title: Pūrākau, death, and assisted dying: A Māori framework for understanding end-of-life

authors: Karaka-Clarke, Te Hurinui

subjects: Pūrākau, Assisted Dying, Tikanga Māori, Mōair Cosmology, End of Life: Ethics, Mana Motuhake, Wairua, Whakapapa, Relational Autonomy

abstract: This conceptual article addresses several critical gaps in health literature by exploring the ethical, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of assisted dying through the lens of Tikanga Māori and pūrākau (ancestral narratives).  While existing end-of-life policy frameworks often prioritize Western bioethical principles, this article argues for the inclusion of Kaupapa Māori principles such as whakapapa, wairua, mana motuhake, and tapu/ noa as essential components of culturally resonant care.    Drawing upon foundational narratives including the separation of  Ranginui and Papatūānuku, the creation of Hineahuone, the transformation of Hinetītama into Hinenuitepō, and the fatal attempt of Māui to conquer death, we position pūrākau as dynamic ethical texts that guide decision-making.  This article contributes to Indigenous health discourse by offering a whānau-centred, tikanga-informed critique of the End-of-Life Choice Act 2019 and calls for broader recognition of spiritual and relational dimensions in end-of-life care.   We contend that, when under-taken with whānau engagement, spiritual awareness, and cultural integrity, may be ethically compatible with tikanga Māori

text: Pūrākau, death, and assisted dying: A Māori framework for understanding end-of-life This conceptual article addresses several critical gaps in health literature by exploring the ethical, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of assisted dying through the lens of Tikanga Māori and pūrākau (ancestral narratives).  While existing end-of-life policy frameworks often prioritize Western bioethical principles, this article argues for the inclusion of Kaupapa Māori principles such as whakapapa, wairua, mana motuhake, and tapu/ noa as essential components of culturally resonant care.    Drawing upon foundational narratives including the separation of  Ranginui and Papatūānuku, the creation of Hineahuone, the transformation of Hinetītama into Hinenuitepō, and the fatal attempt of Māui to conquer death, we position pūrākau as dynamic ethical texts that guide decision-making.  This article contributes to Indigenous health discourse by offering a whānau-centred, tikanga-informed critique of the End-of-Life Choice Act 2019 and calls for broader recognition of spiritual and relational dimensions in end-of-life care.   We contend that, when under-taken with whānau engagement, spiritual awareness, and cultural integrity, may be ethically compatible with tikanga Māori

year: 2025-09-24

title: Challenges Faced – Implications for Policy: The Everyday Lives of Eastern European Women in New Zealand

authors: Ember, Adrienna

subjects: everyday life

abstract: This study explored the everyday lives, aspirations, and coping strategies of seven Eastern European immigrant women in New Zealand who came from Bulgaria, the former Eastern Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia. The answers to the research questions aimed to contribute to the deconstruction of the invisibility and marginalisation of these women in New Zealand.
Guided by the philosophies of Kaupapa Māori Research; the theory of Human Wellbeing; and the theory of Positive Psychology, and using the methods of narrative inquiry, three interviews were conducted with each participant. The focus of the first interviews was to learn about the everyday lives of research participants in their countries of origin. The second interview explored the reasons of relocation to New Zealand, the settlement process, and how women re-established their lives in their new locations. In the final interviews women talked about their current everyday lives and their plans for the future.
Interviews were recorded and summarised in interview summary reports which research participants modified in collaboration with the researcher until a final version was achieved. In addition, women participated in two focus group sessions. The first session was devoted to establish connections among the participants and allow themes to emerge from their conversations. The second group session aimed to explore areas women struggled with in their lives the most: relationships and employment opportunities.
The study yielded contributions to the research topic, to the acculturation literature, and to the design of research with migrants. Firstly, it revealed both negative and positive aspects of the participants’ everyday lives and highlighted some under-researched cultural differences from the mainstream population.
Women highlighted as an important cultural difference their strong preference for straightforward communication which was often experienced as offensive and blatant by local New Zealanders. Research participants critiqued the necessity of networking to obtain jobs in New Zealand which is a clear obstacle for a newly arrived migrant.
This study also highlighted how the acculturation process is more individual and complex than conventional models have sought to explain. While traditional acculturation literature suggests that migrants go through some common patterns during their settlement that ideally leads to their assimilation to the host culture, in this research not all migrant women intended to assimilate. Indeed, those with a stronger wish to become part of the host culture reported more disappointments than those who embraced their cultural otherness as a positive aspect and did not mind reminding different from the dominant Pakeha culture.
Finally, for migrant studies a less common research design was applied by using the Kaupapa Māori framework. This philosophy proposes a research process that empowers immigrants to voice their needs and strengthen them as agents of their lives beyond the research process. While two strength based theories were used for data interpretation (the 3-D model of the Human Wellbeing Theory and the PERMA model of Positive Psychology), the data analysis revealed that both models showed some limitations by failing to incorporate the dimension of spiritual and physical wellbeing within their domains.

