Indigenous innovater Patrick Salmon is the creative head behind KAIRUA and Heru and Hāpu Māmā. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
Indigenous innovater Patrick Salmon is the creative head behind KAIRUA and Heru and Hāpu Māmā. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
Hamilton-based indigenous innovator Patrick Salmon has achieved a 92 per cent success rate with his unique programme helping Māori women to become smoke-free while pregnant.
His programme, Heru and Hapū Māmā, combines the traditional Māori heru (wooden comb) with a free smartphone app and a digital learning place incorporating ancestral knowledge.
This nicotine replacement therapy based on indigenous knowledge is proving so popular and successful that Patrick is now looking at a national rollout for the programme after using his initial Ministry of Health funding to investigate the technique.
The concept started as part of Patrick's Master of Applied Indigenous Knowledge studies at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa last year.
Māori believe that the spiritual element of a person enters the body of the foetus through the fontanelle or spiritual gateway at the top of the head while in the womb.
Patrick says: "The heru is an ancient tool used as a guardian of this gateway.
"Māori women are at the top of smoking rates in New Zealand, but most services are not relatable, accessible for them. Just putting a pamphlet in te reo doesn't make it a Māori programme."
As an ex-smoker, Patrick knows how hard it is to quit.
He says: "Smoking is like a taniwha - it will always be there, but we are learning to live amongst it."
To quit and keep his hands busy, he started carving heru, an art his whaea (mother) Hinewirangi taught him.
He finds quit smoking programmes usually have a punishing approach, making smokers feel guilty.
The Heru and Hāpu Māmā programme pack includes culturally influenced tools to open the door to opportunity and new thinking. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
"We don't need to tell them that smoking is bad, they know that already. Heru and Hapū Māmā is a quit smoking programme where smoking is not the star. Our programme is about knowledge and models of cultural and maternal wellbeing."
Having a background in social services, he also found that other quit smoking programmes are often based on information pamphlets which are quickly thrown into the rubbish.
"I wanted to create a tool that is more engaging and meaningful to Māori ... Taonga (treasure) is a key role in our programme. It is not just an object, it is something valuable that comes with a story and philosophy. In a way, we are taonga as well."
He says the success rate of the first pilot programme during his studies was phenomenal.
"The Ministry of Health saw that and they wanted to evaluate this result, so they provided funding [for another round of the programme]."
The app KAIRUA starts an augmented reality experience, when hovered over the heru. Photo / Supplied
Patrick's six-week Heru and Hapū Māmā programme uses a free app called KAIRUA which initiates an augmented reality experience when hovered over the heru. The experience includes six modules around ancestral knowledge and a digital forum (wānanga) consisting of three parts.
Together with in-person meetings and the heru as a physical reminder to stay smoke-free, the tools are meant to be a nicotine replacement therapy based on indigenous knowledge.
"We are trying to heal with genuine care and a connection to a whole. We ask ourselves, what tools can we give these māmā to pursue their aspirations and be inspired to make the necessary change they desire. We offer culturally influenced tools that open the door to opportunity and new thinking."
His approach seems to work. He had 90 hapū (pregnant) māmā participating in the programme; 92 per cent of them quit smoking and 96 per cent stayed with the programme from start to finish.
"The national success rate for quit smoking programmes is at 40 per cent. It feels really good [that his project is successful], I get really excited about it."
Heru and Hapū Māmā received great interest from the wider community, Patrick says. "For the last round of the programme [funded by the Ministry of Health] we had 60 spots available, but received over 473 applications."
Participants of the latest round of the Heru and Hāpu Māmā programme. Photo / Supplied
He says the women would continue to use the tools even after finishing the programme.
"We had a mama saying that whenever she feels stressed and things get tough, she stands outside, bare feet on the grass wearing the heru. With completing the programme, they did not only quit smoking, they received a strong sense of calmness and more confidence. We have seen some of them starting their own business, leaving a bad relationship and going into education."
Since January, Patrick has worked for the Whānau Āwhina Plunket trust as a national indigenous innovator based in Hamilton.
"I create resources and systems to support our local kaupapa Māori led service called Whirihia Te Korowai Aroha which is an antenatal programme that supports pregnant mums, which is the beginning to Plunket's first Kaupapa Māori led antenatal service. I also manage the cessation quit smoking partnership we have with Pinnacle Health.
"I feel very humbled and grateful to be part of a journey of so many mamas - as a young, Māori male with a Mataora (cultural facial tattoo). There is still a stigma about it to those who are yet to explore the tikanga (ethic, value) and reason behind wearing such a taonga."
