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.

  • Full project Pae Tawhiti project

    Project commenced:

    This significant research programme was led by Distinguished Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith of Te Whare Wānanga

  • Project commenced:

    Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga is pleased to invest $1.5 million over three years in this research initiative, with a tripartite agreement between the University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington and University of Otago. Two inspiring Māori researchers have been chosen to lead the initiative; Dr Rawinia Higgins, School of Māori Studies, Victoria University of Wellington and Associate Professor Poia Rewi, School of Māori, Pacific, and Indigenous Studies, University of Otago. The research will seek to understand how the language contributes to economic development, to cultural identity and social cohesion. In addition, the research will contribute to three key areas:

  • Scoping project

    Project commenced:

    There are more than 16,000 Māori treasures held in overseas museums, art galleries and allied institutions. Unfortunately, the knowledge about many of these taonga has been mainly confined to museum personnel, academics and scholars who have visited these institutions. Māori people have been largely dislocated and alienated from their taonga and been the passive observers of the research and knowledge about them.
     

  • Project commenced:

    This research will unravel heritage threads and leadership principles that connect New Zealand and Polynesia. It will explore narratives relating to entrepreneurial leaders, including the early navigators who travelled between Tahiti, Rarotonga and New Zealand.

  • Project commenced:

    This project examines rongoā (traditional Māori knowledge of medicinal plants) to find ways to improve animal health naturally, and overall, manage farms with respect for the land.

  • Project commenced:

    The commercial fishing industry is a complex system, and one issue that can hamper the success of fishing companies is the inadvertent capture of fish that are not target species. Under the Quota Management System, if a company has limited quota for a non-target species then fishing for target species has to stop once the limited quota of non-target species has been met. In a lead-up research project the researchers showed that fish traps, based in mātauranga Maori, have potential to reduce bycatch. In this second phase, the researchers looked at the design of these fish traps and tested new designs to determine commercial viability.

  • Project commenced:

    Rakiura Māori muttonbirders and researchers collaborated to build and test a computer-based decision support package to allow individual kaitiaki to choose optimal harvesting strategies on their own whānau’s ancestral birding ground. They tested whether or not the tool builds understanding of consequences of current harvesting levels for their mokopuna’s harvesting opportunities, and measured whether it changed both intended and observed harvesting behaviour. The ability of science and computer tools to be integrated into mātauranga and traditional harvest management was assessed.

  • Project commenced:

    For many years, the knowledge of indigenous peoples has been the preserve of Western anthropologists and ethnographers. Like other indigenous people, Māori are concerned with the ongoing neglect, misuse and erosion of traditional ecological knowledge. This is further compounded by the loss of key knowledge holders over the years and their scarcity today.
     

  • Project commenced:

    Otago has very low numbers of Māori language speakers – French is the most widely spoken second language in the region. Given this context, it is important that any interventions aimed at revitalising and maintaining the Māori language are evidence-based. There is ample research on second language acquisition but little that shows the actual as opposed to self-reported experience of the second language learner as transmitter of this language within the home. The aim of this research is to support local tribal and community language initiatives by developing a language intervention “tool-box” informed by in-home observations and national and international research.

  • Project commenced:

    The population of kanakana (piharau, lamprey) is poorly understood and believed to be declining. In Murihiku concern for this taonga species led to this research in the Waikawa River.
     

  • Full project Pae Tawhiti project

    Project commenced:

    Te Reo Māori represents an amazing opportunity to New Zealand for its potential to enrich society and culture and transform the experience and consciousness of those who are exposed to and use the language. The Māori language is an official language of New Zealand and is indigenous to our country. It is part of our country’s national character and identity. The richness and vibrancy of the language distinguishes New Zealand in areas such as tourism, exporting, employment, education and broadcasting, and plays an integral role in cultural identity.

  • Project commenced:

    This project draws together in digital form taonga exchanged during European voyages to Polynesia between 1765 and 1840. The digital format helps increase knowledge of the collections and reconnects iwi with their taonga held in archives and museums worldwide.

  • Full project

    Project commenced:

    The Hauraki Māori Trust Board and the Cawthron Institute collaborated in this research project which stemmed from a spate of dog deaths on the beaches of Tikapa Moana (the Hauraki Gulf) in August 2009.  The dogs died from the poison tetrodotoxin (TTX) and this poison was present in sea slugs that had washed up on beaches. It became apparent research was needed to determine the poisoning risk associated with kaimoana from Tikapa Moana.

  • Project commenced:

    The late Dr Pei te Hurinui Jones (Ngāti Maniapoto), one of Māoridom’s leading scholars, amassed a significant collection of books, manuscripts and taonga during his lifetime. His son Brian Hauāuru Jones donated the vast majority to the University of Waikato and a room, He Mahi Māreikura, was established in 2004 especially to house the collection. The room’s layout is based on a whare puni and adheres to tikanga principles.
     

  • Project commenced:

    Whare tapere were pā based ‘houses’ of storytelling, dances, music, games, puppets and other entertainments. This research explores how fragments of traditional knowledge concerning the whare tapere can be used in a contemporary arts project.

  • Project commenced:

    This project is contributing to the key policy area of whānau ora/ family wellbeing via new analysis of the wealth of data contained in the six national household censuses of 1981 to 2006. Indicators of family wellbeing have been developed to identify trends across 25 years with the team having produced several reports and publications on measuring changes and key factors affecting family and whānau wellbeing.

    Objectives:

  • Project commenced:

    The researchers will use wānanga, catch information, laboratory experiments in which the lengths of the day-night and tidal cycles are systematically varied, and simulation modelling to: identify similarities and differences between the Māramataka and science in understanding of the lunar rhythm; develop a consistent analysis and interpretation of patterns of variation in predictions of fish catch; and support transmission of the Māramataka across generations and iwi.

  • Project commenced:

    Inequalities in child health between tamariki Māori and non-Māori are largely preventable and unnecessary. An example is rheumatic fever, where tamariki Māori are 30 times more likely to contract the disease than non-Māori. Being ill as a child has a big impact on school attendance and outcomes, and it may cause lifelong disability or illness. There are high costs involved, for the health system, society and to whānau. This study aimed to estimate how much not doing anything to reduce child health inequities really costs us.
     

  • Full project Scoping project

    Project commenced:

    View Report 

    Inequalities in child health between tamariki Māori and non-Māori are largely preventable and unnecessary. An example is rheumatic fever, where tamariki Māori are 30 times more likely to contract the disease than non-Māori.

    Being ill as a child has a big impact on school attendance and outcomes, and it may cause lifelong disability or illness. There are high costs involved, both for the health system and for society.

  • Project commenced:

    This project has involved the digitisation and categorisation of a diverse range of tāonga from the 28 Māori Battalion, D Company veterans and their families, including videoed interviews, handwritten and typed letters and other documents, and photographs of people, places and personal objects. These have been assembled together in a dynamic, searchable database that can be edited, and has made the tāonga easily accessible for research and education.

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