Introduction

In this chapter we ask if it is possible that care ethics be informed and supported by values and practices that are common or foundational to indigenous knowledges. Indigenous cultures, despite their heterogeneity and diversity, construct societies and conduct relationships in accordance to values and practices that are often the antithesis of neoliberalism, as does care ethics. We have written elsewhere about the centrality of humanness and relationality within te ao Māori (Māori world-view) (Brannelly, Boulton and Te Hiini, 2013). In this chapter we extend this discussion by considering broader political questions that echo and relate between care ethics and other world-views. Amohia is a Māori woman with tribal affiliations to Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai te Rangi and Ngāti Pukenga in the Bay of Plenty and Ngāti Mutunga in Taranaki, and Tula is a Pākehā woman, a citizen of Aotearoa/New Zealand, having migrated from the UK. We base our observations on three elements of Māori values and practice: whanaungatanga (kinship), kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and manaakitanga (care). Relational, collective values and practices are relevant to other indigenous cultures and, where possible, we draw on Aboriginal (Australia), and Canadian First Nations knowledge. Key issues resulting from colonisation that are hotly contested in colonised societies are health inequalities, land rights and environmentalism, and thus we use these to illustrate the on-going challenge to neoliberal health and social policies and the resonance with care ethics.

The broad political questions posed by care ethics that are of particular relevance to colonised societies relate to care and justice in terms of the responses to indigenous peoples as marginalised communities within settler colonies. This positioning raises questions regarding privileged (ir)responsibility for attentiveness to indigenous peoples. In indigenous cultures and in care ethics, the moral boundaries of care and politics are intertwined rather than divorced into separate spheres. Past injustices and the hurt and harms that result from them are acknowledged in the present context of health and social care provision, and other pressing issues for indigenous people, such as land rights. The embedded market philosophy in health and social care provision that fails to appreciate, capture or adequately fund the caring activities within iwi (tribes) is also questioned.