Preliminary figures from Water Safety New Zealand (WSNZ) indicate that the preventable fatal drowning toll for the official holiday period is 14, a 180 per cent increase on the five-year average.

 This year’s summer holiday period ran from Friday, 24 December 2021 through to Wednesday, 5 January 2022.

To give us an understanding of indigenous perspectives when it comes to water safety we have Rob Hewitt who is the kaihautū Māori for Water Safety New Zealand.

 

Dr Chanel Phillips is a lecturer at the University of Otago who specialises in Māori water safety, and the creator of the Wai Puna model that now underpins the new national water safety strategy. 

 

They work with the water safety sector to better implement and reflect te ao Māori, ensuring the implementation of Wai Puna across the sector, and encourage better engagement with whānau, hapū and iwi.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.