Pātai Te Ao Māori

Hineitimoana’s research is a critical biography of her grandmother, Tuaiwa (Eva) Rickard, a Tainui Ngāti Koata woman known for her influential role in the Māori land rights movement of the 1970s.

Sharron’s doctoral research is a strengths-based study called ‘Hauora: A Ngāti Kahungunu perspective’ and the research question is, “What is the relationship between kaupapa Māori community-led initiatives and Māori notions of hauora and how can this mātauranga-ā-iwi inform Te Ara Toiora, the Ngāti Kahungunu Wellbeing Strategy?”

Māori have a long history of storytelling, which remains a central aspect of te ao Māori and a space for rangatiratanga. This is true of contemporary art forms, though little research has been conducted into adapting literature to screen. Briar’s research seeks to fill this gap by researching the influence of oral narrative forms on Māori literature and how that is then adapted to the screen.

Savannah’s research aims to compile mātauranga of whare tikanga (Māori building practises) to understand the processes and practices involved in customary whare Māori (Māori buildings) construction.

Simon’s research is concerned with the imposition of Western thought on Māori which has displaced our ways of knowing and being. Colonisation is most visible in the political and biophysical spheres, however, less apparent is the damage to the less tangible – a Māori metaphysics – which underpins relation to the world, and importantly, our ways of existing.

Ahinata’s project engages with the experiences of wāhine and gender diverse Kāi Tahu, informed by iwi and gender specific contexts, in order to answer the question: How do we as wāhine and gender diverse Kāi Tahu learn about, become, and take care of ourselves, specifically in the areas of gender, sex, sexuality and body?