership of the solutions to the challenges facing our communities and families was important.
Families also expressed a desire to fully contribute to the communities they live in and Aotearoa as a country. The outcome Leadership, Culture and Community was acknowledged as a strength of Pacific families and communities, and something families wanted to ensure was passed on and nurtured through the generations.
Table 1. Pasifika Futures Outcomes Framework
We also heard that families and communities were weary of standard government indicators such as hospital admissions, diabetes and crime.
Pacific families wanted an approach that focussed on the positive achievements of families, instead of emphasising negative issues for individuals within families. Developing an approach that was strength-based was important to reflect this finding, in the development of not just the Outcomes Framework, but the whole Commissioning Model.
Talanoa across New Zealand enabled the co- construction of an Outcomes Framework that focussed on what was important to Pacific families. Significantly, the national Talanoa also created a reciprocal relationship and expectation of accountability for Pasifika Futures. Knowledge communicated in Talanoa creates a responsibility on the receiver, to ensure that the gift of knowledge is respected and used for the wellbeing of Pacific people. As Vaioleti explains,
“It is vital, then, for researchers and their sponsors to fully appreciate the essential cultural underpinning for the context in which special knowledge is gifted to them. That is, the knowledge is given on the age-old premise that it is to be used for the betterment of the fanau and not only for personal gain, such as a degree qualification or for building intellectual capacity or commercial interest. Pacific research must advance Pacific peoples directly” (p29).8
Talanoa with Pacific families and communities, in effect, has the potential to create a performance culture within the organisation to which the knowledge is given, particularly when those organisations conducting the Talanoa have the capacity and capability to effect change. As a Commissioning Agency, Pasifika Futures is in this position to create, support and enable transformational change for and with Pacific families through Whanau Ora.
Talanoa and Performance Culture:
Knowledge, Engagement and Enablement We use Talanoa as a methodology, for our knowledge engagement and enablement capabilities, because it is an effective way of building, strengthening and creating the socio- cultural conditions for change. Part of these conditions are engaged and enabled Pacific families and Pacific partner organisations. In this section, we outline the broad strength-based performance framework that we utilise as part of our Talanoa methodology. This is critical in the utilisation of knowledge, leading to performance
and results that transform Pacific family outcomes.
Talanoa, when practiced appropriately, engages and enables Pacific families, Pacific staff and organisations, to identify issues and co-create knowledge, solutions and relationships to support achievement of outcomes. We developed the Knowledge, Engagement, Enablement and Performance (KEEP) Framework to keep evidence, dialogue and actions focussed, accountable and utilised to improve family outcomes. Talanoa connects all aspects of the KEEP framework and anchors solutions in a culturally congruent methodology focussed on performance. Talanoa is our overarching methodology, as well as a method or tool used in Knowledge, Engagement and Enablement.
The first part of the KEEP framework is Knowledge, our organisational capability to generate research, evaluation, data and insights.
Knowledge is central to evidence-based performance and focusses on understanding how well Pacific families are achieving their aspirations and outcomes and how we can improve results and performance. We use Talanoa in many different ways to generate and use knowledge: to hear and understand family stories and experiences of Whanau Ora; in the design and application of measurement tools and systems to measure family outcome progress; to make sense of, validate and test data and evidence with commissioned partners, navigators and families; and to generate data and evidence on how well we are doing in achieving outcomes.
Engagement and Enablement are the parts of the KEEP Performance Framework that help us to create the relationships and conditions for Pacific families, staff and organisations to identify issues and co-create knowledge and solutions. Engagement, is the capability to take knowledge to, connect and sustain trusted relationships with partner organisations to create the most value and impact for Pacific families. Enablement is the capability to co- create and resource effective collective actions and solutions with partner organisations to create the most value and impact for families.
The use of Talanoa in the Engagement and Enablement parts of the KEEP framework is critical to ensuring knowledge is utilised to support Pacific families achieve their goals and aspirations. Talanoa creates the conditions to sustain and strengthen relationships and partnerships,8 and Enablement facilitates the action and resourcing of those intentions.
Lastly, Performance is achieving impact in supporting Pacific families to achieve their
outcomes and shape a better, prosperous future.
Performance is also about celebrating and acknowledging the success, through Talanoa, that has resulted from the combined efforts of knowledge, engagement and enablement. The results of our commissioning show Pasifika Futures Whānau Ora is achieving impact with Pacific families across New Zealand. Pacific families are engaging in Whānau Ora at a high rate and achieving successful results across all four aspirational outcomes. Talanoa with families, navigators and partners enable the construction, validation and communication of this performance story.
