From Te Teko to Adelaide: a Māori physiotherapist’s health and career journey

By Dr Richard Griffiths

In 2021 Whatarangi collaborated with other colleagues, including AUT’s Dr Daniel O’Brien and Associate Professor Peter Larmer (the former Chair of Arthritis NZ’s Board of Trustees), to produce the first-ever study to investigate Māori men’s (tāne) lived experience of OA. Their research took inspiration from a 2019 study conducted by Nikita McGruer and colleagues, who interviewed a number of Māori women to learn more about their experiences of OA. In addition to their paper being published in the New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy, Whatarangi and his team also did a poster presentation of their findings at the 2021 OA Basecamp which was held at the University of Auckland.

As the lead researcher, Whatarangi ensured his project and its “methodology” or approach were underpinned by various kaupapa Māori practices, procedures and frameworks. He added that Tom Ruakere, also from AUT, helped guide their team’s research journey through a Māori lens. Having researchers of Māori upbringing and understanding of how we operate as a people and as a culture was vital to the study. While some results reinforced some existing knowledge, there were some surprises. “Whakamā”, an event or experience that brings shame or embarrassment – in this case, having OA, was experienced by the male participants in different ways.

Another finding was that those tāne Māori that had been raised in urban areas “were significantly more impaired” or “alienated” than those men who had primarily lived elsewhere. The paper discusses for example, how citydwelling Māori have had limited access to te ao Māori or key elements that comprise their cultural identity. As an overall recommendation, Whatarangi suggested that “what I want to encourage or challenge all of our health force back home and our organisations is to be underpinned by Māori frameworks”.

Whatarangi’s journey

Originally from Te Teko, a small town in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Whatarangi Dixon completed his Bachelor of Health Sciences in Physiotherapy from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in 2019. Following his fourth-year placement as an undergraduate physiotherapy student at Whakatāne Hospital, he moved to Rotorua to work as a physiotherapist at QE Health.

Last year, he moved to Adelaide, Australia with his wife to take up a role as Senior Rehabilitation Consultant/Physiotherapist with the Altius Group.

He works with OA patients almost daily, with quite a notable proportion of his clients being military veterans with a range of osteoarthritic conditions. Pointing out some differences between the Australian and New Zealand health systems, Whatarangi feels there is a deeper level of collaboration between health professionals working in different sectors in Australia. “I love my new job because I’m not just doing my clinical work, but I’m able to liaise a lot more with their entire medical/treatment team – and I liaise with all stakeholders: the insurer, the employer if they’re still looking to try to keep in work. I also deal with many physios, occupational therapists, other specialists, and doctors. And we come up with this very holistic kind of plan to best help them, whether that’s helping them return to life, or return to health, or a return to work. It’s a full collaboration, looking at the whole person, not just one aspect. I can negotiate with all of these different parties to determine the best outcome for this person”.

Personal Health

Having initially considered studying medicine, Whatarangi’s life dramatically changed in 2014 when he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a very rare neurological condition which is similar to multiple sclerosis. GBS is when your immune system believes the nervous system is “a bad organism in the body” and attacks it aggressively.

Reflecting on the first year of his journey, which was a challenging time which saw him paralysed from the neck down, Whatarangi said that while he loved all his specialists, his physiotherapist was the most influential person in his recovery. As the health practitioner with him during the majority of his recovery period, he described her as “the person who opened up my eyes to what you could do as a physiotherapist”. Due to his experience and the fact that he thinks he has always been “instinctively a physio," Whatarangi became a physiotherapist.

“If we relate it to OA, the most difficult thing for people, in my opinion, is their independence. When we become dependent on others, it’s a very challenging place to be. I love being a part of people’s journeys to enable them to be much more independent again or as close as possible to where they were before they developed their condition or injury. That’s where my intrinsic drive comes from for wanting to be a physiotherapist”.