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Self‐determination and dignity are guaranteed rights for disabled persons under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, such rights have been slow to eventuate for Māori (Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand). This paper brings together systematic fashion publications that currently exist regarding blindness and Māori, centring throughout Māori understandings of disability and blindness. We employed a structured approach alongside PRISMA protocols and reflexive dialogue. Included publications were quantitative data reviews, surveys, qualitative studies, literature reviews and works of fiction. For our analysis, we formulated a matrix that drew from Kaupapa Māori, applied community psychology and disability rights literature. This meant we made explicit where research practices included—and excluded—self‐determination, democratic participation and inclusion of both disabled and Māori. Our review highlights inconsistency across disciplines regarding self‐determination and democratic participation by both Māori and disabled key stakeholders. Our approach can be utilised across disciplines as a tool for considering the ways in which researchers uphold Indigenous self‐determination, disability rights and data sovereignty. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counselling psychology in New Zealand has a relatively brief history, one that has been characterized by a struggle to establish a clear identity and muster widespread support both within the profession and with the public. From its inception it has had to compete with other disciplines in psychology: clinical, educational, community, and industrial. It has had to withstand indifference and, at times, opposition. Nevertheless, a Division of Counselling Psychology has maintained a presence within the New Zealand Psychological Society since 1985 and there are recent signs of renewed vigour and commitment to developing the specialization as a valuable alternative psychological service. This paper describes the struggle endured by counselling psychology and outlines the current challenges facing counselling psychology and psychologists in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-based, culturally relevant assessment constitutes a major function of applied psychology in New Zealand's bicultural society and wherever psychologists work. Yet what is termed assessment in psychology takes many forms, and it intersects with everyday life and culture in a number of ways. This position paper considers some of these issues, stressing the importance of unpacking the assessment process in the light of culture and lived experience, and then advocates a framework that promotes the blending clinical and cultural knowledge within the process of psychological assessment. The framework is offered as an example of how culture may intersect with psychological assessment where practice or research involves Māori individuals and families, but can be generalised to other cultural settings and situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the formal history of community psychology in both Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand has clear links with its history elsewhere, particularly in the United States, the subdiscipline has developed localised foci and forms of practice reflecting the cultural, political and historical underpinnings of these two countries. The climates within which community psychology emerged in the 1970s were distinctly local, resonating with debates around decolonisation and political realignment within the Asia Pacific region. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the separate developments of community psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and identify some shared concerns and achievements. At the core of community psychology in both countries are the emphasis on contextualised understandings of human behaviour and the primacy of social justice. In the future it seems likely that community psychology will develop close links with other emerging social science disciplines that espouse similar values and world views, and that community psychologists will consolidate networks with colleagues in Africa and the Asia Pacific, enabling a wider exchange of ideas and an expansion in the shared understandings of what characterises community psychology in the southern hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community psychology in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand reflect interesting parallels and convergences. While both have a strong educational basis influenced by North American publications, they have developed foci and forms of practice reflecting the cultural, political, and historic underpinnings of these two countries. In New Zealand, community psychology developed from academic researchers and teachers moulding and adapting approaches to suit the needs of their local communities. In Australia, two processes of practitioners establishing a professional home and academics developing a field of education have come together to form the basis of the field. At the core of community psychology in both countries is the place of social justice—with a strong emphasis on the position and plight of the Indigenous peoples. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]