Health book tells Maori to smoke

Maori have every right to enjoy smoking, gambling and eating fatty foods if they want to - and Maori health workers who say otherwise are just brainwashed "house niggers".

That's according to the authors of a controversial new book on Maori health published by one of South Auckland's largest Maori health providers.

The Kotahitanga Community Trust, a taxpayer-funded charitable organisation in Counties Manukau, provides health care for more than 5000 patients - 4000 of whom are Maori.

The book, Maori Health, was co-authored by trust chairman Peter Caccioppoli and Rhys Cullen, a GP at the trust's Papakura practice and published using funds from Mr Caccioppoli's family trust.

It endorses the right of Maori to indulge in pleasurable, but unhealthy, pastimes - despite the consequences.

"Maori enjoy life. Maori like to smoke. Maori like to eat. Maori like to drink. Maori enjoy sex. Maori like to talk. Maori like to gamble and take risks. And Maori like to fight, on and off the sports field," the book says.

"If Maori enjoy it, the Crown is against it. If Maori have it and want it, the Crown tries to take it away. We support the choice of the overwhelming majority of our community to smoke. It is one way that Maori can say 'Stuff you' to the health Nazis and have a good time."

The book has been condemned by Maori health experts as dangerous and lacking credibility.

However, Mr Caccioppoli and Dr Cullen say there is no reason why young Maori should not smoke. They advise Maori to lie about their smoking habits to avoid being hassled by "health Nazis".

The pair say the health system is racist and opposes activities like smoking and eating fatty foods simply because Maori enjoy them.

Instead of expecting Maori to stop smoking or start dieting and exercising, the Ministry of Health should instead provide Maori with pills to prevent illnesses like diabetes and heart disease, they advise.

"The health system sees diabetes as a consequence of Maori being fat and lazy and not having enough willpower to do what they need to do.

"We are critical of the house niggers who preach this Pakeha message to Maori.

"The answer to diabetes is not diet and exercise but medication," the book says.

The authors declare that cervical screening "contravenes significant cultural norms" and has been imposed on Maori by Pakeha.

Anti-gambling research is "rubbish" and Maori babies do not benefit from routine childhood vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio, they add.

"Anti-gambling research is rubbish. It can be seen as just another example of the health Nazis looking to extend their empire," the book says.

Borrowing from speeches by Malcolm X, the authors say Maori health workers who endorse Ministry of Health strategy are "house niggers" who have been brainwashed by Pakeha and kept tamed by greedy "Uncle Tom" Maori health managers.

"Beware the brown face talking of 'best practice'. It probably means 'best Pakeha practice' and is the talk of a house nigger," the book says.

The Trust received around $300,000 of Government funding last year - $60 for each of about 5000 patients - and had to rely on funds from the Lottery Grants Board and the Community Organisation Grants Scheme.

The book has been distributed widely, and stocked by Medical Books, a bookshop for doctors and medical students, and held by the New Zealand Nursing Organisation's library.

Counties Manukau District Health Board Maori health manager Bernard Te Paa pointed out that smoking, poor nutrition and insufficient physical activity were some of the main causes of Maori ill-health.

Mr Te Paa added he was disappointed at the authors' views on Maori health workers.

"It's a gross exaggeration of the role that Maori play in the mainstream health system."

Director of the Maori Smokefree Coalition, Shane Bradbrook, said the book's advice on smoking was "absolute crap" and potentially dangerous for patients.

"I'd be highly concerned if a health provider was providing that sort of advice," he said.

John Stansfield, chief executive of the Problem Gambling Foundation, called the book "self-serving nonsense", and said that gambling - especially pokie machines - visited "significant harm" on Maori.

Nikki Turner from the Immunisation Advisory Centre dismissed the book's claims about childhood vaccination as dangerous and unsubstantiated by scientific evidence.

Dr Papaarangi Reid, from the Auckland University's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, said much of the advice in the book defied what doctors considered "best" medical practice.

The Ministry of Health did not wish to comment.

Mr Caccioppoli said he stood by everything that was written in the book, and denied he and Dr Rhys had been deliberately controversial for publicity's sake.

Asked why he wrote the book, he said he wanted people to reconsider how Maori health was defined and how healthcare for Maori was delivered.

Mr Caccioppoli, 26, has no tertiary qualifications. Dr Cullen could not be reached for comment.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY