"Before it is too late": Life, death, street performance and homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand
Keywords:
Performance ethnography; performance text; indigenous homelessness; politics of life; premature mortality prevention
Abstract
This article examines the creation of ‘Before It Is Too Late’, a collaborative performance project created with the Peeps- short for Peoples- living on the streets of Aotearoa, New Zealand, who identify as Māori (Indigenous New Zealanders). The Peeps face profound, persistent, unjust inequalities, inequitable mortality rates, and devaluation of their lives by the wider community. The performance project is centred on the Peeps’ perspectives and is informed by whanonga pono (Māori values) and tikanga (customs), the principles of community-based research, relational ethics, and critical performance ethnography. The project aims to initiate a conversation with health professionals to improve the quality of care provided and to ensure greater respect and dignity in relation to the death of Māori homeless people. We present the drama Before It Is Too Late that has resulted from this collaboration with the Peeps to open a transformative space for their voices, experiences, priorities, and rights to be heard and acknowledged.
References
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Jagpal, P., Barnes, N., Lowrie, R., Banerjee, A., & Paudyal, V. (2019). Clinical Pharmacy Intervention for Persons Experiencing Homelessness: evaluation of Patient Perspectives in Service Design and Development. Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland), 7(4), 153. hpps://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7040153
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Madison, D.S. (2020). Critical ethnography : method, ethics, and performance (3rd Ed.). Sage Publications
Magnat, V. (2012). Can research become ceremony? Performance ethnography and indigenous epistemologies. Canadian Theatre Review, 151 (1), 30-36. hpps://doi.org/10.1353/ctr.2012.0058
Magnat, V. (2016). Decolonizing Performance Research. Etudes anglaises, 69(2), 135-148. https://doi.org/10.3917/etan.692.0135
Mead, H. (2016). Tikanga Māori: Living By Māori Values. Huia (NZ) Ltd.
Meyer, A. M. (2008). Indigenous and authentic: Hawaiian epistemology and the triangulation of meaning. In N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 217-233). Sage Publications.
Mienczakowski, J., & Moore, T. (2008). Performing data with notions of responsibility. In J. Gary Knowles & A.L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp.451-458). Sage Publications.
Moeke-Maxwell, T., Mason, K., Toohey, F., Wharemate, R., & Gott, M. (2019). He taonga tuku iho: Indigenous End of Life and Death Care Customs of New Zealand Māori (pp. 295-316). In H. Selin & R.M. Rakoff (Eds.), Death across cultures: Death and dying in non-Western cultures (vol.9). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18826-9
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Papps, E., & Ramsden, I. (1996). Cultural Safety in Nursing: the New Zealand Experience. International journal for quality in health care, 8(5), 491-497. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.491
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Sandelowski, M., Trimble, F., Woodard, E.K., & Barroso, J. (2006). From synthesis to script: transforming qualitative research findings for use in practice. Qualitative Health Research, 16 (10), 1350-1370. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1049732306294274
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Smith, L.T (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. (2nd Ed.). Otago University Press; Zed Books.
Stajduhar, K. I., Giesbrecht, M., Mollison, A., & d'Archangelo, M. (2020). “Everybody in this community is at risk of dying”: an ethnographic exploration on the potential of integrating a palliative approach to care among workers in inner-city settings. Palliative & supportive care, 18(6), 670-675. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1478951520000280
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Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony : indigenous research methods. Fernwood Pub.
Wirihana, R., & Smith, C. (2014). Historical trauma, healing and well-being in Māori communities. MAI journal, 3(3), 197-210.
Amore, K., Viggers, H., & Chapman, P.H. (2021). Severe housing deprivation in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2018. Housing and health research programme, University of Otago, Wellington.
Archibald, M. M., Caine, V., & Scott, S. D. (2014). The Development of a Classification Schema for Arts-Based Approaches to Knowledge Translation: Arts-Based Knowledge Translation. Worldviews on evidence-based nursing, 11(5), 316-324.https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12053
Aristotle, & Butcher, S. H. (2001). Poetics.(Butcher, Trans.). Infomotions, Inc.
Berlant, L. (2007). Slow Death, Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency. Critical inquiry, 33(4), 754-780. https://doi.org/10.1086/521568
Bourgeois, P. (1998). The moral economics of homeless heroin addicts: Confronting ethnography, HIV risk, and everyday violence in San Francisco shooting encampments. Substance Use & Misuse, 33(11), 2323-2351. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826089809056260
Boydell, K. M., Gladstone, B.., Volpe, T., Allemang, B., & Stasiulus, E. (2012). The production and dissemination of knowledge: A scoping review of arts-based health research. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.1.1711
Charon, R. (2016). The Shock of Attention. Enthymema (Milano), 16(16), 6-17. https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/7437
Charvin-Fabre, S., Stolte, O., & Lawrenson, R. (2020). Amenable mortality within the New Zealand homeless population: We can do better. New Zealand Medical Journal, 133 (1527), 26-38.
