• Gambling: Causing more harm than good

    First published in the Goanet Reader Tue, 26 Sep 2006 I read with dismay about the establishment of ten new offshore casinos in Goa in an item in the latest Goan Voice UK and thought I would share my thoughts. I’ve just spent the entire week facilitating an annual International Gambling Think Tank and a…

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  • Pregnant with possibility: Migrant motherhood in New Zealand

    First published in Mindnet  Issue 6 – Winter 2006 When my family arrived in New Zealand in 1975 there were very few people from Goa living here. We quickly got know every Goan in the country and, in hindsight, this connection provided me with an early interest in and focus on both maternal mental health…

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  • Mutual sustenance: Goan women and the Catholic church in New Zealand

    First published in Goanet Reader Sun, 30 Apr 2006 and also published in the Indian Catholic May 21,2006 On December 3 2005, Catholic Goans in Auckland, New Zealand celebrated the Feast of St Francis Xavier with a mass in Konkani, the first time such an event had been held in New Zealand. For those who…

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  • Researching the Health Needs of Elderly Indian Migrants to New Zealand

    DeSouza, R. (2006). Researching the health needs of elderly Indian migrants in New Zealand. Indian Journal of Gerontology, 20 (1&2), 159-170. The older adult population in New Zealand is increasing and becoming more ethnically diverse. With this change comes a requirement for health and social service professionals to become more knowledgeable about the cultural needs…

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  • My World, Diversity and New Zealand

    Plenary presentation at the New Zealand Diversity Forum, August 22, 2006. Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. Thank you for inviting me to speak at this plenary session of the Diversity Forum. I’ve been asked to talk about my world, diversity and New Zealand from an ‘ethnic’1 point of view. The theme of my talk is to…

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  • What does it mean to be Goan?

    This piece was previously published in the Goanet Reader: July 29th 2005 Issues of celebration and connection, reflected in food and song Food is one of the many things that make life not only pleasurable but memorable. I recently met a young Goan man who is completing a degree who asked me if I could…

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  • The Portuguese colonisation of Goa and migration to East Africa

    This piece was previously published in the Goanet Reader: May 22nd  2005 We often think of migration as moving between two places, my story is one of many journeys that spans the generations. I was born in what was then Tanganyika and is now Tanzania, into a Catholic family originating from Goa, India. As a…

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  • The Art of Walking Upright Here: Realising a Multicultural Society

    Background paper for the Asia:NZ Foundation’s Kiwi India Seminar Series. Auckland and Wellington, October 2004 The title of this paper is drawn from a line in a Glenn Colquhoun poem. He draws inspiration from a poem by Allen Curnow, himself inspired by the site of a skeleton of a long extinct Moa in a museum.…

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  • Motherhood, Migration and Methodology: Giving Voice to the “Other”

    DeSouza, R. (2004). Motherhood, migration and methodology: Giving voice to the “other”. The Qualitative Report, 9(3), 463-482. This paper discusses the need for multi-cultural methodologies that develop knowledge about the maternity experience of migrant women and that are attuned to women’s maternity-related requirements under multi-cultural conditions. Little is known about the transition to parenthood for…

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  • Migrant Populations

    DeSouza, R. (2004). Working with refugees and migrants. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety (pp. 122-133). Auckland: Pearson Education New Zealand. The art of walking upright here Is the art of using both feet. One is for holding on. One is for letting go. (Colquhoun, 1999, p.32) Glenn Colquhoun’s poetry captures the challenge dislocation from…

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  • Improving collaboration between nursing professionals and support workers in the New Zealand mental health system– A position paper

    In 1998 I began teaching the first mental health support work cohorts in New Zealand at Unitec Institute of Technology. I had the privilege of working with Maori and Pacific mental health workers, peer support workers and consumer providers until 2005. I wrote this position paper for the Australian and New Zealand College of Mental…

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  • The ‘small’ things count in caring

    Editorial published in Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand 8.10 (Nov 2002): p28(1). KAI TIAKI Nursing New Zealand has recently carried narratives written by nurses discussing their experiences as recipients of health care, eg “My Journey of Pain” by Glenis McCallum (July 2002, p16). These experiences gave the nurses the opportunity to re-examine their practice and…

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  • Care of the person with Borderline personality disorder in the community

    First published online by Ruth DeSouza 1997 Abstract The development of community-based models of care in New Zealand has led to dramatic changes in the treatment available for people with mental illnesses. However, we appear to be failing to provide comprehensive coordinated and continuous care for clients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). One major…

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