A Community Approach to Palliative Care: Embracing Indigenous Concepts and Practices in a Hospice Setting

This article documents a community approach to palliative care that took place in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand in 2010. It is based on a case study of a 24-year old woman of Māori and Samoan heritage. While the hospice organization that coordinated the care under discussion ordinarily engages a wide range of social work, medical, nursing, and family services, in this case a broader and participatory level of community engagement was brought to bear on the process of death and dying. In particular, the Māori concept and practice of whanaungatanga—or relational belonging though kinship, shared experience, and/or work—was taken up actively. Implications for ecosystems theory, and for engaging minority cultural groups in processes of palliative care internationally, are considered