Doctoral Projects

Riki Neihana Gooch (Patuharakeke, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Mahanga Hourua), University of Otago

The intention is to create a lexicon of musical conducting gestures that embody the physical movements, symbolism, and form that exist within a Te Ao Maori context, with the Afro/Eurological improvised music methodology of Conduction.

This project is a development of the Conduction method that I have been recording, performing, and practising over the past 10 years. The research will focus on what makes the combination of Te Ao Maori and Conduction a unique contribution ft, the improvised music canon. It will also look at how this is unique to both the indigenous and western musical worldview.

The aim for this project is to establish a thorough resource to build upon -for experienced musical practitioners, non-experienced, and rangatahi. I intend for this work to be a contribution to Te Ao Maori/Te Ao Marama, with the hope that it becomes useful resource for any musician or performer.

Bonnie Maihi (Waikato Tanui, Ngāti Maniapoto), University of Waikato

Bobby Luke (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngaruahine, Taranaki Iwi Nui), Auckland University of Technology

This research explores the potential for interdisciplinary-based multimedia, performance, and Fashion design investigations to perform as knowledge repositories. The project aims to restore & revitalize understandings of a Taranaki cosmological worldview that can inform and enhance knowledge exchange through art and design research.

Moreover, an overview and role of ‘Rongo’ (cosmological deity representing the god of cultivation and peace) and how ‘Rongo’ as an entity can better enhance an understanding of creative design/art practices is explored. From this perspective, the project aims at providing Māori and non-­‐Māori appropriate ways of developing creative methods using holistic cultural frameworks. But more specifically, ‘Taku Taranakitanga’ becomes the overarching perspective of this project and aims to position this research from a Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui, Hāmua, Hāpotiki, and Taiporohenui Pā worldview.

Hineani Melbourne (Ngāti Pōrou, Maniapoto), Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi

Since the inception of film to the present day in New Zealand Māori people, their language and customs have been recorded on film or other audio-visual mediums. In the eyes of the law the material recorded does not belong to the people who are sharing their knowledge, their customs and their language. This thesis investigates how Māori can reclaim the Intellectual Property Rights of their imagery and knowledge that has been recorded and how can present and future generations of these people protect and access this material.

Abigail McClutchie (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Porou), The University of Auckland

This research explores ‘mahi rangatira’ as central to Māori entrepreneurship, innovation and risk. Māori have a long history of entrepreneurship indicated by their navigation of Te Moana nui ā Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean. Pere asserts that, “mahi rangatira is doing what is great for the whole; it is serving the people with no hierarchy” (Pere, 2016, April 29). In the context of this study, mahi rangatira is a process which embraces opportunity for entrepreneurial pursuits with the intent of collective well-being  and by its nature, exercising tino rangatiratanga .

This research explores how mahi rangatira was expressed in historical-entrepreneurial contexts and how it is enacted among kaupapa driven Māori entrepreneurs in a contemporary-entrepreneurial context. I explore mahi rangatira from a collective well-being perspective historically and how kaupapa driven Māori entrepreneurs engage with mahi rangatira from a contemporary perspective. Critically, this research seeks to study the processes, systems, and characteristics of the mahi (work practices/ activities) that constitute mahi rangatira as entrepreneurial pursuits. I interviewed 12 kaupapa driven entrepreneurs and will report my findings to them. I will also present at and design workshops for Māori business networks and tribal entities, groups as well as academic forums. 

Alison Anitawaru, Cole (Ngāti ;Ruanui, Ngāruahine, Taranaki Whānui), Victoria University of Wellington

This research is examines Māori approaches to climate in order to propose an Indigenous foundation for sovereignty over our means of survival. The structure of our neo-colonial world systems is deeply enmeshed in the causes of the climate crisis, and it is of no historically derived coincidence that the communities experiencing the first waves of climate change are Indigenous, i.e. the social grouping most excluded from the colonial spaces creating the current climate change responses. I am developing a new approach based on the lived experience of our iwi as we build solutions to safeguard our future.