About this research
PhD Candidate: Jennifer Tokomauri McGregor (Ngati Raukawa (Waikato))
Primary Supervisor(s): Dr. Alayne Mikahere-Hall
Background: Despite being a long-term government priority, the inequity of Māori nurses in the health workforce is long-standing, suggesting that that recruitment and retention of Māori into the nursing workforce is problematic. Māori nurses report various challenges in nursing education and the working environment, such as racism and feeling undervalued, lonely and isolated. Moreover, the dual competency, knowledge and praxis of mātauranga Māori and nursing, that Māori nurses come with is often marginalised and excluded from patient care. Understanding what can be done to create and promote culturally-safe spaces for Māori nurses in education and the workplace is fundamental to the recruitment and retention of Māori into nursing. Moreover, further research into how Māori nurses conceptualise culturally safe spaces for practice development is recommended, particularly given the Ministry of Health’s (2020) commitment to achieving health equity for Māori.
Research question/s:
1.How do Māori nurses conceptualise culturally-safe spaces for practice development?
2. What are the benefits and outcomes for Māori nurses?
3. What are the key cultural elements that can be applied more broadly to nursing practice?
Aims: To understand what culturally-safe spaces for Māori nurses to develop their nursing practice looks and feels like.
Objective: To utilise Matauranga Māori to guide the development of culturally safe working environments for Māori nurses.
The significance of this research: Kawa Whakaruruhau (cultural safety in a Māori context) was developed by Māori nursing philosopher, Dr. Ihirapeti Ramsden, over 30 years ago in response to the negative health care environments for Māori, including Māori nurses. Cultural safety has since been embedded into the NZ (and international) nursing curriculum and competencies, However, there has been no formal evaluation of whether Māori (including Māori nurses) experience cultural safety in the health care setting. This research will make a unique contribution to the literature, specific to Māori nurses’ practice development and the evaluation of cultural safety for our Māori nurses.
Kairangahau · Researchers
Associate Professor Alayne Mikahere-Hall
Ngāti Whatua, Te Rarawa, Tainui-Maniapoto
Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
Rātonga Hapori | Community ServiceAssociate Professor Mikahere-Hall (Ngāti Whatua, Te Rarawa, Tainui-Maniapoto)…
Associate Professor Alayne Mikahere-Hall
Ētahi atu · Other projects
This research programme dives beneath the surface to expose how efforts to address racism in Aotearoa can be symbolic, sidelining Māori worldviews and limiting true transformation. Led through a kaupapa Māori lens, this programme challenges narrow, imported definitions of racism and equity, and confronts how dominant systems create and maintain Māori…
View projectResearch to Interrupt Racism and (In)equity (RIRI)
This research programme dives beneath the surface to expose how efforts to address racism in Aotearoa can be symbolic, sidelining Māori worldviews and limiting true transformation.
Led through a kaupapa Māori lens, this programme challenges narrow, imported definitions of racism and equity, and confronts how dominant systems create and maintain Māori ‘vulnerability’. It aims to reframe equity on Māori terms—grounded in rangatiratanga, Indigenous knowledge, and the realities of colonisation.
Kairangahau · Researchers
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Associate Professor Donna Cormack
Associate Professor Donna Cormack
Dr Donna Cormack (Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe) is an Associate Professor at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, University of Auckland.Donna is course director for the postgraduate papers MAORIHTH 710 Kaupapa Māori Theory, and MAORIHTH 709 Transformative Research for Māori Health, and co-convenes MAORIHTH711 Kaupapa Māori quantitative research. Donna teaches into other undergraduate and postgraduate papers in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. She is also an active member of Tōmaiora Research Centre within Te Kupenga Hauora Māori. Her research focuses on racism and other forms of oppression… -
Professor Sarah-Jane Paine
Professor Sarah-Jane Paine
Professor Sarah-Jane Paine (Tūhoe) is a leading Māori health researcher and internationally respected authority on Indigenous child wellbeing. She is Research Director and Principal Investigator of Growing Up in New Zealand, Aotearoa’s flagship longitudinal study of child development, and a Professor at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.Her work in Kaupapa Māori epidemiology has influenced national policy in maternal and child health, racism and child wellbeing, food security, and youth wellbeing. Known for combining scientific rigour with strong community… -
Professor Papaarangi Reid
Professor Papaarangi Reid
Papaarangi is Tumuaki and Head of Department of Maori Health at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She holds science and medical degrees from the University of Auckland and is a specialist in public health medicine. She has tribal affiliations to Te Rarawa in the Far North of Aotearoa and her research interests include analysing disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens as a means of monitoring government commitment to indigenous rights. -
Professor Ricci Harris
Professor Ricci Harris
Professor Ricci Harris (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa) is a public health physician and Kaupapa Māori epidemiologist at Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare.Her research is primarily concerned with upholding Māori rights to health and health equity as ensured by Te Tiriti o Waitangi and in-line with International Indigenous Rights.She draws on Kaupapa Māori Research theory to undertake and develop decolonial approaches to epidemiology that centre Māori and are contextualised within systems of ongoing racism and colonialism. This has included research into the classification of… -
Dr Arama Rata
Dr Arama Rata
Arama Rata is of Ngāti Maniapoto, Taranaki, and Ngāruahine descent. She completed her PhD in Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012, which focused on Māori cultural engagement, identity, and psychological well-being in State secondary schools. Arama then lectured at Te Kawa a Māui (the School of Māori Studies), where she received a Research Establishment Grant to study Māori collective remembering of the New Zealand Wars. Dr Rata is currently involved with research relating to Māori health experiences, Māori in rural communities, as well as iwi consultancy. -
Hana Burgess
Hana Burgess
Hana (Ngäpuhi, Te Roroa, Te Ätihaunui a Päpärangi, Ngäti Tüwharetoa) (she/her) is doing a PhD in Mäori health, with supervision from Donna (Käi Tahu, Käti Mämoe) (she/her) and Papaarangi (Te Rarawa) (she/her)
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