text: Challenges Faced – Implications for Policy: The Everyday Lives of Eastern European Women in New Zealand This study explored the everyday lives, aspirations, and coping strategies of seven Eastern European immigrant women in New Zealand who came from Bulgaria, the former Eastern Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia. The answers to the research questions aimed to contribute to the deconstruction of the invisibility and marginalisation of these women in New Zealand.
Guided by the philosophies of Kaupapa Māori Research; the theory of Human Wellbeing; and the theory of Positive Psychology, and using the methods of narrative inquiry, three interviews were conducted with each participant. The focus of the first interviews was to learn about the everyday lives of research participants in their countries of origin. The second interview explored the reasons of relocation to New Zealand, the settlement process, and how women re-established their lives in their new locations. In the final interviews women talked about their current everyday lives and their plans for the future.
Interviews were recorded and summarised in interview summary reports which research participants modified in collaboration with the researcher until a final version was achieved. In addition, women participated in two focus group sessions. The first session was devoted to establish connections among the participants and allow themes to emerge from their conversations. The second group session aimed to explore areas women struggled with in their lives the most: relationships and employment opportunities.
The study yielded contributions to the research topic, to the acculturation literature, and to the design of research with migrants. Firstly, it revealed both negative and positive aspects of the participants’ everyday lives and highlighted some under-researched cultural differences from the mainstream population.
Women highlighted as an important cultural difference their strong preference for straightforward communication which was often experienced as offensive and blatant by local New Zealanders. Research participants critiqued the necessity of networking to obtain jobs in New Zealand which is a clear obstacle for a newly arrived migrant.
This study also highlighted how the acculturation process is more individual and complex than conventional models have sought to explain. While traditional acculturation literature suggests that migrants go through some common patterns during their settlement that ideally leads to their assimilation to the host culture, in this research not all migrant women intended to assimilate. Indeed, those with a stronger wish to become part of the host culture reported more disappointments than those who embraced their cultural otherness as a positive aspect and did not mind reminding different from the dominant Pakeha culture.
Finally, for migrant studies a less common research design was applied by using the Kaupapa Māori framework. This philosophy proposes a research process that empowers immigrants to voice their needs and strengthen them as agents of their lives beyond the research process. While two strength based theories were used for data interpretation (the 3-D model of the Human Wellbeing Theory and the PERMA model of Positive Psychology), the data analysis revealed that both models showed some limitations by failing to incorporate the dimension of spiritual and physical wellbeing within their domains.

year: 2016

title: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Selected Local Labour Market Outcomes in New Zealand

authors: Cochrane, William

abstract: This thesis analyses several aspects of local labour market performance in New Zealand. Each of these aspects represents a different feature of the local labour market that together aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of how local labour markets respond to local or external shocks, taking spatial dependencies into account. The first aspect considered is the change in regional employment outcomes in New Zealand from the 1980’s to 2006. This is examined using shiftshare techniques supplemented by exploratory spatial data analysis. The analysis finds that in general, region specific factors were more important than industry structure in explaining total employment change in a region and that productivity and/or demand shocks spill over between regions. The relationship between homeownership and unemployment is the second aspect considered. Particularly, Oswald has argued that disparities in unemployment rates maybe attributable to differences in homeownership rates, higher homeownership rates being associated with higher unemployment rates. Using spatial panel models this claim is supported in the New Zealand context. The spatial estimation strategy adopted yields parameter estimates significantly lower than the standard fixed effects model. This indicates that in the non-spatial models some of the variation in regional unemployment rates has been incorrectly attributed to the explanatory variables rather than to the presence of some spatial spillover effects of unemployment across regions. Thirdly, the thesis investigates the extent to which the spatial-temporal variation in local labour market outcomes and social security benefit uptake can be linked to the composition of the local labour force. This is investigated using spatial seemingly unrelated regression. The results indicate that three factors in particular matter in the determination of labour market participation and social security benefit uptake: the age structure of the population, the past performance of the regional labour market and the proportion of solo parents. Lastly a simultaneous equations growth model of real income, population, land rent and public infrastructure investment is developed that allows the impact of local authority infrastructure spending in New Zealand to be assessed for the 1996-2006 period. The results of the estimation of this system of equations, using a spatial three stage least squares (3SLS) procedure, show that an increase in local infrastructure spending increases population growth, real income and land values, but is itself endogenous and spatially correlated.

text: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Selected Local Labour Market Outcomes in New Zealand This thesis analyses several aspects of local labour market performance in New Zealand. Each of these aspects represents a different feature of the local labour market that together aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of how local labour markets respond to local or external shocks, taking spatial dependencies into account. The first aspect considered is the change in regional employment outcomes in New Zealand from the 1980’s to 2006. This is examined using shiftshare techniques supplemented by exploratory spatial data analysis. The analysis finds that in general, region specific factors were more important than industry structure in explaining total employment change in a region and that productivity and/or demand shocks spill over between regions. The relationship between homeownership and unemployment is the second aspect considered. Particularly, Oswald has argued that disparities in unemployment rates maybe attributable to differences in homeownership rates, higher homeownership rates being associated with higher unemployment rates. Using spatial panel models this claim is supported in the New Zealand context. The spatial estimation strategy adopted yields parameter estimates significantly lower than the standard fixed effects model. This indicates that in the non-spatial models some of the variation in regional unemployment rates has been incorrectly attributed to the explanatory variables rather than to the presence of some spatial spillover effects of unemployment across regions. Thirdly, the thesis investigates the extent to which the spatial-temporal variation in local labour market outcomes and social security benefit uptake can be linked to the composition of the local labour force. This is investigated using spatial seemingly unrelated regression. The results indicate that three factors in particular matter in the determination of labour market participation and social security benefit uptake: the age structure of the population, the past performance of the regional labour market and the proportion of solo parents. Lastly a simultaneous equations growth model of real income, population, land rent and public infrastructure investment is developed that allows the impact of local authority infrastructure spending in New Zealand to be assessed for the 1996-2006 period. The results of the estimation of this system of equations, using a spatial three stage least squares (3SLS) procedure, show that an increase in local infrastructure spending increases population growth, real income and land values, but is itself endogenous and spatially correlated.

year: 2011