There is emerging awareness among Māori that mātauranga Māori and Māori values have an important part to play in papakāinga design as well as in modern urban planning and settlement design. This research project, based on a number of hui, a Māori research collective, dialogue with policy and planning professionals, collaborative learning, case studies and a review of literature, shows that a clear and unique Māori built environment tradition exists.

Current methods for the control of possums, primarily aerial broadcasting of sodium fluoroacetate (i.e. “1080”), are often at odds with the needs of rural Māori communities. Large-scale aerial broadcasting can lead to widespread, indiscriminate by-kill of native and introduced animals important to the environmental, cultural, and economic well-being of rural Māori.

This research project aims to provide completely new information of much higher quality than is currently available. This information will underpin development of new strategies for the management of possums.

Dr Shane Wright (Te Āti Hau, Tūwharetoa) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Auckland. The idea for this research project started to form in his twenties, when he was travelling the world as a gofer for science teams and noticed how plant diversity changed with altitude.
 

This research project integrated two distinct but complementary pieces of research to amplify the voices of young Māori who entrusted their experiences, opinions, and ideas to the two research teams; and to speak back to those who might implement change for them. The two projects were the National Secondary School Youth Health Survey Youth2000, and Youth First, a major Marsden funded project headed by Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith. The aim was to create a multidisciplinary research alliance that could begin to talk across disciplinary boundaries to inform community issues.

This research project led by Dr Mere Kēpa undertook a series of interviews and focus groups to answer how Māori people can humanise the care of elderly Māori. The researchers identified significant shortcomings in healthcare services for elderly Māori outside urban areas and made recommendations to government agencies, service providers and whānau based on their findings.

This project challenged the definition of literacy used in New Zealand compared with definitions used overseas and focused on the importance of orality and listening for Māori, based on the premise that without orality and listening, there’s no literacy for all cultural groups. The researchers found that Māori literacy is complex and is equally about relationships and respect building between people and groups of people and the salient features of their tribal lands. Speeches and songs stress meaningful relationships between people, their lands and their neighbours. Underpinning everything is the knowledge Māori want to pass onto future generations.

This research explored Māori views and access to Assisted Human Reproduction (AHR). The researchers carried out a series of interviews with key stakeholders to identify key themes, and a number of hui were run to ascertain broader Māori views towards infertility, use of AHR, AHR policy and legislative change, and the interface between tikanga Māori and various ethical scenarios that have emerged in the field of AHR.

Outputs

This project reviewed published literature relating to Māori education, in the compulsory schooling sector, from 1990 to 2008. The researchers concluded as a general finding that there is a need for increased commitment and resourcing of research across all aspects of Māori education and schooling. It is also clear that there remains limited research related specifically to Māori education defined, controlled and undertaken by Māori.
 

This research project sought to answer a fundamental question: What do Māori men who have sex with men need in order to reduce their risk of HIV infection? The researchers in order to answer this focused on the significance of identity from both a cultural and sexual perspective. The research recognises that Māori men who have a strong sense of their identity may be at reduced risk of HIV infection and that this has a beneficial effect on one’s health status. Accordingly, the project investigated the aspects of identity and behaviour which contribute to reduced risk of HIV infection.

This project examined Māori resilience, with particular reference to Māori systems of assessment and management of issues pertaining to mental health and wellbeing. In New Zealand, the researchers proposed, we have two different epistemologies and two different systems of knowledge, which rarely intersect and this is the case in the field of mental health, where western epistemologies dominate, while Māori epistemologies are largely under utilised.

This research project developed from a need to solve a problem for Māori: to find a more cost-efficient, sustainable building technology than timber for papakāinga housing.

This research project examined the extent to which eugenics and race theories as discourses promoted certain forms of relationships that played a key role in defining social structures for both Māori and Pākehā.

This project sought to identify and assess the damage done to Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) by chemical contamination from road construction in the Auckland metropolitan area, and to consider ways in which she may be healed. The research team built collaborations between Ngāti Whātua, Manaaki Whenua and key stakeholder organisations such as Transit New Zealand to help identify the major environmental issues for Ngāti Whātua regarding chemical contamination from roads and to reach a consensus on appropriate methods for measuring the state of the environment. 
 

This project examined current practices for measuring Māori participation and achievement in science and mathematics, investigated student experiences of science and mathematics in English medium and Māori medium schools and investigated the views of whānau, parents, caregivers and teachers of Māori students regarding science and mathematics education.

To read more about this project, click here and see page 33.

The objectives of this research were twofold: first, to assess the societal impacts of the forestry industry on the wider Māori community as a result of the presence of the Whakatāne Board Mill and the Kawerau Norske Skog Tasman Mill in the Bay of Plenty region and second, to examine; (i) the extent to which employment at the mills has provided social, economic, educational and health gains and mobility; (ii) the outcomes for the communities of the resources provided by mills and forestry initiatives; (iii) the social effects of both strong and weak economic performance of the forestry industry upon the communities.

Over 30 years ago when Professor Russell Bishop started teaching he was struck by a single question: Why did so many Māori students start out well but fail as they went through school? Bishop, Professor of Māori Education at the University of Waikato, and colleagues interviewed Year 9 and 10 high school students, their families, teachers and principals from which he developed the very successful Te Kotahitanga education model in which teachers receive special professional development on how to better teach Māori students.

This research study canvassed Māori opinion at flax-roots level on the idea that te reo Māori, their language, be shared by all New Zealanders. A wide range of views and various types of data  were gathered, and the response to the question of whether Maori could be considered a language for all New Zealanders signalled an affirmative response. However, support was not unanimous and many held reservations about this move.

Outputs
Journal articles

This research project focused on Māori youth and documenting their social territories using multi-media visual data generated by the participants, in conjunction with wānanga and university-based practitioners and students in photography and film media. The researchers employed new methods in visual sociology and worked collaboratively with Māori youth and their iwi communities. Relationships were established with communities within Ngāpuhi, Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Toa, Ngāi Tahu, across urban, semi-urban, small town and rural areas.

Efforts have been made to develop protocols for the use and handling of blood samples, but at the time of this study starting, the formation of guidelines that take into account the needs and views of Māori had not been completed. Guided by Kaupapa Māori research methodologies, this study acknowledged He Korowai Oranga (The Ministry of Health’s Māori Health Strategy) and critiqued non-Māori views of genetic information and kaitiakitanga of this information. There was also an opportunity to interview Māori from the Wellington community who had been approached to take part in a series of sleep studies, involving providing a biological sample, (i.e. a saliva sample) for research.

This project focused on kaiako literacy instruction practices and tauira learning pertaining to reading comprehension and Māori vocabulary development. It involved five Kura Kaupapa Māori schools located in rural communities or small rural townships. Kura staff and researchers were involved in a collaborative process involving the collection, analysis and feedback of student achievement and classroom observation data. The first year of the project involved collecting baseline data to develop literacy learning and teaching profiles.