ABSTRACT
When ethnographers study indigenous healing it is becoming more common for them to work as apprentices to indigenous healers just as many medical anthropologists train in Western medicine. This was the case for me when I studied with Samoan healers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.2 The knowledge and practices I learnt in Western Samoa were the basis on which I was accepted as a student of Maori healing in the mid 1980s. However, the starting point for this discussion of spirituality, belief and knowledge in constructions of Maori healing is my own experience of breast cancer.3 My studies of Maori healing informed how I developed explanations for my illness, the central place I assigned to spiritual dimensions in my healing, and how I used a plurality of therapies in remaking my world. My intention is to provide a case-study based on my expertise in medical anthropology and my own experience of how medical pluralism works in Aotearoa New Zealand where indigenous healing practices, alternative therapies and Western medicine intersect.