Performance Culture: Pacific Families Achieving their Aspirations
Since 2014, 14,016 Pacific families, made up of 73, 825 individuals, have engaged in Whānau Ora.3 This represents 25% of the Pacific population in New Zealand, engaged in 4 years.
Pacific families from over 15 different Pacific ethnicities have engaged in Whanau Ora, of currently engaged families the majority are Samoan (37%, 2862/7709), Tongan (27%, 2054/7709), Cook Island Maori (19%, 1437/7709), Fijian (3%, 265/7709), Tuvaluan (3%, 250/7709), Niuean (3%, 212/7709) and Tokelauan (2%, 169/7709).3 Many of these families have been able to achieve many goals, with their outcomes spanning health, education, economics, culture and leadership. Collectively, the families have achieved over 35,203 positive wellbeing and prosperity outcomes. Analysis of Pacific Whānau Ora data shows that after one year in Whānau Ora, 61 percent (531/877) of all high need families have reduced their need level and after two years in Whānau Ora, 87 percent (764/877) of high needs families have reduced their needs level.3
Under ‘Succeeding in Education’ we found that Early Childhood Education (ECE) is important to Pacific families to support educational success and achievement. Once engaged through Whānau Ora, families enrolling their children in ECE lifts from 35% (602/1733) to 75%
(1266/1678). In addition, 2,235 families’
children are achieving at school and 81%
(1293/1598) of school leavers are engaged in education, employment tor training.
Under the ‘Healthy Lives’ outcome domain we found that living longer and better lives is important to 3,685 Pacific families across the network who have completed family health plans. For some families one of their health goals is becoming smoke free. 931 Pacific families who had at least one smoker in their family on entry
to Whānau Ora, are now smoke free. Other goals include health eating and physical activity, which has increased from 11% (381/3547) to 38%
(1365/3547) and getting up to date with cancer screenings has increased from 15% (526/3547) to 32% (1129/3547).
Reducing debt is an important component of the Economically Independent and Resilient outcome domain for over 3,000 Pacific families who have prioritised debt reduction. On entry to Whānau Ora, 60% (1565/2552) of Pacific families have high levels of debt, with over 40%
of their income going towards repaying non- mortgage debt. Pacific families are large, with 36% (2804/7709) of Pacific families having 6 or more family members and they are often struggling with low or no income after paying debt and basic living costs.3 After families are engaged and enabled in Whānau Ora, the proportion of families with high debt has nearly halved. Across the network, 2,345 families have reduced their debt by 5% or more, 2, 585 families have completed a financial plan and 2471 families have started on a pathway to increased income.
In the fourth outcome domain, Leadership, Culture and Community, families achieved positive outcomes in culture, language and community connections. Pacific cultural capital is a strength with 41% (1437/3547) of families able to converse in a Pacific language, on entry to Whānau Ora. This lifts to 65% (2295/3547) after engagement in Whānau Ora. In addition, 83%
(964/1160) of Pacific families who were disconnected from the community, now have established positive community connections after engagement with Whānau Ora.
Families tell us that they experience many challenges however what works for them are trusted relationships with navigators and providers who treat them as partners and understand their aspirations, strengths and challenges. Families say what works is being able to tell their whole story, working together as a family on shared goals, and resourcing and enabling achievement of these goals. These results rest upon the foundation of Whānau Ora being informed by valid knowledges produced with the use of a culturally congruent methodology, Talanoa. The results demonstrate Pacific families are navigating their way to wellbeing and prosperity, enabled by the Pasifika Futures Whānau Ora network.
The Potential of Whānau Ora and Talanoa Through Whānau Ora and the methodology of Talanoa, Pacific families are achieving and working towards wellbeing and prosperity.
Generating and using knowledge, data and evidence is vital to enabling both Pacific partner organisations and Pacific families, to achieve their shared goals and outcomes. Critically, the evidence informing programs for Pacific families must be valid, with this validity coming from the use of culturally congruent methodologies, like Talanoa. Talanoa, and the social-cultural context that surrounds it, supports the utilisation and effectiveness of this knowledge by strengthening the conditions and relationships needed to support positive change. Creating a strength- based performance culture, that is culturally grounded, supports the capability and capacity of Pacific staff and organisations to achieve results with families and communities. The challenges facing Pacific families and communities are significant. Providing the space and conditions for Pacific families, leaders and organisations to identify the issues and co-create valid knowledge and solutions for themselves, is the solution.
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