Māori experiences of multiple forms of discrimination: findings from Te Kupenga 2013

Introduction

While the right to freedom from discrimination is recognised in international human rights documents and affirmed in legislation in many countries (Anaya Citation2013; Human Rights Act Citation1993; Krieger Citation2014; United Nations General Assembly Citation2007), the lived experience of Indigenous peoples is that discrimination is a pervasive, everyday experience (Battiste et al. Citation2002; Statistics New Zealand Citation2012; Barnes et al. Citation2013; Ministry of Social Development Citation2016). For Māori, discrimination has been a defining characteristic of colonialism, shaping institutional policies and practices, (re)producing hierarchical social relations, and governing access to resources and power (Pihama Citation2017). However, comprehensive examination of Māori experiences of discrimination, particularly in relation to multiple forms and sites of discrimination, remains limited. This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of discrimination by presenting findings on prevalence and patterning of forms of discrimination for Māori across a range of settings from Te Kupenga 2013, the first Māori social survey.

Method

We undertook a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from Te Kupenga 2013 (the Māori Social Survey). Te Kupenga 2013 is the first survey of Māori wellbeing and includes a range of measures incorporating general, social (including health), and economic wellbeing measures as well as measures based on Māori conceptualisations of wellbeing (Statistics New Zealand Citation2014a). It is a post-census survey of Māori adults carried out by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) and designed to produce nationally representative estimates for Māori. Te Kupenga used a multistage sampling method to select participants from the Māori population aged 15 years and over, who are usually resident in New Zealand and who identified with Māori ethnicity and/or Māori descent in the 2013 Census (Statistics New Zealand Citation2014b). Additional information on the survey design is reported elsewhere (Statistics New Zealand Citation2014a). Briefly, sampling is based on identifying dwellings with eligible individuals (based on their Census 2013 responses, as noted above); the initial sampling step involved randomly selecting areas (collections of households in a contiguous area, defined by Statistics New Zealand) with subsequent sampling steps further based on age group (strata based on age groups) and finally randomly sampling one person from each selected dwelling for invitation into the survey.

Responses to the fully-structured Te Kupenga questionnaire were collected in computer-assisted personal interviews (with the interviewer using a laptop to ask pre-determined, standardised questions and collect responses from participants). Interviews were conducted in either English or te reo Māori between 4 June 2013 and 25 August 2013. The survey response rate was 74% (n = 5,549).

For the secondary analysis reported in this paper, microdata from Te Kupenga were accessed as confidentialised unit record files (CURFs) from SNZ and through the SNZ Data Lab (Statistics New Zealand Citation2014b). This study was approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (D15/290).

Results

Overall, 59.8% (95% CI 58.3–61.3) of Māori reported any experience of discrimination in their lifetime (‘ever’). The prevalence of reporting different forms of discrimination ‘ever’ experienced by Māori is presented in Table 1. Racial discrimination was the most commonly reported basis of discrimination, with 40.6% of Māori reporting racial discrimination ‘ever’ (Table 1) and 6.8% reporting racial discrimination in the last 12 months (see Supplementary Table 1). The second most commonly reported basis of discrimination was ‘Other’, although this category includes a range of separate reported bases. Age, gender and income-based discrimination were the next most commonly reported forms of discrimination experienced ‘ever’. Māori women reported approximately three times more gender discrimination than Māori men in their lifetime (16.7% vs. 5.6%), and also reported higher discrimination on the basis of income and for ‘Other’ reasons. Prevalences of ‘ever’ discrimination were similar by gender for the remaining grounds reported (see Table 1).

Age discrimination for Māori was highest for the 20–24 year age group. The patterning of other forms of discrimination by age tended to increase from the 15–19 year age group to the middle age groups, then decrease in the older ages. Discrimination on the basis of income was associated with all socioeconomic measures, with higher discrimination among more disadvantaged socioeconomic categories. Likelihood of experiencing racial discrimination or discrimination on the basis of disability or health issues also appeared to increase as deprivation increased and material wellbeing decreased. Māori who were socially-assigned as Māori reported the highest ever experience of racial discrimination (53.8%), compared with Māori socially-assigned as NZ European (21.0%). Being socially assigned as both Māori and NZ European was intermediary (41.8%) for reports of racial discrimination. Social assignment as NZ European was associated with lower income discrimination than the other socially-assigned groups. Patterning of discrimination by socially-assigned ethnicity was less evident for other forms of discrimination.

