What do a mānuka-honey cooperative in Northland, a ginseng exporter in the King Country and a prison services provider in Dunedin have in common? All are examples of Māori-owned business forging a distinctive identity in New Zealand’s economic and social future.

Since 2017 a specialised team based out of the University of Waikato and led by NPM Principal Investigator Dr Haki Tuaupiki have been working on identifying the traditional Māori language of navigation with the NPM scoping project Te Mātauranga Wakatere Waka.
 
How was language used as a navigational aid in Māori navigation, what are the perspectives of contemporary tohunga whakatere waka on Māori navigation aids today, and which stars do contemporary tohunga whakatere waka use in Māori navigation?
 

Te Pūtea Rangahau a Marsden, the Marsden Fund, supports research of excellence in Aotearoa New Zealand in the areas of science, engineering, maths, social sciences and the humanities and again NPM researchers have succeeded in their bids to conduct research projects that will deliver impact and value to our communities.

The HRC supports research that has the potential to improve health outcomes and the delivery of health-care, and also to produce economic gains for New Zealand.

It allocates the majority of its funds through an annual allocation to independent research projects that are researcher initiated, and NPM Principal and Associate Investigators have enjoyed success in this years round.

Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes (Massey University)
- Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora: Investigating health gain through whenua initiatives (Programme 2019 Funding Round)

The inaugural Te Rangaunua Hiranga Māori Award, which recognises excellent, innovative co-created research conducted by Māori that has made a distinctive contribution to community wellbeing and development in Aotearoa, has been awarded to Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence, by Royal Society Te Apārangi.

In a new initiative, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence is celebrating and recognising the careers of three Māori leaders and visionaries, who have a long history of bringing about major social change and impact in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Professor Rawinia Higgins, NPM Board member, says that these new Ruānuku positions formally acknowledge the generous ongoing roles these exceptional Māori leaders have agreed to provide to NPM.

The University of Otago recently appointed seven of its leading scholars to prestigious new roles as sesquicentennial distinguished chairs, and one of these appointees was NPM's co-director Professor Jacinta Ruru.

On Thursday 12 September, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence (NPM) released its third Te Arotahi paper calling on government to pay even closer attention to the issues of whānau and whakapapa within the criminal justice system.  This paper advocates for the development of a new paradigm of transformative justice based on whānau development that values tino rangatiratanga and tikanga Māori.