Doctoral Projects

Nikki Barrett (Ngāti Hauā me Ngāti Porou), University of Waikato

My PhD will focus on Māori-specific interventions that refocus delivery of health services to become holistic and responsive to Māori need. The key feature of my research is the use of the He Pikenga Waiora (HPW) Implementation Framework to co-design a holistic Harti Hauora Māmā Assessment Tool (HHMAt) and implement within the Hapū Wānanga programme.

A key characteristic of the HPW Implementation Framework is that whānau voice will be used in all stages of the project to ensure quality and continuous improvement throughout the project. Too often New Zealand research, literature and reports draw on largely quantitative data to focus on the poor health outcomes of Māori compared to their non-Māori counterparts.

Aaron Smale (Ngati Porou, Nga Puhi, Whakatohea), Victoria, University of Wellington

Although there is a significant research showing Maori are over represented in negative social statistics, there has been very little research connecting these statistics to the impacts of abuse in social welfare custody. For Maori to flourish, particularly those in hard to reach communities such as gangs and prisons, this narrative needs to be told. My research will help victims and wider society understand the impacts this dark chapter in New Zealand history has had on Maori and the country as a whole. This understanding will lead to more effective responses to those impacts.

Grace O'Leary (Te Arawa, Nga Puhi), University of Waikato

Māori sex workers are over-represented in street level sex work - an area known to be prone to more human rights abuses, unreported violence, riskier health and safety workplaces, higher rates of illicit substance abuse, and lower age of entry. As with many sex workers in Aotearoa, Māori sex workers continue to be discriminated against both in their jobs, and out, in areas such as housing and healthcare.

This research aims at addressing issues of stigma, discrimination and victimisation by providing a space where Māori women sex workers can speak about their bodies not as primarily sex working bodies, but bodies that participate in another aspect of society (with much less discrimination associated), that of sport and physical activity. My findings thus far reveal the ways sport and physical activity provide a mechanism for Māori women sex workers to problematise, feel, and celebrate their bodies.

How do fat Indigenous wāhine reclaim body sovereignty as a form of resistance? This research centred on the lived experiences of fat Māori wāhine, challenging colonial and biomedical narratives through the lens of mātauranga Māori. It reclaims tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake of the body, and reimagines access, wellbeing, and worth beyond systems of oppression.

Griffin Manawaroa Leonard (Te Arawa), University of Otago

The Radical Nonviolence in Aotearoa hui was the first hui of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. Nonviolent movements and the academic study of them is not new. Nor are such movements organised by Māori seeking to uphold their rights. What is inovative about the proposed research, however, is that it is based upon bringing together a varied group of New Zealanders and internationals to discuss these matters.

Sophie Williams (Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa), University of Auckland

He tōnga kākano – The planting of the seed is a collaborative study of indigenous performative knowledge within a contemporary dance context.

The focus for this work is the ways in which whakapapa and Māori identity are integral to the expressions of indigenous (Māori) performative knowledge within haka theatre especially, and the wider context of contemporary dance.