Indigenous Knowledge Reshapes Aged Care: Māori Dementia Frameworks Challenge Colonial Health Systems
Original framing: “UC Graduate's Award-Winning Research Shapes Aged Care Policy” — bing news
Māori epistemologies reframe dementia as a collective responsibility, where care is not just clinical but spiritual and communal. Traditional healing practices, such as rongoā Māori (herbal medicine) and whakawhanaungatanga (relationship-building), are often excluded from policy despite evidence of their efficacy in reducing agitation and improving quality of life. Indigenous knowledge systems prioritize autonomy and dignity for kaumātua, challenging the institutional control over aged care.
The UC graduate’s research is a microcosm of a larger struggle: the tension between Indigenous self-determination and colonial health systems that prioritize institutional control over community well-being.
For over a century, Aotearoa’s aged care sector has operated under a biomedical paradigm that pathologizes aging and marginalizes Māori epistemologies, despite evidence that culturally adapted care improves outcomes. The award-winning narrative obscures the structural inequities that persist—underfunded Māori services, the criminalization of traditional healing, and the lack of policy integration—while centering individual achievement over collective liberation. Globally, Indigenous communities face parallel challenges, from Canada’s 'Two-Eyed Seeing' to Australia’s Aboriginal health models, yet solutions remain fragmented due to systemic resistance. True transformation requires decolonizing funding, research, and education, ensuring that Māori frameworks are not just 'informed' by policy but are the foundation of it. Without this, policy shifts will remain performative, and the crisis of culturally unsafe aged care will endure.