Advocate
We continue our travels around the motu, meeting each region’s Diabetes Community Coordinator. In this issue, we meet Marianne Parker, our Hauora Kaimahi for Northland.
HELPING HER HAPŪ
F
irst known as Te Tai Tokerau, the area that Marianne Parker covers is vast. ‘From Whangārei, we go up both coasts, and all the way up. That’s my playground,’ she laughs. She splits her time between roles with Diabetes NZ and Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi, the iwi-run community health and social services provider, based in Kaikohe. When Marianne (Ngāti Korohue/ Te Uri Taniwha) first saw the job of Diabetes Community Coordinator advertised, she knew the role was for her. She had moved from Auckland to live in Kaikohe after her father’s passing in order to pick up on the work he had been doing for their hapū within the Treaty
claims area. Her father had wide connections with iwi and hapu, and Marianne has inherited these links. She says this can be a bonus when it comes to approaching those giving and receiving diabetes care. ‘I’m quite fortunate that I whakapapa quite well in the North.’ She says people relax a bit once they realise she has a connection to them. Working as a bridge between clinical staff and patients, Marianne is passionate about helping her own. She says her concentration is focused on pulling iwi and hapū back to making better decisions for their health.
Marianne, front right, at a Diabetes NZ all-staff hui held in Rotorua in August.
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DIABETES WELLNESS | Summer 2023
‘It’s not a Tribunal thing. It’s not a claimant thing. It’s not a hapū thing. It’s a love for my whenua and our people. That’s why I’m doing this job.’ DESIRE TO HELP
Nine years ago, when Marianne lived in Auckland, she found one day that she had lost feeling in her right leg. ‘I rang up my GP and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but my leg’s not working.”’ She wasn’t able to take any weight on it, and, if she tried, her ankle
