Project purpose: This research project aims to promote and deepen New Zealand’s understanding of Māori and their culture by ensuring that the stories and voices of Māori affected by the Canterbury earthquakes are heard, respected, valued and incorporated into relevant learning and planning environments. We know that the scale of damage from the recent and ongoing earthquakes centred in and around Otautahi have challenged all networks in the city at a time when many individuals and communities were already under severe economic pressure.

Project purpose: Hapai Te Hauora Tapui Ltd was set up in 1996 with a specific focus on Māori Public Health. The shareholder organisations are: Te Runanga o Ngāti Whatua, Raukura Hauora O Tainui and Waipareira Trust. Hapai provides public health leadership and advice to each of these providers and subcontract health promotion services back to these organisations through their own health providers; Te Ha o Te Oranga, Raukura Hauora o Tainui and Wai Health. Hapai’s core function is to provide strategic and policy public health advice and in relation to providing strategic advice on public health issues that directly impact on the health outcome for Māori.

Project purpose: Parents of young children, as the intimate stewards of a new generation, carry the weight of societal expectation upon their often youthful shoulders. While it is true that parenthood has probably never been more scrutinised by communities, institutions and the state at large, leaving almost all parents feeling pressured, it is also the case that certain groups, especially young parents endure greater suspicion, censure and surveillance than any other. Within this cohort, Māori parents and fathers in particular are criticised and often demonised in everyday discourse, in the media, policy frameworks, political power plays and institutional debates.

Project purpose: Mate Māori - Kōrero Kaumātua is a project within Te Puawaitanga o Ngā Tapuwai Kia Ora Tonu - Life and Living in Advanced Age: a Cohort Study in New Zealand (The LILAC Study NZ). The purpose of Mate Māori - Kōrero Kaumātua is to document the knowledge of Mate Māori held by the oldest old Māori (aged 80-90 years). The term mate is used for both sickness and death, with the context and the tense (the past tense indicates death and the present tense sickness). Te Rangi Hiroa distinguishes between sickness due to accidents – mate aitu; and mate atua – sickness due to malignant spirits.

PhDs are the backbone of any research community. Yet for the first hundred years or so of universities in New Zealand the number of Māori doctorates could have been counted on not too many hands. This might make the target Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga set in 2002 of contributing to 500 new Māori PhDs in five years only look the more unrealistic. But it is a welcome measure of change, and of a lot of hard work, that Emeritus Professor Leslie R Tumoana Williams, the Centre’s Capability Building Manager, says that target is well on the way to being achieved.

Project Purpose: The Ōkahu Bay Restoration Project is being undertaken by Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei and is an all-encompassing restoration project. Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei are working with The University of Auckland, Auckland City and NIWA. The first phase is determining baseline and historical conditions of Ōkahu Bay and compiling the information into a GIS database. Phase One will comprise many strands including hui to determine mātauranga and scientific analysis of kaimoana (biodiversity, population, spatial parameter), water quality, sediment testing. Ultimately we plan to undertake a Mauri Model Analysis in order to create a roadmap for restoration.

A few sleepless nights may well have been all to the good for Sarah-Jane Paine. She successfully completed her doctorate in 2006 on key factors affecting sleep and how they might be affected by ethnicity and socio-economic factors – and in the process became one of 500 new Māori PhDs last year. In a paper published in the international Journal of Biological Rhythms, Sarah-Jane, who is from Tūhoe iwi, saw a prevalence of both “morning people” and ”night owls” in New Zealand.

The teaching and development of a vibrant, dynamic, highly educated and sustainable Māori workforce operatingat the highest levels of tribal and government leadership and civic society, is crucial to driving positive economic, social and environmental transformation in Aotearoa. Current and future generations of Māori PhD students and graduates, Māori scholars and researchers, are needed to undertake excellent and transformative research, run research organisations and be change makers within their communities and New Zealand society more broadly.

Project purpose: To facilitate the publication of map layers that students 2009-11 have contributed to the TKAM Atlas, and secondly to organise and analyse student feedback data related to their Atlas work, for publication in a journal article. http://www.victoria.ac.nz/Māori/research/atlas/default.aspx

The intern Wiremu Smith will detail recreational fishing hotspots within Tauranga Harbour, especially shellfish and identify species found at each location. He will also observe fishing activity and approach a selection of harvesters to ask permission to ask them some questions about their fishing activity, and carry out interviews with recreational fishers to build a picture about the total recreational fishing (focus on shellfish) within the Harbour. The final report will help the Tauranga Moana Iwi Customary Fisheries Trust develop its shellfish management plan. The supervisor is Associate Professor Paul Kayes

Project purpose: To determine what factors affect the usage of computers in te reo Māori by students in the schooling sector?

The programme of work to be carried out: Identifying Māori Medium Schools that could possibly undertake computing in Māori, then contacting them and querying them on their usage of te reo Māori in the children's computing activities. Then analysing and writing up the results.

Project purpose: Assist indigenous resistance to petrochemical exploitation of Papatūānuku

The programme of work to be carried out: Investigation and identification of fracking impact upon ecosystem and indigenous perspective of impact upon mauri of identified indicators using the Mauri Model decision making framework.

“….a very positive experience. We were able to preserve our mātauranga and build up our capacity in field work survey and monitoring methods along with gaining a new knowledge about our manu in the process.” Toko Renata, Chairperson of the Ruamaahua Islands Trust

“To generate good health policy you need to ensure that the younger population doesn’t miss out.” THE FIRST STEP in fixing any health challenge is to understand what you most need to focus on, says Bridget Robson. For an epidemiologist this view may not seem surprising. But as Director of Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare (Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre) at the Wellington School of Medicine & Health Sciences, the University of Otago, she has shown that the picture of New Zealand patient health can change quite markedly depending on the statistics you use.

“The gathering was a landmark event as the first of its kind in the South Island and it showed the great increase of Māori researchers and the breadth of areas they were involved in.”

-Dr Rāwiri Taonui, Head of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury

Twenty years ago there where only a handful of Māori researchers with PhDs in New Zealand. But you only needed to visit the Ngā Kete a Rēhua Inaugural Māori Research Symposium held at the University of Canterbury in September to see how much has changed.

Tāmaki Herenga Waka is the over-arching theme for a series of activities aimed at building a positive Māori consciousness and a more dynamic and connected community in Auckland City. The principle of the proverb dating from 1840 behind the name “Tāmaki herenga waka” (Tāmaki moored canoes) was to see an end of tribal conflicts in the region and that Auckland City would be reputable as a safe haven for all people to commune as one. It is on this basis that the project’s team has embraced the name for this series of initiatives.

The significance of this research project lies in its contribution to deeper understand what role Māori SMEs have as critical constituents of the Māori Economy. Recent years have seen attention paid to the merit of the Māori economy, based on the potential of an economy worth an estimated $42.6bn in 2013 (Nana, Khan, & Schulze, 2015).