Projects

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.

This project examined Māori resilience, with particular reference to Māori systems of assessment and management of issues pertaining to mental health and wellbeing.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

Conscious of the lack of serious inquiry into Kapa Haka, the CEO of Te Matatini Inc, the National Organisation for Kapa Haka in Aotearoa New Zealand approached Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence (NPM), to make a start on rectifying this situation.

Project Purpose: Timely registration rates with lead maternity carers (LMC) for Māori are low, and research is critically needed to investigate methods of reaching Māori women sooner and to encourage engagement with health professionals.

Project purpose: In the face of climate change, peak oil and food insecurity Māori land trusts face serious challenges to retain and economically develop Māori land. Traditional operations of sheep, beef, dairying and forestry may not be as profitable in the future or fit a world that seeks to reduce carbon emissions and use greener technology.

In addition to public and scholarly deliberations regarding increased inequalities in society, this project responds to the continued socio-economic exclusion of many Māori households.

We draw on recent scholarship on the precariat as an emerging social class comprised of people experiencing unstable employment, unliveable incomes, inadequate state supports, marginalisation and stigma. Our focus is on the Māori precariat, whose rights are being eroded through punitive labour and welfare reforms.

While we document issues of employment, food, housing and cultural insecurities shaping precarious lives, we also develop a focus on household connections, practices and strengths. This focus is important because connections, practices and strengths can buffer whānau against adversity for a time, render aspects of their lives more liveable, and enable human flourishing.

Project purpose
To investigate the mechanisms controlling the timing of behaviour of the marine isopod Eurylana (the sea louse) over the tidal cycle and to collect preliminary data on the phase responsivenessof the tidal clock to artificial tides.

“I think all New Zealanders pride ourselves on being clean and green, but we are increasingly asking what we need to do to protect that…” When winning support from local authorities, these days it’s the numbers that talk. And as a scientist with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research based at Lincoln near Christchurch, Dr James Ataria has been using them eloquently for some time in collaborative research projects helping local communities protect culturally significant environments.

This internship project contributes to a project exploring Mātauranga Māori further in terms of volcanic hazards. The research will assist to develop an authoritative compilation of scholarly, heritage and contemporary kōrero (narratives) that inculcate conceptual/theoretical forms of Ngāti Rangi, other hapū and iwi distinctive epistemology.

Project purpose: The importance of producing more Māori doctoral and other postgraduate qualification completions, for Māoridom and New Zealand society generally is well understood – Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga set specific goals towards it, the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative and Ako Aotearoa have funded research about it, and the Tertiary Education Commission provides