Outside the rooms where mums give birth, an artist has painted the corridors with murals depicting the voyage many of our ancestors have taken across the Moana.

 

After working at the birthing centre last week, and sharing the fantastic ‘we were always scientists’ resources by the Ministry of Education, the murals reminded me about a blog ‘The Future is STEM’ written by our colleague Dudley Gentles in 2019.

 

Dudley is only a handful (but growing) Pacific biostatisticians in New Zealand and his insights in 2019 (including others before him) highlight exactly what our ancestors have always been – scientists, biologists, mathematicians, technologists, engineers and more.

 

The few quotes from Dudley’s blog is coupled with the murals our families see when they give birth at Nga Hau. In essence, it also symbolises their own journey as parents with their newborn baby.

 

The future is indeed STEAM (with the addition of ‘A’) and our hope is our Pacific children, parents and grandparents continue to embrace the knowledge our ancestors always had.