Abstract
The event of a life-limiting cancer diagnosis requires decisions from those diagnosed about the course of action they will take. In what can be an overwhelming event people tend to follow the normative route of using conventional medicine. But for some, this route might be rejected, and for others, it might be supplemented with other approaches. In this article we explore these matters through lens(es) of ‘trust’. The study was undertaken with 81 participants diagnosed with life-limiting cancer. Participants' trust practices were variably associated with trust in self, individuals, organisations and systems. We consider the ways in which participants maintained trust, or how trust was disrupted and transformed, and what might influence these processes. We identify categories of trusting practices: dependent trusting, reflexive interdependent trusting in conventional medicine, reflexive interdependent trusting in other therapeutic systems, and mistrusting dependency. We then apply these categories of trust to the talk of our Māori participants to consider the similarities and the different realities of trusting practices for indigenous New Zealanders. We consider these trust practices conceptualised as the investment of one's agency and propose that this offers insights into the variable enactments of trust noted by our participants.