Mohi is NPM's Pou Pātai Whānau and is based at the University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau. He has research and teaching interests in: Māori health and inequities; Social determinants of health; Māori culture, heritage and identity; Poverty, the precariat and homelessness; Kaupapa Māori research, theory and methodologies; Decolonial practices; indigenous psychological perspectives of the interconnected self; Sport and rangatahi (Māori youth).
Mohi has an active research interest in the critique of Māori cultural patterns and behaviours as a vehicle to understanding Māori health and wellbeing through the discipline of psychology. This includes using customary Māori practices to inform mainstream psychological training and theory. His PhD considered the way Māori men constructively participate, engage and contribute positively to their whānau and communities and he was Co-Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project, Aue Ha! Māori men’s relational health.
Mohi was one of the researchers for the acclaimed book Mau Moko: The World of Māori Tattoo.
Related Projects
Full project
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.