Southwick, Dr Margaret
- Jocelyn Peach
- Aug 4, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 6
Registered Nurse, Bachelor of Arts, doctorate [PhD] in Nursing at Victoria University of Wellington
Vaka Atafaga Pacific Nursing Service. Nursing Adviser, Aniva Future Leaders Programme
Dr Southwick was born in Suva, Fiji, in 1943 of Tuvaluan/Palagi descent. Her mother was from Tuvalu and had moved to Fiji to Train as a nurse. Her father was a New Zealander, posted to the Pacific during the war.
Margaret Southwick (nee McKenzie) moved to New Zealand in 1944. Margaret attended Auckland Girls Grammar School until she attained her School Certificate, after which her mother insisted that she leave school and begin working. Margaret says she followed her friends into nursing having little idea of what to expect. She began nurse training in 1961, initially attending the three-month preliminary training with eighty other students at Green Lane Hospital. She describes Prelim School.
Margaret’s family relocated to Timaru in 1962. She transferred her training to Timaru Hospital. Graduating in 1964, Margaret stayed on a Timaru Hospital as a staff nurse, and later a staff sister. After two years of working Margaret travelled to London in 1967 and worked in a hospital that was severely short staffed. She worked at Moorefields Eye Hospital.
Returning to New Zealand in 1969, Margaret became a public health nurse within the Newlands-to-Linden area, Wellington and Porirua. Margaret worked closely with Maori and Pacific Island communities, working with families and developing whole community approaches to healthcare.
Married in Britain, she had two children between 1971 and 1973. Margaret worked part time at Russell Kemp Rest Home in Wellington, completing a Bachelor of Arts at Victoria University of Wellington in Anthropology and Sociology. She completed her BA in 1985 and joined the new School of Nursing at Whitireia Community Polytechnic in Porirua as the foundation team. She worked to improve accessibility of nurse training for Māori and Pacific Island students. Margaret became Head of Nursing and Health Studies at Whitireia in 1994 and later was Head of School of Pacific Health Education (2001-3) and Dean of the Health Faculty (2004-11), after working as a senior lecturer at Victoria University in Wellington. Whitireia Polytechnic was established to meet the needs of Māori and Pacific Island students by incorporating language and a framework of cultural safety into its programme.
She completed a doctorate [PhD] in Nursing at Victoria University of Wellington in 2001 while leading the Whitireia's Pacific Health Research Centre as director also teaching Victoria University's postgraduate masters programme. Her thesis was titled “Pacific Women’s Stories of Becoming a Nurse in New Zealand: a Radical Hermaneutic Reconstruction of Marginality”. Her advice has been requested in many committees for the Ministry of Health and other organisations. Between 2009 and 2013 Margaret was the chairperson of the Nursing Council of New Zealand.
In 2009 Dr Margaret Southwick was awarded the Queens Service Medal for her contribution as a pioneer of development and change at Whitireia Community Polytechnic but is a role model in the Porirua Community.
Dr Margaret Southwick retired from nursing in 2013.
Dr Margaret Southwick has been a trustee of the Maninoa Community Trust which provides Mental Health Care for Porirua people and has been an advisor to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education on Pacific Health issues. She has been a Nursing Adviser to the Aniva Future Leaders Programme.
She has led a nursing team of highly qualified, registered nurses who now form Vaka Atafaga Pacific Nursing Service, have been serving the community in Porirua for decades. Their mission to work in partnership with fanau to achieve positive health outcomes by delivering services within a client’s home.
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