Latest Wellbeing Survey on Maori in Christchurch post-disaster

I've followed the CERA Wellbeing Surveys since their first back in 2012. The surveys contain an awesome collection of data on how Cantabrians have responded and been impacted by the earthquakes of 2011, 2012.

My main interest has been the impact on Maori. The somewhat jingoistic presentation of the Maori response (how 'resilient' we were, how wonderful our support networks are, et cetera...) is increasingly disturbing given the repeated negative stats coming out of these surveys.

Example, in the latest results (April 2016) of those more likely to say the impact on their everyday lives is moderate or major (23% of respondents) are:

• Māori (36%)
• Women (30%)
• People living with children in the household (30%)

The graph below shows how Maori have answered this question over all the surveys  ...

Data has changed, well different questions are perhaps being asked as we are now 5 years on from the February 22, 20122 disaster. And the data is presented in a patchy manner, making it difficult to track groups over the time of the surveys (which I hope continue). But what they are saying is that the most consistently impacted group are Maori, and it seems to be getting worse.

Now there comes a time when the impact of the earthquakes are diluted and overtaken by other things (working conditions, family security, health, neighborhood factors and so on). But that one particular community, the Indigenous Peoples of a land that promotes its race relations to the rest of the world, continue to record their lack of resilience continues to be ignored the media, policy makers, and politicians (including Maori).