“To generate good health policy you need to ensure that the younger population doesn’t miss out.” THE FIRST STEP in fixing any health challenge is to understand what you most need to focus on, says Bridget Robson. For an epidemiologist this view may not seem surprising. But as Director of Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare (Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre) at the Wellington School of Medicine & Health Sciences, the University of Otago, she has shown that the picture of New Zealand patient health can change quite markedly depending on the statistics you use.

Metabolic health issues such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity are increasingly prevalent in our community, in keeping with worldwide trends. There is now a considerable amount of evidence that events during pregnancy and early childhood influence the risk of metabolic disease in later life by affecting glucose and fat metabolism and possibly appetite regulation. To try to prevent later metabolic disease, we therefore need to look at practical ways to intervene in early life to decrease these risks.

This research project explores the relationship between cultural connectedness and wellbeing (as a social determinant of health). The research will provide evidence relating to wellbeing and cultural connection within and between whānau with the intent to develop an aspirational model for Waikato-Tainui. The intern Ayla Jenkins will provide support to the researchers during marae and whānau engagement in the field. The supervisor is Jonathan Kilgour.

This research project aims to determine how whānau might flourish. The researchers, led by Professor Mason Durie, focuses on six themes – the characteristics of flourishing whānau; profiling the contemporary lives of Māori whānau; exploring the cultural realities of modern whānau; identifying the necessary resources (cultural, social, economic) for whānau to flourish ; assessing the challenges facing whānau in 2025, and developing strategies that will enable whānau to flourish. The research will provide information that can be translated into action and is especially relevant to iwi, central government, territorial authorities, local communities, services and whānau themselves.

Author: Elizabeth Jurisich Strickett. Supervisors: Associate Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes and Dr Tim McCreanor. This report was written while undertaking a Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga internship with Whāriki, SHORE and Whāriki Research Centre, Massey University. The review topic of marginalising Māori parents arose out of a report on rangatahi and sexual coercion, which included an examination of gender roles, Māori concepts around sexuality and parenting (Moewaka Barnes, 2010).

This project addresses the crucial gap in previous research by studying the everyday lives and positive relationships of Māori men in the context of men’s health. Māori men face many challenges in maintaining health and in developing meaningful and culturally patterned relationships.
 

This research looked at how the 2010/11 earthquakes in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) have affected Māori mental health communities. The research team led by Dr Simon Lambert focused on how the support networks for Tangata Whaiora (a term applied to Māori mental health clients that translates as people seeking health) and their whānau responded and recovered through the disaster.
 

The Life and Living in Advanced Age; A Cohort Study in New Zealand (LILACSNZ): Te Puāwaitanga o Ngā Tapuwae Kia Ora Tonu is the first large-scale study of people in advanced age in Aotearoa, New Zealand and the only longitudinal study of people in advanced age that includes a large number of Māori people. The overall study, funded by the Health Research Council, aims to find out what factors contribute to ageing successfully in those already very old.  LILACSNZ is directed by a joint leadership team in close relationship with the RōpūKaitiaki o Ngā Tikanga Māori/Protectors of Principles in Conduct in Māori Research.

The objectives of this research were twofold: first, to assess the societal impacts of the forestry industry on the wider Māori community as a result of the presence of the Whakatāne Board Mill and the Kawerau Norske Skog Tasman Mill in the Bay of Plenty region and second, to examine; (i) the extent to which employment at the mills has provided social, economic, educational and health gains and mobility; (ii) the outcomes for the communities of the resources provided by mills and forestry initiatives; (iii) the social effects of both strong and weak economic performance of the forestry industry upon the communities.

Efforts have been made to develop protocols for the use and handling of blood samples, but at the time of this study starting, the formation of guidelines that take into account the needs and views of Māori had not been completed. Guided by Kaupapa Māori research methodologies, this study acknowledged He Korowai Oranga (The Ministry of Health’s Māori Health Strategy) and critiqued non-Māori views of genetic information and kaitiakitanga of this information. There was also an opportunity to interview Māori from the Wellington community who had been approached to take part in a series of sleep studies, involving providing a biological sample, (i.e. a saliva sample) for research.