Current Sections: Pacific Health Research >> Pacific ScholarshipsPacific Health Workforce Awards include a thousand dollars specifically for mentoring support purposes. The HRC has developed a mentoring and support model and programme that guides the spending of the mentoring component and directs the thinking around mentoring at the HRC.
The Flax-Roots Support Model of Mentoring
Awarding scholarships does not guarantee success, and many students have struggled with and even failed their academic work. The Flax-Roots Model has been developed to provide a useful, creative and culturally effective model of supporting students.
The Model 
The model is reflective of the diversity of extended family support, and the 'spirit of the collective' offering their best to protect and nurture the individual. The model was developed recognising that a student's chance of success is strengthened and enhanced if they have the necessary supports around them.
The aims for developing a model of support include:
- Supporting the student's ability to perform academically
- Strengthening the success of capacity building initiatives at the HRC;
- Developing a culturally effective and appropriate mentoring alternative;
- Addressing the challenge of building career pathways in Pacific health/health research; and
- Maximising the fiscal investment in workforce development.
This model involves creating an 'environment stimulating growth' and was inspired by a native plant in New Zealand, called harakeke or the New Zealand flax. The flax plant is an example of an elaborate organic system that requires various components for it to thrive and grow.
When you are taught to weave using flax, you are instructed to cut the outer flax leaves and never to cut the three most internal strands of flax. This is the inner family of the plant, the mother and the father stand on each side, protecting the innermost strand of the flax plant, the 'baby'. If these strands are cut the whole plant will die.
The student is likened to the 'baby'; the pivotal core of the flax, the most vulnerable and the most essential part of the plant. It makes sense to conceive of each outer layer as further protective factors keeping the individual protected and supported in an often harsh environment.
The protective strands are labeled in the model: family and personal support, employer support, pacific cultural expertise mentor, Pacific health leadership mentor, mainstream health specialist mentor, financial support, academic support and peer (fellow student) support.
One of the advantages of the multi-layered model of support is that it allows individuals to think through the different strands of support and do a simple reflective "needs analysis". For some students a number of these key strands of support may already be in place, while for others they are able to identify gaps where they are not being supported or where support could be improved.
Extending the metaphor of the flax plant further, one can identify that there are roots that sustain, nourish and anchor Pacific people. Four essential roots have been identified: ancestry, identity, ability, and will. Despite many Pacific students having these core 'roots', many still do not survive in the academic environment.
The model of support was developed recognising that traditionally in a kainga, the raising of a child is seen as very much a collective effort and a collective responsibility. Each extended family member has different strengths, talents and abilities to offer the young person. Spreading the responsibility of mentoring encourages diverse contributions from different people. The success of the student is not achieved in isolation, but with the mentoring 'family' gathering around the individual and offering all the support within its means.
Last Updated : 17 May 2004 22:28:42.
