Bella Smith: Internship with Healthy Families Whanganui, Rangitīkei, Ruapehu
Healthy Families WRR is excited to welcome Bella Smith from Virginia, USA as our new intern. Bella comes with a rich heritage, she is Afro Indigenous, African American, Cheroenhaka Nottoway, Meherrin, Polish and Irish descent. She is currently doing a Global Studies Degree at Long Island University Global based in New York. She is the Student Government President and the President of the Students of Color Committee as well.
As part of her Global Studies Programme students are required to undertake field excursions only studying onsite in the last semester of university. Immersing herself in communities In her first year Bella studied in Vienna, Austria, and then Florence, Italy. In her second year she was in Costa Rica and then she had a field excursion to Panama and visited an indigenous community called Guna Yala. In her third year she lived in Australia in Bundjalung country, that's when she had field excursions to Fiji, Aotearoa, and Bali, Indonesia.
The University has centres in Europe, Costa Rica, and Australia and at each base she has had to look at different global conflicts and issues through four different lenses, and that's cultural, economic, political and environmental. Her degree is a transdisciplinary view on contemporary issues within the world. She explains that this has helped her have a more holistic and well-rounded view when and how she carries herself within the world and when looking at different issues that arise in the different regions that she's lived in.
In the fourth year, she had to do an international Internship and conduct her own research case study.
Her journey of transition to Aotearoa started when her school visited in November last year as part of their field excursions during their Australia year, and the students visited Te Oranganui. Immediately Bella fell in love with Aotearoa, she expresses that “I just felt this overwhelming sense of this place. It is magic and seeing that it's possible to have an indigenous space rooted in Mātauranga Māori to help people is just amazing.” This led to Geoffrey Hīpango (Kaitiaki of Te Ao Hou Marae) and Stephen Lee (Manager of Whanganui Kai Hub) collaborating together to find a life changing opportunity for Bella and through their connections, Bella successfully started working with our Healthy Families team on the 17th of September.
Whilst she has been in the team she has provided exceptional research assistance to support the Mokopuna Ora, Hapū Māmā Village kaupapa. She is creating a visual to show how paternal and maternal obesity impacts babies, along with a Māori-specific chart highlighting ethnic differences and health disparities within Māori communities. This will provide whānau with a clear understanding and support preventive health approaches to obesity in the Māori community. She has also helped to facilitate Whānau Design Villages and capture insights; with the recent Te Oranganui led Oral Health Initiative, ‘Menemene Mai’ she has also captured, synthesised and analysed the data that had come from the whānau within the community in Whanganui, Rangitīkei and Ruapehu. Alongside all of that she is conducting her own research case study project around Wāhine Māori voice and perspective within Rongoa Māori. Bella shares that “A highlight has just been finally being able to actually conduct the research and doing interviews and just hearing the stories and journeys of the Wāhine Māori and it just feels like I'm aligned with my mission here on earth”.
One of her aspirations is to develop a healing model for Afro-Indigenous communities. Drawing on indigenous knowledge systems, she seeks to combine the wisdom of her own community with insights from indigenous education worldwide. Her vision is to help transform communities from being wounded to being healed and resilient.
Bella will be finishing with us at the end of November. She graduates in May with the hope to return to Aotearoa and pursue a Master's in Māori and Indigenous Leadership and is keen to return to Te Oranganui to continue to provide evidence based research for Research Case Study alongside Healthy Families WRR.
We look forward to seeing what the future holds for such an inspiring young indigenous wahine. As the whakatauki says: “Whaia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei” - Seek the treasure that you value most dearly, if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.
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