Projects

“Teachers enter the profession because they want to make a difference. This approach helps them do that.” MORE THAN 30 years ago when Russell Bishop first started teaching at Mana College in Porirua, he was struck by a single question: Why did so many Māori students start out well but still fail as they went through school?

How do birds navigate vast oceans, correcting themselves when blown off-course? The inner compass possessed by some animals is an enigma that has absorbed Professor Michael Walker, Joint Director Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, for many years.

For more then a generation scientists have known that life proliferates more rapidly near the equator. The problem was that up until recently, no one knew why this was so. And in 2006 when Dr Shane Wright solved the riddle in a Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga research project, the scientific world applauded.

Like all research centres, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga pursues research excellence through academic communities. But our brief also extends outwards – aiming to also benefit many other communities as widely as possible. In doing this, the Knowledge Exchange programme is a unique feature of the Centre, and an essential part of achieving social transformation.

Project purpose: This research project aims to promote and deepen New Zealand’s understanding of Māori and their culture by ensuring that the stories and voices of Māori affected by the Canterbury earthquakes are heard, respected, valued and incorporated into relevant learning and planning environments.

Project purpose: Hapai Te Hauora Tapui Ltd was set up in 1996 with a specific focus on Māori Public Health. The shareholder organisations are: Te Runanga o Ngāti Whatua, Raukura Hauora O Tainui and Waipareira Trust.

Project purpose: Parents of young children, as the intimate stewards of a new generation, carry the weight of societal expectation upon their often youthful shoulders.

Project purpose: Mate Māori - Kōrero Kaumātua is a project within Te Puawaitanga o Ngā Tapuwai Kia Ora Tonu - Life and Living in Advanced Age: a Cohort Study in New Zealand (The LILAC Study NZ). The purpose of Mate Māori - Kōrero Kaumātua is to document the knowledge of Mate Māori held by the oldest old Māori (aged 80-90 years).

PhDs are the backbone of any research community. Yet for the first hundred years or so of universities in New Zealand the number of Māori doctorates could have been counted on not too many hands. This might make the target Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga set in 2002 of contributing to 500 new Māori PhDs in five years only look the more unrealistic. But it is a welcome measure of change, and of a lot of hard work, that Emeritus Professor Leslie R Tumoana Williams, the Centre’s Capability Building Manager, says that target is well on the way to being achieved.

Project Purpose: The Ōkahu Bay Restoration Project is being undertaken by Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei and is an all-encompassing restoration project. Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei are working with The University of Auckland, Auckland City and NIWA. The first phase is determining baseline and historical conditions of Ōkahu Bay and compiling the information into a GIS database.

A few sleepless nights may well have been all to the good for Sarah-Jane Paine. She successfully completed her doctorate in 2006 on key factors affecting sleep and how they might be affected by ethnicity and socio-economic factors – and in the process became one of 500 new Māori PhDs last year. In a paper published in the international Journal of Biological Rhythms, Sarah-Jane, who is from Tūhoe iwi, saw a prevalence of both “morning people” and ”night owls” in New Zealand.

The teaching and development of a vibrant, dynamic, highly educated and sustainable Māori workforce operatingat the highest levels of tribal and government leadership and civic society, is crucial to driving positive economic, social and environmental transformation in Aotearoa.

Project purpose: To facilitate the publication of map layers that students 2009-11 have contributed to the TKAM Atlas, and secondly to organise and analyse student feedback data related to their Atlas work, for publication in a journal article.

The intern Wiremu Smith will detail recreational fishing hotspots within Tauranga Harbour, especially shellfish and identify species found at each location.

Project purpose: To determine what factors affect the usage of computers in te reo Māori by students in the schooling sector?

Project purpose: Assist indigenous resistance to petrochemical exploitation of Papatūānuku

The programme of work to be carried out: Investigation and identification of fracking impact upon ecosystem and indigenous perspective of impact upon mauri of identified indicators using the Mauri Model decision making framework.

“….a very positive experience. We were able to preserve our mātauranga and build up our capacity in field work survey and monitoring methods along with gaining a new knowledge about our manu in the process.” Toko Renata, Chairperson of the Ruamaahua Islands Trust

“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.

“The gathering was a landmark event as the first of its kind in the South Island and it showed the great increase of Māori researchers and the breadth of areas they were involved in.”

-Dr Rāwiri Taonui, Head of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury

Twenty years ago there where only a handful of Māori researchers with PhDs in New Zealand. But you only needed to visit the Ngā Kete a Rēhua Inaugural Māori Research Symposium held at the University of Canterbury in September to see how much has changed.