Awardee: Leticia Joesphine Ngoi Vizor (Leticia Joesphine Ngoi Vizor), The University of Auckland
This research explores how Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei (NWŌ) whānau understand, experience, and sustain collective oranga and mental wellbeing, with the overarching aim of developing a culturally grounded iwi-led mental health strategy. The project emerged from the NWŌ Mental Health Forum, established in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns in response to rising isolation and mental distress. In 2022, following the tragic loss of a rangatahi to mate whakamomori (suicide), the forum was revitalised, prompting a renewed focus on oranga and mental wellbeing, and the development of an iwi-specific strategic response.
Guided by a kahui (cohort) of NWŌ staff and hapū members with lived and professional expertise, this research aims to develop a strategic wellbeing framework grounded in NWŌ-specific understandings of oranga and informed by NWŌ kawa, tikanga, and mātauranga. It will explore the historical, social, and environmental influences shaping mental wellbeing, examine NWŌ’s COVID-19 (C-19) response and its role in protecting whakapapa and oranga, and develop a sustainable model that supports intergenerational wellbeing. The strategy will ultimately be implemented within Whai Māia and the wider NWŌ community, and its effectiveness evaluated to identify areas of success, as well as factors that enable or hinder its impact.
The central research question asks how NWŌ whānau conceptualise, experience, and sustain oranga and mental wellbeing. To support this, the study will examine the cultural, historical, and environmental factors shaping NWŌ perspectives, how mātauranga Māori and iwi-specific knowledge can guide a sustainable mental health strategy, the impacts of the C-19 pandemic on whānau oranga, the role of NWŌ initiatives in protecting hapū wellbeing during and after C-19, and how an iwi-led approach can strengthen whānau, hapū, and iwi resilience and flourishment today.
This research is crucial for addressing the long-term effects of colonisation and cultural disenfranchisement, while affirming mana motuhake and enhancing oranga across NWŌ generations.
“Kia rere arorangi te kāhu pōkere ki ngā taumata tiketike”
To soar and fly to the highest heights
(Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei 5-year strategic plan and 2050 ambition).