This research project developed from a need to solve a problem for Māori: to find a more cost-efficient, sustainable building technology than timber for papakāinga housing.

This research project examined the extent to which eugenics and race theories as discourses promoted certain forms of relationships that played a key role in defining social structures for both Māori and Pākehā.

This project sought to identify and assess the damage done to Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) by chemical contamination from road construction in the Auckland metropolitan area, and to consider ways in which she may be healed. The research team built collaborations between Ngāti Whātua, Manaaki Whenua and key stakeholder organisations such as Transit New Zealand to help identify the major environmental issues for Ngāti Whātua regarding chemical contamination from roads and to reach a consensus on appropriate methods for measuring the state of the environment. 
 

This project examined current practices for measuring Māori participation and achievement in science and mathematics, investigated student experiences of science and mathematics in English medium and Māori medium schools and investigated the views of whānau, parents, caregivers and teachers of Māori students regarding science and mathematics education.

To read more about this project, click here and see page 33.

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.

Over 30 years ago when Professor Russell Bishop started teaching he was struck by a single question: Why did so many Māori students start out well but fail as they went through school? Bishop, Professor of Māori Education at the University of Waikato, and colleagues interviewed Year 9 and 10 high school students, their families, teachers and principals from which he developed the very successful Te Kotahitanga education model in which teachers receive special professional development on how to better teach Māori students.

This research study canvassed Māori opinion at flax-roots level on the idea that te reo Māori, their language, be shared by all New Zealanders. A wide range of views and various types of data  were gathered, and the response to the question of whether Maori could be considered a language for all New Zealanders signalled an affirmative response. However, support was not unanimous and many held reservations about this move.

Outputs
Journal articles

This research project focused on Māori youth and documenting their social territories using multi-media visual data generated by the participants, in conjunction with wānanga and university-based practitioners and students in photography and film media. The researchers employed new methods in visual sociology and worked collaboratively with Māori youth and their iwi communities. Relationships were established with communities within Ngāpuhi, Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Toa, Ngāi Tahu, across urban, semi-urban, small town and rural areas.

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.

This project focused on kaiako literacy instruction practices and tauira learning pertaining to reading comprehension and Māori vocabulary development. It involved five Kura Kaupapa Māori schools located in rural communities or small rural townships. Kura staff and researchers were involved in a collaborative process involving the collection, analysis and feedback of student achievement and classroom observation data. The first year of the project involved collecting baseline data to develop literacy learning and teaching profiles.