The Heart of the Matter: Using Poetry as a Method of Ethnographic Inquiry to Represent and Present Experiences of the Informally Housed in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

In the ongoing discourses around housing and health, the voices of those on the margins are largely absent. This article describes the use of poetry to capture “realities” of marginal housing in Aotearoa/New Zealand from the perspectives of 40 people living in informal dwellings such as sheds, vans, buses, garages, tents, and caravans. The poems combine participants’ words with descriptions of their living situations and complement thematic analysis of in-depth interviews. Feedback from participants has been that their poems accurately represent them and their living situations—and in a form which has meaning for them. Taken as a whole, the poems reveal the diversity of people, perspectives, housing histories, and living situations among the informally housed, emphasizing the complexity of the phenomenon. Presenting findings poetically has allowed voices from the margins to be heard in a wider range of academic, general public, public health, and policy settings.