Numbers and prevalences for reporting discrimination in the last 12 months were smaller, however, patterns of discrimination by sociodemographic variables appeared generally similar to those for ‘ever’ discrimination (Supplementary Table 1).

Table 2 shows the most common settings for each type of discrimination (percentage within those reporting that type of discrimination that indicated that particular setting as being the location where discrimination had occurred). The most common setting for experiencing any discrimination ‘ever’ was at school (36.0% of Māori who reported any form of discrimination ‘ever’), followed by in work settings (25.9%). Amongst Māori who had ‘ever’ experienced racial discrimination, the most common setting was at school (61.6%), followed by work settings (31.9%) and public settings (31.0%). Gender and age discrimination were most commonly reported as happening in work settings (49.9% and 44.7% respectively). Examination of settings for experiences of less common forms of discrimination (e.g. based on religion and sexual orientation) was complicated by small numbers and suppressed cells. For experiences of discrimination in the last 12 months, work was the most common setting for discrimination on the basis of age, gender, race/ethnicity and other reasons, while trying to get service in a shop or restaurant was the most common setting for discrimination on the basis of income followed closely by housing (see Supplementary Table 2).

The prevalence of Māori experiences of single and multiple experiences of racial and other types of discrimination (ever) by demographic characteristics is presented in Table 3. 18.9% of Māori reported experience of racial discrimination only, 11.6% of Māori reported experience of racial discrimination and one non-racial form of discrimination, and 10.1% reported racial discrimination and two other forms of discrimination. Reporting of ‘ever’ experiencing non-racial discrimination tended to be lower, with 13.3% of Māori reporting one form of non-racial discrimination only, 4.6% reporting two forms, and 1.4% reporting three or more. Women appeared to report higher multiple discrimination for both racial and non-racial multiple discrimination categories (i.e. D2, D3+, RD3+). Patterning by the other multiple discrimination categories were similar to single experiences, however, for deprivation and material wellbeing, the gradient for multiple experience of racial and other discriminations (RD2, RD3+) appeared more marked than for racial discrimination experience alone (RD1). As with patterning for experiencing single forms of discrimination, socially-assigned ethnicity had more pronounced patterning with experiences of discrimination that included racial discrimination, especially for experience of racial discrimination alone where being socially-assigned as Māori was associated with the highest reporting of racial discrimination, followed by social-assignment as Māori and NZ European, then NZ European. There may be some suggestion of attenuation of this pattern with the addition of experiencing other forms of discrimination. Patterns of multiple experiences of discrimination in the last 12 months can be found in Supplementary Table 3.

The settings in which people experience multiple types of discrimination are presented in Table 4. For people who ‘ever’ experienced racial discrimination and at least two other forms of discrimination (RD3+), the most common settings reported for these experiences were in school (78.6%) and employment (70.1%). For Māori reporting multiple types of non-racial discrimination only (D3+), the most common settings were the same, but with work settings the most common (71.1%), followed by school (62.6%).

Discussion

Discrimination is a common, pervasive experience for Māori. Our findings demonstrate that Māori experience frequent and multiple discrimination over their lives, in a range of settings and on several different bases. Racial discrimination is the most commonly reported basis of discrimination for Māori, when combining discrimination based on skin colour and race or ethnic group, both in the last 12 months and ever. This finding aligns with our conceptual approach, whereby racism is understood as a primary and ubiquitous experience of Indigenous peoples living in societies that have been colonised, and where coloniality is ongoing (Grosfoguel et al. Citation2015; Pihama Citation2017). It is also consistent with analysis of the General Social Survey, which showed that racial discrimination was the most commonly reported grounds for discrimination for Māori in the last year, although prevalence of such discrimination, using a slightly different measure, was higher in the GSS than in Te Kupenga (Cormack et al. Citation2018). Given that skin colour and other physical markers are often used to ascribe ethnicity, it is unsurprising that being socially-assigned as Māori is associated with increased report of racial discrimination, in line with findings for Māori from analysis of the New Zealand Health Survey (Harris et al. Citation2013).

