Anō nei he pōukutukawa korua, e whātoro ana I ōno here. Ki ōna takiaho. E hii au te kaha.
Just as the pōhutukawa, whose roots seek out those of its kind to be strong, so must we cling to each other.
If loneliness is the scourge of old age, then social connection is the antidote. Being socially active is not only good for quality of life, but also beneficial for health – lowering the likelihood of dementia, stroke, and heart disease. However, many things get harder with age, and socialising can be one of them. Whether it be that family or friends have moved away, become ill, or died, or that transport is challenging, finding the time and energy is hard, or ageism gets in the way – there can be more obstacles to getting together for older adults.
Research on loneliness in phase one of the Ageing Well National Science Challenge clearly showed that older adults want to achieve social connection through meaningful activities with their families and communities rather than being passive recipients of specially designed initiatives. They expressed that increased public awareness of loneliness in old age, and more favourable attitudes towards the contribution of older adults to the community, would strengthen their ability to stay connected. And they especially valued intergenerational connection.
Out of these messages, the five-minute musical animation “Elder Birdsong” was born, which succinctly highlights the challenges older people face and the resilience they manifest in dealing with them. Dr Lisa Williams, from the Te Ārai Research Group at the University of Auckland, explains that using art to communicate research findings is a powerful way of enabling people to have an emotional response to knowledge. “We want to make people feel something. That’s how change happens.” Principal Investigator Professor Merryn Gott agrees, “When you’re trying to change social attitudes, you need different mechanisms, you need to connect with people”. So, for their phase two project, Lisa and Merryn turned to film again, this time with the aims of challenging negative stereotypes and celebrating the agency and community contributions of older adults.
The anthology film “Manawaroa: Still Going Strong” is the result of this mahi. Five elders were recruited and matched with young filmmakers with shared cultural backgrounds or values. The researchers literally put intergenerational social connections to work, with each filmmaker interviewing and compiling an insight into their older person’s social life.
The film demonstrates that there are myriad ways to achieve social connection – volunteering, time with friends and family, pursuing passions, finding new hobbies or causes. By sharing their personal motivations, the featured elders inspire others to make a conscious effort to maintain connections. Whaea Whio Hansen explains what drives her, “Retired people have information and knowledge that is very useful, I believe, to today’s wahine or the women of today. I’m passionate about the fact that our women have an important role on the marae. And so, I decided I was going to do as best as I can to fill my kuia’s shoes.” Changdong Choi shares, “Through music and Samul nori (Korean drumming), I hope to get to know people and continue a journey with my community, and to spend time together, and to form deeper relationships and establish new ones – that is the reason why I continue to do this.” Virinder Aggarawal admits, “It doesn’t matter if it was morning or evening or anytime, if there was some occasion where some volunteering was needed, I was always there.”
Voices of the older adults are heard loud and clear, and the film picks up nuances of these lives more impactfully than a scientific paper. While Virinder states conclusively, “Social interaction has been one of the most important things in our lives”, there are others who touch on the difficulties. Bonnie Horne says, “I don’t see how anyone can survive in total isolation. And the struggle for many people as they age is maintaining social connections. And that’s the saddest thing – that you can get to the latter part of your life and be depressed.” Rosalie Williams comments, “It’s a very interesting situation, this being old…and how difficult it is to deal with a lot of the issues that come up health-wise, mentally wise, and how to motivate oneself. All of that, it makes you really appreciate in a sense all what you have and all what you’ve done in the past – you get a greater appreciation of life.”
Te Ārai Palliative Care and End-of-Life Research Group prioritises equity issues in their research. Co-Director Merryn Gott was motivated to use a partnership approach with Māori when she moved from the United Kingdom to New Zealand 14 years ago. She reached out to Co-Director Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell to collaborate, and she has been learning from Māori colleagues and the Te Ārai Kahui Kaumātua ever since. In December 2023 they celebrated 10 years of Te Ārai. From the beginning, they’ve used arts-based knowledge translation to get messages across, partnering with artists from other faculties. Many of their visual resources can be found on their website.
“Manawaroa” has been well-received at Gerontology conferences in New Zealand and Australia. It has become a resource for volunteers at Age Concern and is being used to promote discussion about intergenerational social connection among nursing and health science students. After watching the film, students agreed that promoting intergenerational connection is important, that we all have a part to play in it, and that there are mutual benefits to engaging in it. Young people can learn cultural wisdom and family history and older people enjoy being stimulated by new knowledge from the younger ones.
For Merryn and Lisa, an important thread that runs throughout their work is that of honouring people’s stories, so, another sign of success has been the appreciation from participants and families. Rosalie has passed away since the filmmaking and her part was shown at her funeral. Lisa says, “that shows we’ve portrayed the lives of these individuals in a meaningful way.”
The making of “Manawaroa” is a microcosm of the kind of connections that society itself could benefit from – young and old working together to understand each other and coming out stronger because of the knowledge and experiences they have shared.
RESEARCHERS:
Professor Merryn Gott
Dr Lisa Williams
Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell
Associate Professor Janine Wiles
Tessa Morgan
Associate Professor Shuchi Kothari
Associate Professor Sarina Pearson
Craig Gainsborough
Dr Lovely Dizon
Peter Simpson