Te rau matatau o te tau - Kuramaiki Lacey-Brooks

Te Rau Matatau Charles Bailey Scholarship 2022 recipient Kuramaiki Lacey-Brooks has set her sights on radically improving oral health outcomes for Māori in Aotearoa.

“My ultimate goal is to decolonise the oral health care system, improve Māori oral health outcomes and make sure it’s done right. It’s not just me doing it – I can’t do it alone. I need the entire nation to be doing it with me,” says Kura (Ngāruahine and Te Arawa).

The scholarship, awarded by the Te Rau Manawaora o Parininihi ki Waitōtara / PKW Trust, will support Kura as she works towards a post-graduate degree, called a Master of Community Dentistry, at Otago University. This will help her to become a dental public health specialist.

“I would just love for the oral health system to be entirely based, underpinned, and have at the core of it, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and a commitment to achieving Māori oral health equity. But even beyond equity, dare I say, justice.”

The 29-year-old is studying part-time for her Masters, which will take three to four years. Alongside this, she will continue lecturing dental public health papers at Te Kaupeka Pūniho/ Faculty of Dentistry in Dunedin. This is so she can support her three-year-old daughter Olive, named after Kura’s greatgrandmother, Olive Brooks.

Kura was born and raised in Rotorua, where she began her learning journey through Kōhanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa. “So, te reo Māori was my first language.”

In her last year at primary school, she wanted to live with her paternal grandparents, Mere and Allan Brooks, in Te Hāwera, where she stayed for three years.

“Living with my grandparents is where I started to develop what I wanted out of my life and career.

They always told me I would go to university, and I really excelled under their care.”

She competed in representative netball and athletics for Taranaki and was head girl of Hāwera Intermediate School, where she was in the kapa haka group.

“When I lived with my grandparents, they were heavily involved with our (Aotea) marae.”

Missing her mother, Megan Lacey, she returned to Rotorua to finish high school.

That’s also when she got braces to straighten her teeth and wanted to smile again: “That was life-changing for me.”

After high school she took a gap year, basing herself part-time at the dental practices of Māori health provider Tipu Ora, and then gained a one-year scholarship, called Tū Kahika, to study foundational health sciences at The University of Otago Foundation and Learning Centre in preparation for Health Sciences First Year (HSFY).

This led to her applying to study dentistry, medicine and physiotherapy. “I was accepted into all three.”

She chose her first calling, beginning a Bachelor of Dentistry in 2015, with support from an under-graduate scholarship from PKW, and graduating in December 2018.

“I feel very privileged and honoured to receive this scholarship, and I’m really grateful that PKW has supported me throughout my course of studies as well,” she says. In her spare time, Kura is taking te reo Māori night classes, which has helped her rediscover a part of her she felt was missing and learn more about her whakapapa. Her nan, Mere, is a Rau Titikura / PKW shareholder, which was passed down by Mere’s parents, Gloria and John Kerehoma. John was one of the founding members of PKW.

There is even a PKW post-graduate scholarship under Gloria’s name. “I thought that was the one I was going to be applying for, but I’m sure she would be happy I earned the Charles Bailey Scholarship,” Kura says. “I called my nan as soon as I learned I was successful in receiving the scholarship. She was so stoked she said she could feel my Nanna Gloria in the room and that she was celebrating me receiving the scholarship,” she says.

“This PKW connection through the scholarship just reaffirms my identity in that I have my iwi and my hapū backing me in my career. They are supporting me to support them, because while I can’t live in Taranaki for my studies, I can give back to my whānau through the mahi they are supporting me to do.”

PKW Trust Te Rau Toi Tauira (Chairperson) Will Edwards says Kura’s application on paper was strong and stood out from a competitive field.

“In her interview she was highly articulate and was able to clearly describe the benefits her work will have for not only Taranaki Māori but for Māori generally,” he says.

Also outstanding was Kura’s commitment to working in dental public health, where there are few people represented in this specialised field, let alone Māori.

“Parininihi ki Waitōtara Rautitikura whānau should be very proud of one of our whanaunga, who is already emerging as a leader in her field—a field that’s really important for the life outcomes of many people.”