In the first of our Horizons of Insight seminars for 2015, Dr Robert Joseph will be talking about his research project; Te Tētere Kōkiri o Te Ata: Optimising Economic Performance of Māori Land Trusts in the Waiariki Region. The project is specifically looking at how active management can enhance the economic performance of Māori land trusts, and what models of collaboration these trusts can use to achieve their goals. Robert will talk about how the research is specifically positioned in response to an emerging need for land trusts to consider capability gaps in management; as well as address the questions posed by the He Kai Kei Aku Ringa1 and He Mauri Ohooho reports about increasing utilisation of Māori assets. In his presentation he will outline how his project is framed by Kaupapa Māori principles, with a focus on Māori development, and conducted within and for Māori communities in the Waiariki region. He will also highlight how the research projects aim and objectives are premised on the hypothesis that it is only through the active management of assets that the economic performance of Māori land trusts can truly be realised.

BIOGRAPHY Dr Joseph completed his Bachelor and Master of Laws degrees at Waikato and was admitted to the Bar in 1998. He is a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and was a senior research fellow for the Te Mātāhauariki Research Institute at the University of Waikato. Robert was the second Māori in New Zealand - and the first Māori male - to graduate with a PhD in Law in 2006. Beyond this project, his wider research interests include; the realisation of the Treaty of Waitangi rights and responsibilities, the interface of traditional Māori knowledge systems and western science; internal self-determination rights and responsibilities of Indigenous institutions; Canadian and North American Indigenous studies; treaty processes and post-settlement development; and Māori and Indigenous Peoples' governance in settler nation-states. Dr Joseph is the New Zealand representative on the executive for the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand (ACSANZ), chair of the Awhina Trust addressing Māori mental health in the Waikato and Northland regions, an advisory trustee of the Kia Ngawari Trust, and the Te Hurihanga Youth Horizons Trust addressing local Māori juvenile delinquency challenges.