Māori doctor wins top accolade

In her last year at St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College in Taradale, 18-year-old Kiriana Bird found herself pregnant. With a lot of help from whanau and her then boyfriend, now husband, Lee Grace, Kiriana went on to do a Science degree at Victoria University and then trained to be a doctor at the University of Auckland’s Medical School. 

Today she is Medical Director for Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga (TTOH) in Hastings, and was recently awarded a Distinguished Fellowship of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP). This is given to a handful of GPs each year who have demonstrated sustained contributions to general practice, medicine, or the health and wellbeing of the community.

For Kiriana the Award, more than anything, is a chance to model success for young Māori women. 

“Whilst I try to keep everything on the lowdown,” she tells BayBuzz, “I am speaking out  because I am hopeful some young Māori women might think ‘Well she was a young teenage Mum, she looks like me’.

“I want to encourage and support young Māori women, and my younger colleagues here, to step into things.”

Kiriana has never forgotten what it felt like to be a teenage Māori Mum. 

“I look at young Māori mums today and I have the greatest empathy for those who are trying to make it in this world and just feel like everything is against them,” she says, “and young Māori dads.  

“I definitely have aroha for young Māori. I listen to the things not spoken and if I have a young person in my room who wants to be an astronaut, a cleaner, or whatever, I back them 250 per cent because I know that sometimes you just need that one person to hear you and believe in you. You can climb huge mountains if you have got that inner belief.”

Dr Kiriana Bird (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) has earned a reputation as a GP dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of Māori living in the Ngati Kahungunu region by providing a whanau ora centred model of care. 

Royal College President Dr Samantha Murton says, “Having spent her whole career based in the Hawke’s Bay, Dr Bird has been able to build strong, trusted relationships with the patients, the community, and the medical workforce in the region. This trust and whanaungatanga she has nurtured over the years can only have positive impacts on the health outcomes of those she serves.” 

Kiriana has a passion and commitment to Māori health and equity, and in her own practice she’s led changes to the way services are provided, enhanced the kaupapa Māori approach and built strong, agile teams who are culturally able to support self-determination for Māori.

As well as her work in Hawke’s Bay, she has held multiple roles within Te Akoranga a Māui, the College’s specialist Māori representative group. She is currently the lead medical educator for first-year GP registrars in Hawke’s Bay and is also involved with the training of second- and third-year Māori and Pacific GP registrars around NZ. Since 2020, Kiriana has been the Te Akoranga a Māui representative on the College Board.

Kiriana grew up in Wainuiomata with her mum and dad and two brothers. Her parents pushed education and she and one brother were the first in their whanau to go to university. After graduating as a doctor she spent a year working at Auckland Hospital and then came to Hawke’s Bay in 2007 and worked as a junior doctor at Hastings Memorial Hospital for two years, had another baby, and then joined Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, where she has been ever since.

 Dr David Tipene Leech was an early influence because he was “a fantastic GP”. When asked what is meant by that she says,  “For me it’s someone who is able to connect with our people and our whanau, someone who has empathy and understanding and can understand the wider picture, the holistic approach to what’s going on for whanau and why people are presenting the way they are presenting. It’s not just looking at the medical stuff, it’s asking, ‘Where do you live? Who do you live with? Where do you come from? Where have you been?’ It’s the same approach she takes as a GP now, and is one of the reasons why consults are 20 minutes long at Hauroa Heretaunga.  

As well as working at a strategic and governance level for Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, Kiriana practices as a GP on the frontline. Hauroa Heretaunga has an enrolled population of 7,000, 85% Maori and Pacific, with high needs patients above 90%. “We serve the most vulnerable patient population in Hawke’s Bay.”

And it is from this standpoint that she says there is still inequity in Māori health across the board in Hawke’s Bay. “I see it every day in my clinic, I see it played  out. For example Māori attempting to access, but unable to get, the care they deserve because of institutionalised racism. Because of  people’s biases that they are unaware of, I think. I hope they are unaware of. It runs so deep, it’s generational, and it’s really important for our health sector to understand this. The more we talk about it and hold people to account, the better. “ 

A positive for her is the fledging health reforms and creation of a Māori Health Authority. (She has been to Alaska and seen how an indigenous health model works there.)

“The opportunities with the health reforms are huge for Māori,” she says. “What we’re hearing is aligned with our hopes and aspirations, so we here [at Taiwhenua o Heretaunga]  are waiting to see how they will play out.  

“I have hope,” she says. “And I am feeling quite excited and lucky to have this happening in my lifetime.”

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.