Three leading Māori authors will be used to support recently bereaved whānau in a unique pilot project.
Patricia Grace. Photo: Grant Maiden.
The Mary Potter Hospice in Porirua is offering grief support sessions to whānau of the hospice's patients that have died in the last two years and will also be open, free-of-charge, to the public.
The sessions will feature renowned Māori authors such as: Patricia Grace (Ngāti Toa/Te Ātiawa) Apirana Taylor (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Ngāti Ruanui) and Queenie Rikihana (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Te Āti Awa ki Waikanae) who will present storytelling sessions.
Apirana Taylor Photo: creativecoast.co.nz
The Māori liaison at the hospice, Vanessa Eldridge, of Rongomaiwahine and Ngāti Kahungunu descent, said each of the storytellers will either base their kōrero from traditional folk stories or draw on their own personal knowledge.
"There's still a theme and a kaupapa and an intent for kōrero behind what we will be doing, but I've given it to the Māori storytellers to decide what they wish to present," Ms Eldridge said.
"They might be going back and looking at pakiwaitara (myths and legends) to get some inspiration from Māori history and Māori knowledge to share.
"So, really I've left it to the storytellers it might be something they've written themselves or they could be pulling a story from elsewhere in Māoridom."
Storytelling project first of its kind
Vanessa Eldridge said as far as she is aware no other hospice in New Zealand has offered that kind of group counselling before.
She said the idea to present storytelling sessions to groups of people came about in 2013 when she spoke with a few Māori colleagues who all realised that there was nothing at the Mary Potter Hospice that focused around grief support for tāngata whenua.
"As far as I'm aware, yes, I went to do some grief support training with a lady down in Christchurch a few years ago and she hadn't known about anything like it," she said.
Vanessa Eldridge said there will be six sessions starting next week that will run over the next four months.