KIA MATAARA: This article discusses mental health issues and suicide. Reader discretion advised.
New data confirms that Māori suspected suicide rates remain the highest in New Zealand and hasn’t changed over the last 16 years, prompting calls for better prevention services.
Information released by the Coroner’s Court and Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora shows 630 suspected suicides occurred nationwide between July 2024 and June 2025, one quarter of the deaths were Māori. While there was a 3.1% decrease in deaths compared to the 16-year average, the rates for Māori remain stagnant.
Tama, a young adult whose real name has been withheld for privacy, journeyed through the mental health system after attempts to take his own life. He says his time with crisis response provided no real aid, describing his time as “Slow, unprofessional and judgemental.”
“How could it be designed to support Māori when it doesn’t even have our interest there?” says Tama.
“We shouldn’t give our Māori people drugs and more drugs. We should be going outside into nature, not giving them a pill to lock them inside as a zombie”.
“The whole time you’re completely numb, they take the person out of you, that was my experience on them...all it did was give me another issue and that’s that I want these pills now.”
Tama says that if it wasn’t for family intervention, he wouldn’t have been able to get off them.
Māori men aged 24-44 were reported as the most impacted with 28.1 deaths per 100,000 Māori male population, nearly double that of non-Māori males.
Tiana Watkins from Life Keepers attributes the numbers to historic effects of colonisation, deep seated inequity and systemic access to barriers. Watkins says Māori-led suicide prevention services are a necessity.
“By Māori, for Māori, with Māori. Let us lead the way because the answers already lie within our hapori” says Watkins. “They’re not innovative, they may be innovative for non-Māori with the utmost respect, but that’s our bread and butter. Reconnecting back to our whenua, back to our reo. We’re seeing the resurgence taking place now.”
After a 5-year battle, Tama says he feels he is now on the other side. He attributes some of his healing to being out in nature, being around loved ones, and working to strengthen his mind.
“It’s only been recently where I’ve finally been able to come out of that shell and finally start being myself again” says Tama.
He offered a word of advice to those currently facing the same struggles urging people to make their beds and get outside
“Get out of that bubble that you’re staying in, that’s making you feel how you’re feeling. Just remove yourself from there. Talk to someone, tell them that you’re going through a hard time and even if it’s just going outside and going for a walk, I can guarantee you that will fix a few things going on right now”.
He tahua hou
Nā ngā tatauranga hou i whakaputaina e te Minita Take Hauora Hinengaro, e Matt Doocey he tahua pūtea 61.1 miriona tāra hei hāpai i ngā mahi whakatika i tēnei raruraru. Ko tā te rautaki hou he utu i ngā kaimahi, whā tekau hou hei āta mātai i te hunga whaiora, hei whakatū hoki i tētahi taiwhanga whakaora.
E ai ki tētahi pānui pāpāhō nā te Minita ki Te Ao Māori News, he kaupapa Māori kua whakaritea engari kāore ia mō te whakamārama mai i ngā kōiriiri
“I recently launched the Suicide Prevention Action Plan, which has specific actions for Māori, including a Māori Suicide Prevention Community Fund to support community-based and community led suicide prevention and postvention initiatives.
“It also includes more suicide prevention training and workshops to provide Māori communities the skills to recognise and support people experiencing distress.” says Doocey.
