Our Research

NPM research solves real world challenges facing Māori. We do so in Māori-determined and inspired ways engendering sustainable relationships that grow the mana (respect and regard) and mauri (life essence) of the world we inhabit.

The excellence and expertise of the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga researcher network is organised by four Te Ao Māori knowledge and excellence clusters or Pae. Pae are where our researchers rise with Te Ao Māori knowledge, tools and expertise to build a secure and prosperous future for Māori and Aotearoa New Zealand. Pae are purposefully expansive and inclusive, supporting transdisciplinary teams and approaches. Our 2021-2024 programme of work will look to the far future to assure flourishing Māori futures for generations to come. With Māori intended as the primary beneficiaries of our research, our programme will reinforce the firmly established foundations of mātauranga Māori through sound research attuned to the lived experience of Māori.

Four Pātai or critical systems-oriented questions generate transformative interventions and policy advice for stakeholders and next users. All of our research will contribute mātauranga-informed theories, models and evidenced solutions in response to our Pātai. Our Pātai serve to integrate and energise our programme and Pae to synthesize our research for next stage impact and outcomes.

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    This qualitative summer internship research aims to:
    Explore key components of a child health consultation with te reo speaking tamariki and whānau in a primary health care setting. Specific objectives include:
    • Identify the structure that doctors employ in a consultation with te reo speaking tamariki
    • Explore te reo speaking tamariki and whānau experiences in a primary health care setting
    • Investigate the value of te reo in a child health care setting

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    This summer internship joins and contributes to a research project on Māori whānau experience of Hospital Transfers by being involved and undertaking literature review, in depth analysis of interview data and considering and reflecting on their research and the research impact and contribution.

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    This ummer intern project will document Māori community engagement with open days and public observatories as a means of achieving the goals of transformative education in a more culturally appropriate and publicly accessible form.

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    He āta mātai, he rangahau i te oranga o te waitai i tētahi rohe o te Tairāwhiti kia mōhiotia ai he wai ora rānei, he tai ora rānei, he mate rānei tēnei momo taiao. Hei reira anō ka whakamōhiotia atu ki ngā mana tiaki o taua rohe, ka whakariterite tikanga hoki hei tiaki i te tai. Ko te rohe e tohua ana ko te ākau o Tokomaru i te raki ki Whāngārā i te tonga. Ko te rohe tēnei o ngā karangatanga hapū o Ngāti Porou, o Te Aitanga a Hauiti, o Ngāti Konohi, o Ngāti Ira anō hoki.

     

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    He rangahau i ngā kōrero mō Ngāti Ira o te Tairāwhiti. Nō te wā i tuhituhia e Apirana Ngata tana tuhinga e kīia nei ko ‘Raurunui a Toi Lectures’ (Ngata A.T., 1944) ka whakawhāiti ia i ngā kōrero me ngā whakapapa o te hītori o te Tairāwhiti me tana kī kāore anō i oti i a ia, tērā ētahi kōrero nui hei whakaoti ā te wā. Kāti ko tētahi o aua kōrero nui, mō Ngāti Ira, arā, mō ngā uri o Irakaipūtahi, he iwi nui i te Tairāwhiti i tōna wā. Nā reira e manako nui ana kia whāia tēnei kaupapa kia tutuki. Ko te mahi, he whakawhāiti i ngā momo kōrero mai i Hawaiki rā anō, tatū iho ki tēnei rā hei putunga kōrero hei wānanga mā te iwi.

  • Kia Ārohi Kia Mārama - Scoping Excellence

    Project commenced:

    What is the reo of traditional navigation?

    How, why, when and where were these navigational aids used in Māori navigation?

    What are the perspectives of contemporary tohunga whakatere waka on Māori navigation aids today?

    Which stars and why do contemporary tohunga whakatere waka use in Māori navigation?

    In the past 40yrs, a regeneration of traditional navigation knowledge has occurred across Polynesia. However, a paucity of Māori navigation research is extremely prevalent.

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    This summer internship project is in support of one of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga's large te reo research projects, led through Te Ipukarea.

    Te Reo o te Pā Harakeke seeks to understand the factors that contribute to successful intergenerational transmission of the Māori language in the home.

    The interns join the research team and support the research in a number of ways with a focus on the research data collected at the first Te Reo o te Pā Harakeke wānanga (November 2017), and in preparation for the second wānanga.

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    The purpose of this summer intern project is to source information (cultural and spatial) that describes the student’s relationship to their marae in preparation for learning how to use spatial information technology to create maps of their ancestral landscapes. 
    This project will develop skillsets of blending modern ICT with oral narratives (mōteatea, lore of the land, pūrākau). The student will join the Te Koronga: Indigenous Science Research Theme at the University of Otago.

    Intern - Courtney Sullivan
    Ngāti Awa, Taranaki, Ngāti Maru
    University of Otago
    Supervisor - Dr Hauiti Hakopa
    University of Otago, Te Koronga

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    The purpose of this internship project is to further the operationalising of Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles by identifying tikanga that could inform practical data governance mechanisms.

