Back to top anchor

E Mapu i Fagalele: Landscapes of wellbeing for Samoan elderly people living in New Zealand

Year:
2011
Duration:
12 months
Approved budget:
$34,485.00
Researchers:
Ms Carmel Peteru
Health issue:
Ageing
Proposal type:
Pacific Health PhD Scholarship
Lay summary
This is a PhD application and the applicant is based at the University of Auckland. This qualitative study seeks to understand perceptions and meanings of 'being home' for Samoan ageing and elderly people living in New Zealand. Of particular significance is the co-exploration of meanings of equivalence for terms such as 'home', 'resilience' and 'ageing' in first language. This study further identifies and explores influences from living in New Zeeland on these meanings and their impact on the lived experiences of Samoan elderly people. This aspect of the study lends itself to an understanding of resilient ageing in place. Overall this study will contribute to the Pacific component of the wider study carried out by Social and Community Health, School of Public Health - 'Resilient Ageing in Place: Improving the lives of older people in New Zealand Communities'. It will further contribute to the international discourses especially in the fields of social ethnogerontology, migration, theology and postcolonial studies. The supervisors for this study are Dr Janine Wiles who is the principal investigator for the Resilient Ageing in Place: Improving the lives of older people in Aotearoa/New Zealand Communities, Auckland University, and Dr Tamasa'ilau Suaali'i-Sauni who is an expert in applied qualitative research with Samoan communities, and who has strong networks in the Pacific academic arena.