Schott, Gareth R.Doyle, Benjamin KauriGrant, WairehuLykke, NinaMehrabi, TaraRadomska, Marietta2026-01-172026-01-172026Schott, G., Doyle, B., & Grant, W. (2026). Gender affirming or disenfranchised grief? Considering death rights in Aotearoa New Zealand. In Lykke, N., Mehrabi, T., & Radomska, M. (Eds.), Routledge International Handbook of Queer Death Studies ( ed.). Routledge.9781032504384https://hdl.handle.net/10289/17884The pre-colonial Māori world treated variety in gender and sexual expression in an accepting and encompassing manner (Te Awekotuku, et al. 2005; Aspin and Hutchings 2007). Among the many negative health implications of colonialism for Māori, it is acknowledged that “tangata takatāpui [LGBTQ+ people] moved from a social and cultural situation where minority stress was simply not a factor … to one where it has become a key force in the negative health outcomes they experience” (Stevens 2016, 15). This chapter acknowledges how death can generate ‘ownership battles’ over the deceased, resulting in members of the LGBTQ+ community, receiving final farewells that have been unrepresentative, or a reversal of the freedom to self-determine identity. We reflect on how death rights for takatāpui individuals is a human and cultural right in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. In doing so, it calls for an extension of the principles of the Māori health framework Te Pae Māhutonga currently being applied in advocation of gender affirming health research and practice conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand (Veale et al. 2019). This chapter reconsiders how we understand ‘templated’ rituals and death rites by introducing the challenges of a more responsive and gender affirming parting.enThis is an author's accepted manuscript of a chapter published in the Routledge International Handbook of Queer Death Studies. © 2026 Routledge.decolonising deathtakatāpui/queertāhine/transdeath rites and ritualsChapter in Book