Hospice Awareness Week runs from 11 to 17 May 2026
offering a time to reflect on the role hospice plays in supporting people and whānau across our community.
As a community-funded service, Hospice Tairāwhiti exists because of the generosity and care of our region. If you are able, we warmly invite you to support our work with a donation this Hospice Awareness Week, helping us continue to provide compassionate care to those who need it most.
You are also welcome to join us for our remembrance star weaving sessions, held Monday to Friday from 12pm (midday) to 1:30pm at the HB Williams Memorial Library during Hospice Awareness Week.
These relaxed, hands-on sessions offer a chance to come together, learn to weave remembrance stars, and take a quiet moment to reflect. You may choose to keep your star or dedicate it towards a collection that will be displayed for our Tairāwhiti community over Matariki in a Peel Street installation.
A $5 koha will help cover materials, and you are invited to write a tag in memory of a loved one to accompany your star.
These tags, and the memories they carry, will be honoured at our annual Matariki Remembrance Service, where they will be gently committed in a fire ceremony- allowing the smoke to carry our dedications to Matariki and Pōhutukawa, the star of remembrance.
We welcome you and your whanau to the Matariki Remembrance Service on Wednesday 8 July. Join us at 5pm at the Hospice Tairāwhiti building on Ormond Road. Together we will hold space for remembrance, connection, and aroha.
This year, for Hospice Awareness Week, Hospice partnered with hospices across Aotearoa to co-design a shared campaign, with heartfelt thanks to Mercy Hospice, Nelson Tasman Hospice, Taupō Hospice, and North Haven Hospice for their collaboration and insight.
At the centre of the campaign is a series of videos sharing three powerful stories that illustrate the ripple effect of hospice care. These stories show how compassion extends far beyond the bedside, reaching into the lives of whānau, friends, volunteers, staff, and the wider community.
Hospice care is about living well, right to the end of life. It is wraparound support that honours dignity, connection, and choice, while also walking alongside whānau through grief and bereavement.
Through this campaign, we hope to deepen understanding of hospice care and the impact it has, not just for those at the end of life, but for everyone connected to them.