Conquergood, D. (1988). Health theatre in a Hmong refugee camp: performance, communication, and culture. TDR : Drama review, 32(3), 174-208.
Conquergood, D. (1991). Rethinking ethnography: towards a critical cultural politics. Communication monographs, 58 (2), 179-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759109376222
Conquergood, D. (2002). Performance studies, interventions and radical research. The Drama review, 46(2), 145-156. https://doi.org/10.1162/105420402320980550
Crampton, P. (2019). The ongoing evolution of capitation funding for primary care :the December 2018 PHO capitation funding changes for Community Services Card holders. New Zealand medical journal, 132(1498), 69-78.
de Veer, A. J. E., Stringer, B., van Meijel, B., Verkaik, R., & Francke, A. L. (2018). Access to palliative care for homeless people: complex lives, complex care. BMC Palliat Care, 17(1), 119-119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-018-0368-3
Denzin, N.K. (2003). Performance ethnography, critical pedagogy and the politics of culture. SAGE Publications.
Durie, M. H. (1985). A Māori perspective of health. Social Science & Medicine, 20(5), 483–486. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(85)90363-6
Fassin, D. (2009). Another Politics of Life is Possible. Theory, culture & society, 26(5), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409106349
Fassin, D. (2012). Medical anthropology at the intersections: histories, activisms, and futures. In M. Inhorn & E. Wentzell (Eds.), Medical anthropology at the intersections : histories, activisms, and futures. Duke University Press.
Fernandez-Kelly, P. (2015). The Hero's Fight: African Americans in West Baltimore and the Shadow of the State. Princeton University Press. hpps://doi.org/10.1515/9781400883561
Foley, J. (2018). Social equity and primary healthcare financing: lessons from New Zealand. Australian journal of primary health, 24(4), 299. hpps://doi.org/10.1071/PY17153
Gray, J & Sinding, C. (2002). Standing ovation: performing social science research about cancer. AltaMira Press.
Groot, S. A. M., & Peters, E. J. (2016). Indigenous homelessness: New Zealand context. In P. Andrew, T. Aubry, Y. Belanger, C. Bird, E. J. Peters, & J. Christensen (Eds.), Indigenous Homelessness: perspectives from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (pp. 323-330). Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
Hart, J. T. (1971). The inverse care law. The Lancet (British edition), 1(7696), 405-412.
Hodgetts, D., Rua, M., Groot, S., Hopner, V., Drew, N., King, P., & Blake, D. (2021). Relational ethics meets principled practice in community research engagements to understand and address homelessness. Journal of community psychology,.1-13. hpps://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22586
Hudson, B., Flemming, K., Shulman, C., & Candy, B. (2016). Challenges to access and provision of palliative care for people who are homeless: a systematic review of qualitative research. BMC palliative care, 15(1), 96. hpps://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-016-0168-6
Hwang, S. W., Jim O'Connell, J., Lebow, J. M., & Bierer, M. F. (2001). Health care utilization among homeless adults prior to death. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 12(1), 50-58. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2010.0595
Jagpal, P., Barnes, N., Lowrie, R., Banerjee, A., & Paudyal, V. (2019). Clinical Pharmacy Intervention for Persons Experiencing Homelessness: evaluation of Patient Perspectives in Service Design and Development. Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland), 7(4), 153. hpps://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7040153
Jones, A., & Jenkins, K. (2008). Rethinking collaboration: working the indigene-colonizer hyphen. In N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 471-486). Sage Publications.
Kontos, P. C., & Poland, B. D. (2009). Mapping new theoretical and methodological terrain for knowledge translation: contributions from critical realism and the arts. Implementation science : IS, 4(1), 1-1. hpps://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-1
Madison, D.S. (2020). Critical ethnography : method, ethics, and performance (3rd Ed.). Sage Publications
Magnat, V. (2012). Can research become ceremony? Performance ethnography and indigenous epistemologies. Canadian Theatre Review, 151 (1), 30-36. hpps://doi.org/10.1353/ctr.2012.0058
Magnat, V. (2016). Decolonizing Performance Research. Etudes anglaises, 69(2), 135-148. https://doi.org/10.3917/etan.692.0135
Mead, H. (2016). Tikanga Māori: Living By Māori Values. Huia (NZ) Ltd.
Meyer, A. M. (2008). Indigenous and authentic: Hawaiian epistemology and the triangulation of meaning. In N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln, & L. T. Smith (Eds.), Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies (pp. 217-233). Sage Publications.
