Penina Uliuli: Contemporary challenges in mental health for Pacific peoples

Abstract

Uliuli is a book that powerfully invites us to engage with the Pasifika nature of Aotearoa New Zealand's cultural landscape, and the implications of this for mental health work. It asks students and mental health practitioners of all persuasions to engage with the many voices of Pasifika practitioners. The contributors to this book identify primarily as Samoan, Tongan, Niuean and Hawaiian (and have identifications with a range of additional backgrounds). Their voices and the variety of perspectives they offer provide a rich opportunity for Palagi mental health professionals to enter the many worlds of the Pacific, to hear these voices and the potent lessons they offer. For Pasifika practitioners the book brings together voices that have struggled in the past to be heard, much less read, particularly in the tertiary training centres where many psychotherapists and mental health practitioners initially learn their craft.