“Why do you ask that?”
“Why are you all staring at me?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Are you trying to team up against me?”
“Are you here to interrogate me?”

He did not know us, did not trust us, he looked at us suspiciously. He had been fobbed off by the other doctors, over months. He had presented to hospital a  number of times with back pain but had left each time feeling totally disregarded. Institutional racism and inequity led to unfortunately common inaction. He felt treated as if he was, “a lazy Maori trying to skive off work.” He had always worked hard, his whole life. He was proud of having always supported his family well. Just as he had experienced his entire life, they didn’t try to know him at all and made the usual assumptions. Research tells of differential treatment that is still leading to Maori people in general dying seven years earlier than the rest of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s population.