Our findings show that Māori are also exposed to forms of discrimination other than racial discrimination, including discrimination on the grounds of age, gender, income (own or whānau income) and health status. While Indigenous communities have long recognised the interlocking nature of different systems of oppression in colonial societies, there has been scant previous reporting of the different bases for which Māori experience discrimination in Aotearoa New Zealand (Yeung and Crothers Citation2016; Cormack et al. Citation2018), often limited by sample size and study power. Māori women experience a number of forms of discrimination at higher rates than for Māori men. Some forms of discrimination are also patterned by socioeconomic status, with lower socioeconomic status associated with greater exposure to discrimination on the basis of income and health or disability issues. The racialised distribution of socioeconomic status in Aotearoa New Zealand (Ministry of Health Citation2015) means that associations between socioeconomic status and forms of discrimination will have a disproportionate impact on Māori communities.

While racial discrimination remains the most commonly reported form of discrimination for Māori, our findings of experience of multiple other forms of discrimination demonstrate the realities for Māori of living in a society with multiple oppressive systems, including classism, sexism and ageism. In line with our hypothesis about the pervasive, everyday nature of discrimination for Indigenous peoples, experiencing multiple discrimination is not uncommon for Māori. A recent study using GSS data found that among those who reported discrimination in the previous 12 months (10% of the population), most (over 75%) reported experiencing two or more counts (Yeung and Crothers Citation2016). Patterns by ethnicity are difficult to compare, due to a different approach to categorisation. In recent years, there has also been an increase in complaints to the Human Rights Commission with more than one ground of discrimination (Chen Citation2016).

Information on the domains and settings where Māori are exposed to discrimination is not routinely reported but this is important for considering interventions and responses to discrimination (Krieger Citation2012). Schools and workplaces were relatively common sites of discrimination in our study, aligning with other research (Statistics New Zealand Citation2012; OCC Citation2018). School is a domain that cannot be readily avoided for many children and young people, as it is compulsory to attend between the ages of 6 and 18 years. As this study includes both lifetime and recent experiences of discrimination, some of the reports of discrimination will be related to historical exposures. However, recent studies have also documented racism within educational settings for Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand (e.g. Mayeda et al. Citation2014; OCC Citation2018). That school remains a key site of discrimination for Māori is concerning, both for the impacts on Māori in school, as well as the flow on effects in later life in both direct and indirect ways. Similarly, workplaces are a commonly reported site of discrimination, a finding that aligns with other research (Statistics New Zealand Citation2012). Analysis of the 2008 and 2010 GSS found that employment settings were the most commonly reported settings for discrimination for the total population, with 4.3% of peoples saying they had experienced discrimination in employment (2.3% reporting racial discrimination) (Statistics New Zealand Citation2012). These, and many of the other settings in the Te Kupenga survey, are sites where discrimination is prohibited under the Human Rights Act. In 2018, employment was the most common setting for enquiries and complaints about unlawful discrimination to the Human Rights Commission (HRC Citation2018).

Conclusion

This paper has demonstrated the complex reality of discrimination for Māori as Indigenous peoples. While racial discrimination is a primary experience, it is critical that other forms of discrimination are measured and monitored as well. This will provide important information that will allow us to better capture the impact of discrimination on Māori health and wellbeing, and is especially important within the current policy environment’s focus on wellbeing. The findings reported in this paper reaffirm the urgency with which the government, its agencies and agents need to identify and take action to eliminate discrimination towards Māori in line with obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi and various human rights conventions and declarations to realise Māori rights to live free from all forms of discrimination.