    We will use kaupapa Māori as the theoretical framework to address the following research questions:
    1. What concepts shape Māori views on the governance of data?
    2. What customary practices could inform Māori approaches to the governance of data?

    Intern - Tumanako Silveira
    Ngati Whakaue, Ngati Raukawa, Pare Hauraki
    University of Waikato

    Supervisor - Associate Professor Maui Hudson

    University of Waikato

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    This summer intern research project explores from the perspective of Māori women, their understanding of the ‘Māori economy’ and the roles they have in developing intergenerational growth within the Small-to-medium sized sector.
    Women have a vast and positive impact on the economy. Key research already undertaken through the Māori SME whai rawa project (The intergenerational reality of Māori SMEs) has identified that the Māori economy is made up from increasingly diverse socio-economic structures. Within those are a number of ways that individuals contribute and participate within the economic frameworks whether at iwi, hapū or whānau levels; paid employment or otherwise.

  • Case study

    Project commenced:

    Te Aho Tapu

    What are the links between environmental integrity and the health, wellbeing and wealth of Indigenous communities?

    Ensuring the sustainable management of our natural resources is increasingly becoming an issue of national and international concern, and understandably so.

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    Intern: Kelly M. Klink

    Supervisor: Dr Nēpia Mahuika

    University of Waikato

    This research seeks to examine the intergenerational impacts that Christianity— and particularly Mormonism—have had on the Māori at Aotea (Great Barrier Island) from the 19th century to the present. The research draws from oral interviews with whanau and pakeke and probes the disruption of traditional belief systems and subsequent assimilation of the Māori of Aotea

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    Intern: Kara Beckford

    Supervisor: Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora

    Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga

    This internship project seeks to create a foundational annotated database of takatāpui literature and resources, including whakawahine and tangata ira tane and other gender non-conforming takatāpui, which are often left out of the narrative.

    This project assisted the research network in conducting a thorough literature and resource search, with the output being a themed annotated bibliography.

  • Full project

    Project commenced:

    We are now 30+ years on from when our children first had the opportunity to attend Kōhanga. They are a part of a fortunate generation, like those who will follow them. And so too are those that are following. But what of those older Māori, their parents and grandparents, some of who do speak te reo but many who do not? What challenges to tikanga, age related roles and relationships do these demographics present? Status, mana, roles, responsibilities, ritual duties and leadership are all age related concepts that, in the Māori world, assume a foundation of learning that leads to experience, competence and accumulated wisdom over time. 

  • Kia Ārohi Kia Mārama - Scoping Excellence

    Project commenced:

    The overarching research question is: what constitutes entrepreneurial ecosystem efficacy with respect to indigenous entrepreneurs’ innovation intentions and activity? In order to investigate this overarching research question, the following questions will be explored: (i) how do Māori entrepreneurs think about innovation? (ii) How does enterprise assistance support Māori entrepreneurs’ to innovate? And (iii), what are the implications for enterprise assistance targeting Māori entrepreneurs?

  • Kia Ārohi Kia Mārama - Scoping Excellence

    Project commenced:

    This research seeks to investigate Māori jurisprudence. Māori jurisprudence, broadly speaking, comprises a set of tikanga and how those tikanga are used in everyday life to make decisions that affect Māori communities. For this research we wish to focus specifically on the most important institution of Māori decision-making: the hui. This pilot project will investigate a limited set of hui, specifically examining decision-making and the role of tikanga in such decision-making, within urban contexts.  The research hypothesis upon which this project is designed is that modern everyday Maori jurisprudence is observable and distinct, despite the impact of Western legal frameworks.

  • Kia Ārohi Kia Mārama - Scoping Excellence

    Project commenced:

    What are some of the psychological, emotional and spiritual influences that learners have experienced when learning te reo Māori?

    How are these influences related to past trauma or negative experiences of theirs (or others) and in what ways have these influences impacted their engagement with and learning of te reo Māori?

    What kinds of intergenerational trauma are having an impact on the ability to engage with and learn/speak te reo Māori?

    In what ways do learners overcome these barriers to being motivated to learn te reo Māori?

  • Full project

    Project commenced:

    While all hospitalisations can be stressful for patients and their whānau, hospitalisations involving transfers away from home can be even more so and can present unique issues in terms of how whānau negotiate distance, unfamiliarity, active engagement and help-seeking. In this study, we are interested in better understanding how whānau facilitate support and remain actively engaged in the ‘care equation’ when a whānau member is transferred or hospitalised away from their home location.    

  • Internship project

    Project commenced:

    Intern: Rewi Nankivell

    Supervisor: Dr Carla Houkamau

    The University of Auckland Business School

    This research seeks to determine the concepts of cultural richness through a Māori lens and within the principles of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga and aroha. Nankivell blends personal narrative and research to examine cultural richness and social capital and how these themes can be integrated into an urban setting.

  • Full project

    Project commenced:

    What do alternative models to tribal corporations look like for iwi and hapū development?

    A wealth of historical narratives provide alternative examples of successful tribal economic development and management practices that have existed in the past. However, the last two decades have seen the emergence of a commercially successful corporate-beneficiary model in which the majority of Treaty of Waitangi settlement assets have become centralised within corporate structures.

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