On 13 February t2018, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) together with the Royal Society Te Apārangi commenced the Te Takarangi project celebrating 150 Māori non-fiction publications over almost 200 years.

This date was chosen as it marked a year since the first formal meeting between the leaders of NPM and Te Apārangi Council at Waipapa Marae, with the shared aim of strengthening the intent of Te Apārangi to connect more with Māori researchers and Māori communities.

The Ako Aotearoa national tertiary teaching excellence awards were held at Parliament 10 September 2018, and two NPM researchers were recognised and honoured, together with other teaching practitioners from around the country.

Professor Michelle Thompson-Fawcett from the Department of Geography at the University of Otago and Associate Professor Mānuka Hēnare from the University of Auckland Business School both received sustained excellence awards in the kaupapa Māori category.

NPM Researcher and University of Auckland academic Associate Professor Chellie Spiller recently presented a TedX talk on Wayfinding Leadership, which is now available here.

The Kupu app has been produced as a result of a collaboration between Spark, Google and the research team of Te Aka Māori - Te Ipukarea at Auckland University of Technology.

The NPM conference this year includes a new Indigenous Arts and Performance theme Ka Haka II, led by one of our research partners Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

AUT is our host venue for IIRC18  pre-conference workshops being held on Monday 12 November and features the Ka Haka II launch that evening which will be filled with a range of diverse and contemporary performances.

There will also be Ka Haka elements, presentations and lunchtime performances throughout the conference week.

The theme for this years 8th Biennial International Indigenous Research Conference (IIRC18) is “Indigenous Futures”, and in 2018 keynotes are being delivered by Dr Chelsea Bond (Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman), Dr Marie Delorme (Métis, Canada), Professor Charles Menzies (First Nations, Canada, Member of Gitxaala Nation), 'Aulani Wilhelm (Hawaiian), Professor Poia Rewi (Tūhoe, Ngāti Manawa, Te Arawa) and Ka Haka II special guest keynote Maree Sheehan (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Waikato).

E te tai whakarunga, e te tai whakararo, pari mai ki te ākau o Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga e mihi manahau ake ki a tātou katoa i runga i tēnei wiki o te reo Māori.

Kakama mai i runga i ngā ngaru pae o whakapeto ngoi, i ngā ngaru pou o whakatangetange riaka.  Kia rite ai te reo ki te tai o te tahuna moana, ka ngunguru i te pō, ka ngunguru i te ao.

Nā reira, me whakaihuwaka tātou i a tātou anō, kia huakina mai te whatitoka o te whare o te reo Māori, kia whiua reretia ana ki tēnā tae ki tēnā awaawa ki tēnā moka ki tēnā kōtihitihi.

Professor Poia Rewi (Tūhoe, Ngāti Manawa, Te Arawa) has been appointed Deputy Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga 1 July 2018 - 31 December 2020.

Poia is Dean of Te Tumu, School of Māori, Pacific & Indigenous Studies, University of Otago, and a NPM Principal Investigator who has extensive research expertise in Indigenous language revitalisation, te reo me ngā tikanga Māori, Māori oratory, Māori performing arts and Māori history.

At the half way point of our current Centre of Research Excellence contract, we farewelled from the Research Leadership Team Drs' James Ataria (Lincoln University) and Emma Wyeth (University of Otago) who have completed their roles of Co-Deputy Director for NPM, since 2016 for a term of two and half years.