THE HEALER AND THE PSYCHIATRIST successfully presents two sides of the same coin, in traditional medicine and modern medicine. Both approach the same outcome of healing. Pacific researchers practice “talanoa,” an established format for generating discussion about complex topics used throughout the Pacific. Director Mike Poltorak, a lecturer at the University of Kent in Social Anthropology, has crafted a beautiful and empathic film, full of thought, humanity and discovery.
Anderson Le– Hawaii International Film Festival 2020
This is going to be a valuable resource for mental health here in New Zealand and in Tonga. The reason being the Government has finally agreed that healing ought to happen, or the system, closer to the community. What really touched someone from the front line perspective, is how you had culture, community and clinical knowledge come together and connected up but also the story itself reminded me when the system fails it costs lives. This is something for us to be mindful of.
Pauline Taufa -Clinical Psychologist
The questions and issues that you raise in this film are so needed to be talked about and so interesting. I have so many more questions I want to ask you from watching this film. That is an indication of how successful it is because people want to know more and they want to have more discussion. And that is the key, creating more discussion.
Vea Mafile’o -Film Director (For My Father’s Kingdom)-Artist
The strength of this project is that there are a huge number of relationships that have contributed to this film. That is key for a documentary of this nature, especially when you are coming from the outside.
Paul Janman- Film Director (Tongan Ark)
There is a dire need for the two ways of healing the so called scientific medicine and the Tongan medicine to converse a lot more than what has already been happening . What came across to us viewers of this most beautiful film is there is less talanoa and there needs to be a lot more conversation. We are dealing with different way of dealing with one and the same reality, not two different realities and we need to have more talanoa.
Hufanga He Ako moe Lotu Dr ‘Okusitino Mahina-Professor of Tongan Philosophy, Anthropology and Art- Vava’u Academy for Critical Inquiry and Applied Research, Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga.
It was mafana [inwardly moving or exhilarating] and a little disturbing at the same time for me. That Tongan paradox. There is this line from Margaret Southwick’s study, ‘when you have disconnected discourses it is disconnected outcomes for that person’. The more that the two knowledge systems that understand the same symptoms so differently can integrate, then those of us who have those symptoms and go through both systems, will be much more likely to have healing. [the film] It’s beautiful, really beautiful.
Dr Karlo Mila -New Zealand Poet & Sociologist
One of the things that really moved me personally is how you are able to tell the story of Emeline the traditional healer so that everyone knows the effectiveness of these people. But what is more touching is the challenges we have in the Western paradigm. Dr Mapa Puloka, Dr Alani, the frustrations that we have. They have the knowledge of both worlds, yet, they are being restricted within the biomedical model. When you see Emeline and her freedom to go around and meet people in that setting and Mapa and Alani know that but are restricted.
Dr Sione Vaka-Senior Lecturer-AUT
So full of thought, humanity and discovery. And what beautiful and compelling people. So evident that they trust and love you.
You have made a very important film Mike, a labor of love, a gift for the Tongan people you know and care about deeply. I found the journey you take the viewer on to be fascinating, if not riveting, and the content authentic and imbued with tender loving care. The people you feature in your film are generous and giving, of their time and their knowledge, and they obviously care very much about your efforts to tell their story your way. They trust you, and you have not let them down. I like very much your personal voice in the film, explaining your reasons for making the film, and your hopes for collaboration between healers and psychiatrists not just in Tonga, but also in many other parts of the Pacific and beyond. Your film took me back to Rotuma when I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, and similar beliefs my own people had then, and probably today still, that need better understanding and illumination. You shine a spotlight on matters of life and death, a concern all humans share in common. Most importantly, you were able to reciprocate the Tongan people’s love and care for you in such a meaningful and generous manner. Congratulations!
Professor Vilsoni Hereniko Academy of Creative Media, University of Hawai’i. You can read Professor Hereniko’s Authenticity in Cinema: Notes from the Pacific Islands here.
The Healer and the Psychiatrist is a very moving and intense documentary that speaks to the value of ethnographic research over a long period of time. It explores the value and limitations of Tongan indigenous and Western medicine. The traditional healer, Emeline Lolohea, may have access to nature’s abundance and the richness of spiritual knowledge but her husband Tevita’s tragic illness speaks to the need for better access to biomedicine. Dr Mapa Puloka combines psychiatry and what is valued in Tongan culture, but how much does the continuity of his novel practice and healing depend on his individual efforts? This insightful and sensitive ethnographic documentary asks us to consider how the treatment of illness and wellness can be ‘decolonised’ even in a country that was never colonised.
Associate Professor Jacquie Leckie -Victoria University of Wellington, NZ & University of Newcastle, Australia. Author of Colonizing Madness.
The Healer and the Psychiatrist offers a glimpse into the intimate daily work of healing. It shows the ways that caring for others can be onerous and enlivening for healers from across traditions. Whether those healers are using ethnomedicine, engaging psychodynamic theory or delivering people from spirits, healers are unrelenting in the face of widespread chronic sicknesses that must be managed through insufficient healthcare systems. The film also offers the best of ethnography by showing the audience the intimacy of healing through the lens of a fieldworker with obviously loving and longterm ties to the community. Ultimately, the film shows what anthropology does best – the seamless intervening of bodies of knowledge and practice thought to be distinct but are in fact interstitial, which of course should inform clinical practices and health interventions.
Dr Jessica Hardin-Rochester Institute of Technology. Author of Faith and the Pursuit of Health: Cardiometabolic Disorders in Samoa. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2019.
So the first thing that struck me is that, it’s what I would call the pragmatism of the people on the ground. So it’s not traditional spirituality versus Christianity but people use both. It’s not traditional healing or modern medicine or modern psychiatry which we often see as diametrical opposites but people use concepts and methods in a very pragmatic way. We could see that very clearly in the movie. And sometimes that may seem inconsistent from an outsider on a conceptual level but you could see actually how people very pragmatically use different ways in ways that they seem that they think it may be beneficial to them.
Dr Peter Ventevogel UNHCR Senior Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Specialist
Read Peter Ventevogel’s full comments here.
Potolahi Productions 