7 minute read
Interview: Health high-flyer Sharon Shea
Health high-flyer wants allies in fight for equity
Sharon Shea has carved out a career in health governance and was instrumental in recent reforms. She tells Helen Vause about fighting inequities, even in the face of angry resistance.
As a highly motivated young scholar, it never occurred to Sharon Shea that she would do anything other than work for the health and well-being of Māori people.
And her stellar career in governance and health has often had her advocating for Māori at the highest level.
She has worked at the heart of recent health reforms and on the development of the new Te Aka Whai Ora – Māori Health Authority.
She was co-chair of the new authority during its start-up phase and remains on its board.
The authority works alongside Health New Zealand and will commission kaupapa Māori services. It will also work with the Ministry of Health to develop strategies and policies that work for Māori.
As the public waits to see how the new system will function, Stanley Point resident Shea took time out to talk to the Flagstaff about what drives her in a high-powered career that led to her being named a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the 2019 New Years Honours, for services to Māori health and development.
In recent years, the hectic schedule of the self-confessed workaholic has been handled from her desk at the home where she’s raised three sons with husband Morris Pita.
After growing up in the Bay of Plenty, Shea came to Auckland and did a conjoint arts and law degree at the University of Auckland.
Though she had very few other Māori students in her cohort, she met Pita at university. From Beach Haven, he was another Māori student and a kindred spirit.
Recognising there could be strength in numbers, the two gathered together the other Māori students studying law to form their own student group.
Pita designed a logo for the group of around 20 students, proudly giving them a joint identity.
Shared benefits... Sharon Shea says changes aimed at a more equitable health system should be welcomed by everyone
Shea’s excellent grades took her as a law graduate into an established legal practice, but she soon saw a job advertisement for someone to write health contracts.
“That sounded like me,” she says. “I really didn’t know anything about doing that but thought I could figure it out. My motto is to always put myself in the way of opportunities. And so I fell into the health sector.”
She describes herself as a “recovering lawyer”.
Shea also reconnected with Pita, even though he had by then moved to Wellington.
Married, the couple were both ambitious and hungry for higher learning. In 2001, they headed to the United Kingdom together, to study at Oxford University.
When Shea graduated with a degree in comparative social policy, she had excelled among young scholars from all over the world – topping her class.
“It was the most incredibly exciting time, and just so stimulating.”
They were living on a shoestring, in accommodation for married students.
“We were something of a curiosity there, along with the other indigenous people, and other people were very interested in
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what we had to say. It was a life-changing experience for us.”
She believes her husband may have been the first Māori to obtain an MBA from Oxford.
The world was their oyster, but Shea felt the pull of home.
Alongside thoughts of working for Māori in ways she had yet to determine, she also wanted to start a family.
“Time was moving by. I thought I’d better get home and bang out some kids, one after the other. I was pregnant when we got home, Morris got a proper job, and I remember we were badly in need of a washing machine when we got here.”
Her now teenage sons, Anthony, James and Sam, came along in fairly close succession.
Shea had her hands full but somewhere among the child rearing, she hung on to ambitious dreams of making changes for Māori – something she felt was her calling.
“In our generation, there weren’t that many of us young, educated Māori with the skills to step up and take up the job. We just felt we had to get on with it. We were the emerging group who stood on the shoulders of others to get where we are today”
And get on with it she did. Shea set up office at home tackling the contracts that started to roll in from various government agencies, and soon made a name for herself.
She worked on contracts in health, education, justice, corrections and social services, as well as on projects around Māori development and family resilience.
In 2010, she was appointed to the Northland District Health Board, serving for nine years.
From 2016, she served concurrently as a board member of Auckland District Health Board, and chaired sub-committees for both boards.
In 2019, was appointed deputy chair to Michael Cullen on the Bay of Plenty District Health Board and last year became chair.
Advocating for Māori and calling out inequities hasn’t been an easy journey. Shea has often found herself in the hot seat at tables where not all have wanted to hear her messages
“Racism is still very much alive,” she says. “I’ve been screamed and yelled at and copped plenty of abuse. But I just carry on.”
“I would like to see every mokopuna flourishing and thriving and realising the rangatiratanga they were born with,” says Shea. “Persistent, unfair and unjust inequities are an anathema.”
She points out the anger among some Māori who have seen their parents and families struggling because of many issues related to healthcare access that have been barriers to them.
“I have an innate belief that the majority of New Zealanders want to do what is right. And I believe the country is now mature enough and ready to have conversations about fulfilling the promise of the Treaty. There has been a shift in willingness to talk about equity issues.
“The younger generation are noticeably more empathetic and compassionate,” she says.
“We’re not all at the same level and we need to change the narrative. And I say take the word ‘fear’ out of it and replace it with ‘fair’.
“By working together to lift others up it doesn’t mean that anyone else needs to lose something. No one has to give anything away for it to happen for Māori.”
As the Māori health providers are scaled up across regions, with one-stop shops for everyone, Shea says all will benefit.
“What’s good for Māori will be good for everyone. There will be access to these services for everyone and that can’t be a bad thing.
“And Māori health providers are already known for delivering over and above what they are paid for.”
The changes toward a new and equitable health system should be welcomed, she says.
But there are plenty of challenges to be overcome in scaling up the planned healthcare system, including the need to build up the general health workforce.
It’s a workforce in which Māori are proportionately way behind in skills, says Shea.
“There is only one Māori audiologist in the country,” she says with a shrug.
“We can’t do this and move ahead without what I call ‘allyship’. Māori cannot do it on our own. That is why it is so important that we have allies working with us.
“Everyone can help change the story. I say it’s a matter of little and often. Think about what you say, for example and what your thoughts are. You could just start by saying Kia ora.”
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