Tess Moeke Maxwell, University of Auckland
Dr Amohia Boulton
This three-year, HRC-funded study is investigating the traditional end-of-life Māori care customs that whānau draw on to strengthen their end-of-life caregiving activities and support palliative care service provision. The research is hosted by the Te Ārai Palliative Care and End of Life Research Group at the University of Auckland, where Principal Investigator Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell (Ngāi Tai, Ngāti Porou) is based. She is supported by Te Ārai’s Kaumatua Roopu, led by Rawiri Wharemate (Ngātiwai, Ngāti Moerewa, Ngā Puhi). The research team brought together for the study include academics from the University of Auckland such as Professors Linda Nikora and Merryn Gott, Dr Amohia Boulton from Whakauae, health professionals such as Dr Keri Ratima, representatives from hospice, as well as other research assistants and students.
The research seeks to identify the barriers and facilitators Māori experience in using traditional care customs within different care settings (home, hospice, hospital and aged residential care). A number of resources will be developed to share information about care customs with diverse Māori whānau, their communities and the palliative care sector. Planned resources include digital stories; an online educational resource; information on cultural care customs; helpful palliative care information; as well as peer reviewed articles.
The research team met with members of the Te Pae Herenga researcher communities in August at Waipapa Marae at the University of Auckland and we had our last meeting for the year as a research team in October. So far, the research team have collected over 60 stories from whānau around Aotearoa - from Northland, to Hawkes Bay, Whanganui and Wellington. Many of these interviews have been turned into digital stories. These digital stories will be made available to the wider public launch of Pae Herenga on 31 July 2020. At the launch the Te Pae Herenga website will also go live, and the public will be able to access the many resources resulting for the study. Research team members will meet again in February 2020 to discuss and advance the analysis framework for the study’s publications. We will also start scoping out and writing the various papers emerging from this project.