Mienczakowski, J., & Moore, T. (2008). Performing data with notions of responsibility. In J. Gary Knowles & A.L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp.451-458). Sage Publications.
Moeke-Maxwell, T., Mason, K., Toohey, F., Wharemate, R., & Gott, M. (2019). He taonga tuku iho: Indigenous End of Life and Death Care Customs of New Zealand Māori (pp. 295-316). In H. Selin & R.M. Rakoff (Eds.), Death across cultures: Death and dying in non-Western cultures (vol.9). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18826-9
New Zealand Government. (2019). Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan 2020-2023. Wellington, New Zealand. https://www.hud.gvt.nz/our-work/aotaroa-new-zealand-homelessness-action-plan-2020-2023/
Nikora, L. W., Masters-Awatere, B., & Te Awekotuku, N. (2012). Final arrangements following death: Māori indigenous decision making and tangi. Journal of Community and Applied social psychology, 22, 400-413. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2112
Papps, E., & Ramsden, I. (1996). Cultural Safety in Nursing: the New Zealand Experience. International journal for quality in health care, 8(5), 491-497. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.491
Podymow, T., Turnbull, J., & Coyle, D. (2006). Shelter-based palliative care for the homeless terminally ill. Palliative medicine, 20(2), 81-86. https://doi.org/10.1191/0269216306pm1103oa
Rossiter, K. (2012). Bearing Response-Ability: Theater, Ethics and Medical Education. J Med Humanit, 33, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-011-9162-4
Rossiter, K., & Godderis, R. (2011). Finding the necessary distance: theorizing ethnographic research-based theatre. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 40 (6), 652-681. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241611418970
Saldana, J. (2003). Dramatizing data: a primer. Qualitative inquiry, 9 (2), 218-236.
Sandelowski, M., Trimble, F., Woodard, E.K., & Barroso, J. (2006). From synthesis to script: transforming qualitative research findings for use in practice. Qualitative Health Research, 16 (10), 1350-1370. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1049732306294274
Scott, J. C. (1990). Domination and the arts of resistance : hidden transcripts. Yale University Press.
Shulman, C., Hudson, B. F., Low, J., Hewett, N., Daley, J., Kennedy, P., Davis, S., Brophy, N., Howard, D., Vivat, B., & Stone, P. (2018). End-of-life care for homeless people: a qualitative analysis exploring the challenges to access and provision of palliative care. Palliative medicine, 32(1), 36-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269216317717101
Siersbaek, R., Ford, J., Burke, S., Cliona Ni, C., & Thomas, S. (2021). Contexts and mechanisms that promote access to healthcare for populations experiencing homelessness: a realist review. BMJ Open, 11 (4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043091
Smith, L.T (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. (2nd Ed.). Otago University Press; Zed Books.
Stajduhar, K. I., Giesbrecht, M., Mollison, A., & d'Archangelo, M. (2020). “Everybody in this community is at risk of dying”: an ethnographic exploration on the potential of integrating a palliative approach to care among workers in inner-city settings. Palliative & supportive care, 18(6), 670-675. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1478951520000280
Stadjuhar, K.I., Mollison, A., Giesbrecht, M., McNeil, R., Pauly, B., Reimer-Kirkham, S., Dosani, N., Wallace, B., Showler, G., Meagher, C., Kvalic, K., Gleave, D., Teal, T., Rose, C., Showler, C., & Rounds, K. (2019). “Just too busy living in the moment and surviving: barriers to accessing healthcare for structurally vulnerable populations at the end of life. BMC palliative care, 18 (1), 11-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12904-019-0396-7
Turner, V. (2017). Liminality and communitas. In V. Turner, R. D. Abrahams, & A. Harris (Eds.), The ritual process: Structure and Anti-structure (pp. 94-130). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315134666
Wilson, D., Moloney, E., Parr, J. M., Aspinall, C., & Slark, J. (2021). Creating an Indigenous Māori‐centred model of relational health: a literature review of Māori models of health. Journal of clinical nursing. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/jocn.15859
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony : indigenous research methods. Fernwood Pub.
Wirihana, R., & Smith, C. (2014). Historical trauma, healing and well-being in Māori communities. MAI journal, 3(3), 197-210.
Published
2023-11-06
How to Cite
Charvin-Fabre, S., Moeke-Maxwell, T., Stolte, O., & Lawrenson, R. (2023). "Before it is too late": Life, death, street performance and homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand. Ethnographic Edge, 6(2), 5-26. https://doi.org/10.24135/ee.v6i2.241
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Articles
Copyright (c) 2023 sandrine charvin-fabre, Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Ottilie Stolte, Ross Lawrenson
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