Here you will find out about our current mahi, resources and publications that we have authored alongside amazing talented academics and friends. Please enjoy and would love any feedback that you have to offer.
Our strategic planning
National Kaitiaki Roopū
Working alongside Te Roopū we guided the board through a strategic planning wānanga held in Te Tai Rāwhiti utilising our tīpuna knowledge systems of wayfinding & navigation.
“My experience is reflected in this whakataukī – Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nōna te ngahere. Kote manu e kai ana i te mātauranga, nōna te ao. The training made it easy to reconnect with nature and the importance of those relationships, reflected in mātauranga Māori. I feel an inner strength and a stronger sense of who I am and where I am going. Both in and outside my mahi.”
Sandra Corbett | Kaiwhakahaere
National Cervical Screening Programme
Our workforce projects
Ngākau Oho
Ngākau Oho is an innovative Rongoā Māori, whānau-centred programme for ACC clients and whānau. It is held by Te Ao Māori (a Māori world view and therefore underpinned by tikanga) – in which to foster cultural concepts essential to Māori health and wellbeing.
Ngākau Oho acknowledges the realities that clients and their whānau bring to healing relationships – advancing concepts of Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to the foreground of health practices to restore and revitalise connections with tinana, hinengaro, wairua, whenua, te ao, and whānau.
Whai Hinātore
Whai Hinātore is a cultural leadership advancement programme with 40 kaimahi that worked within Te Ara Rau Access and Choice Mental Health services over 12 months. The programme explored concepts such as whakapapa, te reo Māori, tikanga, pūrākau, wairua and maramataka. The aim was to contribute towards developing a culturally safe and competent workforce that is well equipped and supported to provide a quality service that is culturally centred and led.
Our research papers
Rangatahi perspectives on hauora & wellbeing: A qualitative report from Aotearoa
So, what can be done to improve the lives of our rangatahi? In this report, we outline
key findings from an exploratory, qualitative project designed to elicit in-depth, contextualised understandings of what shapes the wellbeing journeys of our young people, today.
‘HĀPAI TE HAUORA’ – ‘IT’S LIKE BREATHING YOUR ANCESTORS INTO LIFE’
Navigating journeys of rangatahi wellbeing
Rangatahi described ‘hāpai te hauora’ as ‘breathing your ancestors into life’. This paper explores the ways rangatahi Māori make sense of and live ‘hāpai te hauora’ through sharing their stories of navigating wellbeing. Rangatahi Māori described a yearning to be seen, heard and sovereign just as they are.
Developing culturally safe education practices in optometry schools across Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand
This paper focuses on features that enable or impede progress in the development of culturally safe practices within the optometry programmes to improve eye health equity for Indigenous recognise the diversity of Indigenous cultures across Australia and NZ.
‘You can’t really define it can you?’ Rangatahi perspectives on hauora and wellbeing
In this paper, we share findings from an in-depth, collaborative qualitative research project exploring rangatahi hauora. A central purpose of our work has been to find ways to enliven and challenge existing discourse on youth wellbeing with the voices and perspectives of diverse young people.
Aro ki te Wairua o te Ha: Spoken Spirit, Spirit Formed
Not your usual academic article, I wanted to invite art, video, spoken word into this dry academic world. Come journey with me sharing stories of Psychology, diving, painting and my Nan that carry us through the role of unknowing and vulnerability when experimenting with form. I reflect on how painting is an assertion of mana motuhake and commitment to decolonisation.
Awry2: Making Space for Experimenting with Form
Could experimenting with form help us to counter – even crack – coloniality? We are hopeful. For us, experimenting with form shimmers with possibilities for (a) decolonising
Psychology. Awry2 (“Awry-squared”) is a section dedicated to experimenting with form within Critical Psychology and related fields. Aka, where Awry goes awry. In this Introduction, we summarise some shapeshifting possibilities for knowledge, knowing, knowers when experimenting with form. And we overview how, through Awry2, we are experimenting with making a space for these possibilities to both breathe and be put to the test.
Whanaungatanga: A space to be ourselves
The paper highlights a shared
health system experience expressed by CVD
patients as their yearning for whanaungatanga
(relationship, kinship, connection) and
reciprocal and responsive relationships; a space
to be ourselves, to be Māori.
Health Literacy in Action
This article reports on an analysis of qualitative data collected for a kaupapa Māori evaluation of a Cardiovascular Disease Medications Health Literacy Intervention.
Kaupapa Māori Evaluation: A collaborative Journey
The interpretation and practice of kaupapa Māori evaluation take many forms, each involving its own set of considerations, challenges and outcomes. This paper explores the complexities involved in a collaborative journey through an evaluation project where kaupapa Māori evaluation was a guiding principle, highlighting its successes and challenges.
MANA MOTUHAKE O NGĀTI POROU
This research promotes reclamation of health literacy as a space for Māori to be ourselves; a space that is negotiated, adaptive, and shaped by people, whānau (family group) and communities.
Kaupapa Māori Evaluation: Transforming Health Literacy
This is my PhD thesis. It includes the four papers above and additional chapters on my approach & practice, findings, Indigenous health literacy and conclusion chapter on where to from here?
MĀORI AND MEDICATIONS
What happens when the pills go home?
This study presents a view of how medications are acculturated into Māori homescapes, relationships and daily routines. The use of health technologies by health professionals to interrupt illness and improve quality of life must be cognisant of the cultural contexts into which medications are prescribed.
Medications and meanings in Maori households with chronic illnesses
This is my Masters thesis. I explore the meanings and use of medications within four Māori households containing at least one chronically ill householder. Within a Māori whānau context, the values of maanakitanga, rangatiratanga, and whanaungatanga were recognised as having an integral role in understanding the social practices with medications in each household.
Below are links to our blog that give you more insight into the current kaupapa we are working on.
Kaupapa Māori consultancy 