Māori Birthing with Dr Naomi Simmonds

Dr. Naomi Simmonds (Raukawa, Ngāti Huri) works as an independent researcher with a focus on land-based learning, women’s land-based knowledges, Māori maternities and whānau (or family) wellbeing. Her most recent research involved walking 378km, re-tracing the journey of her pregnant ancestress, Māhinaarangi, to understand the transformations, knowledges and rituals for women that are embedded in the footprints of her ancestors. Naomi’s PhD research, awarded best Doctoral Thesis 2015 by the New Zealand Geographic Society, looked at Māori understandings and experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. Naomi also has a part time role working with Māori communities on climate change for the Deep South National Science challenge. She is a mother to two girls and spends most of her spare time at her ancestral home, Pikitū, working on environmental protection and restoration projects.

In this episode of the podcast, Naomi shares snippets of her own journey of birth and of the undeniable links for her people between language, land and birth. Through exploring this, and the impacts of colonisation and ongoing systemic racism, she acknowledges the challenges faced by Māori birth givers and pathways to their healing.

To read Naomi's PhD thesis you can download the pdf from this link:

https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/8821

To find out more about the book, Where the Heart Is: Stories of home birth in NZ, that Naomi contributed to, click here:

https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/mybook

To find out more about Dr Ngahuia Murphy's work, click here:

https://teawaatua.com/teawaatua