Professor Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Associate Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora lead the Tangi Research Programme at the University of Waikato. The researchers are committed to studying tangi, conscious of the belief that such work in itself carries the inherent risk of "karanga aitua" or calling down misfortune by drawing attention to it. Contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand is constantly influenced by tangi practice, through the popular media and through personal exposure; elements of tangi engage people every day.
Dr Shane Wright (Te Āti Hau, Tūwharetoa) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Auckland. He has produced a number of prominent papers and articles on the rates of evolution in different environments.
Māori researchers have created exciting ways to approach and carry out research over the past 25 years. Early new research methods were underpinned by Māori cosmology and mātauranga, and these approaches are still in use today. However, Māori researchers continue to redefine methodological spaces, and the overarching concept of mātauranga Māori is often supported by methods specific to hapū knowledge. Within this framework, researchers have developed approaches to work appropriately and engage effectively with Māori communities.
In 2009 Whakauae Research for Māori Health and Development (WRMHD) in association with Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority and the Health Services Research Centre (HSRC) began a two year project. Its aims were first, to determine if the concept of resilience described in Western academic literature holds resonance in Māori primary health approaches, and second, to determine in what ways whānau resilience is supported and enhanced by Māori primary health care services.
The many works of esteemed Māori scholar, the late Dr Pei te Hurunui Jones, have provided the catalyst for this research into the management, conservation, care and display of mātauranga Māori in a digital context. The research team has tackled a range of complex issues related to the digitisation of indigenous material and mātauranga Māori in this project and aim to produce an accessible digital library in a form that is practical and searchable by the general public.
The purpose of the quantitative LiLACS NZstudy is to (i) establish how life is, (ii) what is important to ongoing wellbeing and (iii) record the pathways of living during the next 10 years for 600 Māori people aged 80 to 90 years old and 600 non-Māori people aged 85 years old living in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. This multi-organisational study involves five Māori organisations and two non-Māori providers in the Bay of Plenty region. In this presentation, Dr Kēpa will discuss why and how the research is not merely a neat, linear process.
This seminar explores Māori concepts of resilience. It draws from an existing research project and is based on reviews of literature, targeted case studies, presentations and interviews with key informants. It presents a framework for considering the cultural aspects of resilience and how these might be nurtured and promoted within and throughout whānau.
Addictions are now epidemic in New Zealand society and the lifestyles of Māori modelled on non-Māori is now creating considerable health issues in whānau. Results of an exploratory study on the impact of gambling on Māori will be presented in relation to the need for Whānau Ora to be a bipartisan policy and programme for at least a decade or more to address intergenerational trauma.
