Rurality in health care presents a multitude of challenges, not only to providers of healthcare services but most significantly to healthcare consumers. Providing and gaining access to appropriate and timely services in regions of Aotearoa New Zealand that are remote and isolated from the wide variety of healthcare services offered routinely in urban areas require ingenuity and creativity. Appreciating the unique healthcare landscape and focusing on the provision of health care in rural and remote areas of Aotearoa New Zealand are essential to understanding and working alongside the communities that live, work and play in those areas. This exploration of the challenges is necessary to provide health care that is sensitive to the nuances of residing in rural or remote areas and to meet the unique cultural needs of those communities.

Māori health models have introduced cultural philosophies or principles into an otherwise monocultural Aotearoa New Zealand healthcare landscape. These models seek to extend our thinking and actions around the micro-, meso- and macro-level influences of hauora Māori and to address topics that reflect Indigenous Māori health aspirations. They each represent pathways towards mauri ora, including improving the quality of engagement with Māori when they are accessing healthcare services. As guaranteed in the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the protection of hauora Māori is a health equity imperative. However, persistent disparities in health outcomes between Māori and non-Māori continue to demonstrate inequities in the social determinants of health as well as unequal access to healthcare services and safe, high-quality care. In addition to biomedical, social and political factors that shape Indigenous health inequities, cultural factors also play a significant role. The challenge for health professionals and the wider healthcare system is to include, or actively engage with, Māori cultural understandings and practical applications.

Celeste Montoya examines the role that gendered mobilization has played in US electoral politics, both historically and in the recent elections. She provides a conceptualization of gendered mobilization that emphasizes the importance of looking at the role that gender (often at the intersection of race and class) plays in a wide array of US social movements. She provides a historical overview that demonstrates the various ways in which gendered mobilizations have influenced the development of US democracy and the evolution of its electoral politics. Montoya focuses specifically on the mobilizations surrounding the 2024 election, outlining the mobilization of the MAGA movement around restricting transgender rights and opposing critical race theory, gender studies, and DEI. She identifies race-gendered mobilization among progressives in 2024 as well, emphasizing the role of intersectional coalitions in advocating for racial justice and reproductive rights among other issues. Gendered mobilization has been a significant part of efforts to expand political participation and representation, as well as those to restrict it. It has shaped party platforms and electoral coalitions. The patterns of the past help explain the current political moment and what may be at stake.

This chapter outlines the opportunities offered by coinage as a source of evidence to the ancient historian. Different aspects of numismatic terminology and methodology are set out, and different approaches to the use of the characteristics of coinage are outlined. Coinage may be evidence for ‘official practice’ on the part of the wide variety of its issuers in the archaic period. It may be indicative of specific regional and cultural similarities or differences. It is in essence an economic object, and its mobility offers the possibility of mapping ancient economies. But at the same time its designs open up avenues of iconographic interpretation.

Since the implementation of cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand’s schools of nursing, midwifery, medicine and allied health, students have been introduced to concepts that were not as evident in most programs prior to the early 1990s. Topics such as culture and the dynamics of power are now commonplace within these programs. Similarly, with the movement towards doing with as opposed to doing for the client or patient, students are required to possess an awareness of their values, beliefs, biases and prejudices. The first step towards to cultural safety is for a person to have sufficient awareness of their own culture.

Cultural safety aims to create environments that are safe for all people, acknowledging the myriad of contexts that can be present for individuals and communities. This is particularly essential in health care.

Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand offers an encompassing look into theoretical and practice-based perspectives on cultural safety through the lens of Aotearoa New Zealand and Pacific contexts in health care. This new edition features significant updates and new chapters on topics including Māori models of health, gender identity, mental health and Pacific health.

Chapters contain key terms with definitions, practice examples and reflections, and end-of-chapter questions to help consolidate the reader’s understanding of the content. The chapters all link back to the six pou of the standards of competence for registered nurses.

Drawing on the diverse expertise of the contributing authors, the new edition of Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand is an essential resource for those involved in the delivery of health care.

The Doctrine of Discovery, rooted in 15th-century papal bulls, entitled the European nations of Spain, Portugal and England and the Catholic Church to claim Indigenous lands globally, justifying settler-colonial expansion based on their presumed superiority. The British Crown used this doctrine to assert sovereignty over newly discovered territories and and engaged with Māori by signing the Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Colonisation has had – and continues to have – severe and detrimental impacts on Indigenous peoples worldwide. This brief overview of the Doctrine of Discovery provides a starting point for an exploration of the events leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi, its impacts on Māori, its relevance today, and what it means for health practitioners.

Throughout human history, individuals with impairments have encountered significant challenges, often living in hardship with limited opportunities for social, economic and cultural participation. Societies have responded to impairment with superstition and prejudice, which have contributed to marginalisation and exclusion. Disability identity is a complex concept; for some, it is a personal journey, while for others, it represents a political statement. Māori do not typically identify with the Western biomedical notion of disability. Instead, they prefer to frame their experiences through a cultural lens, using terms such as whānau hauā or Mana whaikaha. However, it is important to acknowledge that the term Mana whaikaha was introduced without broad consultation within the Māori disabled community. Other iwi and hapū may have their own terms; Māori should be free to self-identify in ways that align with their lived realities, without imposed terminology.

Kelly Dittmar examines the gender, race, and intersectional dynamics of presidential politics, focusing specifically on the dominance of masculinity and whiteness at the highest level of American politics. After providing an overview of concepts key to understanding the presidency as a raced and gendered institution, she presents a history of the pioneering women who have dared to step forward to seek the presidency or vice presidency. Dittmar then evaluates how Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump navigated gender and intersectional dynamics on the campaign trail. She analyzes the ways that gender and race influenced the strategies employed by these candidates, media coverage of their campaigns, and public responses to their candidacies. While Dittmar points to areas of progress, she illustrates how a presidential campaign that exploited white and male grievance and reinforced gendered, racialized, and intersectional stereotypes emerged victorious in 2024.

Anna Sampaio provides an intersectional analysis of Latina candidates for national office and Latiné/x voting behavior in the 2024 election. She pays particular attention to how disparities in polling inform our understanding of Latiné/x voters’ impact on the presidential election outcome while acknowledging that a widening gender gap among this community of voters was evident across multiple polls. Sampaio describes how gender and racialized messaging were weaponized in campaign communications to aggravate gender differences among Latiné/x voters. In her analysis of Latina candidates and officeholders, Sampaio places recent gains in historical context while pointing out the stalled progress for Latinas in election 2024. The chapter concludes with a discussion of obstacles and opportunities in the future of Latina politics in the United States.

Rosalyn Cooperman examines the role that political parties, women’s organizations, and political action committees (PACs) play in the recruitment of women to run for federal office and support of women’s candidacies. With a focus on 2024, she describes the structures of the national Democratic and Republican parties and looks at how party organizations assist candidates to run for office. She assesses attitudes about women’s political participation from Democratic and Republican party activists who influence who runs for office, and the issue positions they embrace. She looks at the strategies pursued by women’s PACs, candidate training groups, and campaign finance networks to train and fund women candidates. Cooperman finds that the resources available to Democratic women candidates far exceed those available to their Republican counterparts, which holds implications for women as parties compete to capture or expand majority party status in Congress.