About this research
Project Summary
Global climate change has been identified as the single greatest threat to human health. Within this paradigm, indigenous knowledge systems shaped by generations of sustainable interactions with ecosystems, are being looked to for pathways to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mātauranga, the holistic and integrated knowledge system developed by the Indigenous Māori people of Aotearoa is no exception.
The research aims to strengthen the application of mātauranga in taiao initiatives to support better climate health outcomes in Aotearoa. The project team will conduct a policy analysis to scope and determine the ways in which mātauranga has been included in policies across government ministries and regional councils. The research will also undertake key informant interviews with people engaged in te taiao initiatives who have experience, insights or expertise in relation to relevant policies. The findings and shared learnings will strengthen the development and implementation of mātauranga to support climate health outcomes in Aotearoa. In order to strengthen mātauranga to support climate health outcomes in Aotearoa the research seeks to understand the barriers and enablers that climate policies across government ministries and regional councils place on the development and implementation of Māori-led actions and initiatives in the taiao space. In doing so, the research will contribute to Māori decision making and leadership in the development and activation of mātauranga practices that support better climate health outcomes.
The project will also contribute to the ongoing work of Climate Health Aotearoa (CHA), a multi-Institutional research group, in the development and implementation of collaborative research with tangata whenua into climate health recovery.
Research Question
How can the place and practice of mātauranga in te taiao-related policies be strengthened to support climate health outcomes in Aotearoa?
Lead Researcher
Dr Kenneth Taiapa, Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Rongowhakaata, University of Otago
Research Team
Summer Wright, Ngāti Maniapoto, Massey University
Assoc Prof Rhys Jones, Ngāti Kahungunu, University of Auckland
Prof Helen Moewaka Barnes, Te Kapotai, Ngapuhi-nui-tonu, SHORE and Whāriki Research Centre, Massey University
Assoc Prof Bridgette Masters-Awatere, Te Rarawa, Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau, Ngai te Rangi, University of Waikato
Dr Christina McKerchar, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngai Tuhoe, Ngāti Porou, University of Otago
This project explores how mātauranga Māori can strengthen climate change responses in Aotearoa. By analysing policy and interviewing experts working in te taiao initiatives, the research aims to identify how government approaches support—or limit—Māori-led action. The findings aim to enhance Māori decision-making and climate health outcomes through Indigenous knowledge and leadership.
Kairangahau · Researchers
Assoc Professor Rhys Jones
Ngāti Kahungunu
Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland
Dr Rhys Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu) is a Public Health Physician and Associate Professor in Te Kupenga Hauora Māori (TKHM)…
Assoc Professor Rhys Jones
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes
Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Manu
Massey University
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes is based out of Massey University and is currently Director of Whāriki and Co-director…
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes
Associate Professor Christina Mckerchar
Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou
University of Otago
Christina Mckerchar is of Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūhoe, and Ngāti Porou descent. She trained as a nutritionist and worked for…
Associate Professor Christina Mckerchar
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Māori have a long association with the natural environment and are well-positioned to make important contributions to sustainably managing natural resources in New Zealand and the world. Kaitiakitanga and other practices provide a powerful foundation for developing paradigms in governance, management, caring, development and benefit-sharing of land, water…
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Kairangahau · Researchers
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Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes is based out of Massey University and is currently Director of Whāriki and Co-director of the SHORE and Whariki Research Centre. She has worked on research in many areas; more recently relationships between the health of people and the health of environments, sexual coercion, alcohol and youth well-being and identity.Her work is both qualitative and quantitative and she is also involved in developing research within Māori paradigms. Helen is a long time NPM researcher and is now a NPM Theme Leader (Te Tai Ao - Natural Environment ) and member of our Research… -
Mr. Garth Harmsworth
Mr. Garth Harmsworth
Garth Harmsworth is a senior environmental scientist based in Palmerston North and has worked for Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research since 1992. His professional career spans over 38 years in resource management, land resource assessment, national environmental databases, GIS applications, and indigenous research. Garth pioneered much of the Māori led research in Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research Ltd., working on a wide range projects with Māori organisations, Government agencies, regional councils, industry, and communities throughout New Zealand, particularly in the areas of land use planning… -
Wendy Henwood
Wendy Henwood
Wendy Henwood lives and works from home in the Hokianga. She has a background in community health and development, and research and formative/process evaluation of community public health and community development type programmes. She also is provides evaluation and planning training with community providers in the north. Wendy is actively involved with marae/hapu developments and iwi affairs. Recent research projects have included Te Mauri O Te U-kai-po: intergenerational experiences of environment and wellbeing of an iwi, and Interconnections: the links between whānau and marae in Te… -
Dr Gail Tipa
Dr Gail Tipa
Gail Tipa (Kai Tahu) completed a BA at the University of Otago and taught for six years at schools in Dunedin and the Taieri before completing a Master's degree in Resource and Regional Planning. She then worked in the planning field firstly for Electricity Corporation of New Zealand and then for the Southern Regional Health Authority.In 1996 Gail began consultancy work, being involved with the Ngai Tahu claim and other iwi resource management projects.Since 1996 Gail has increasingly focused on work that enhances Maori aspirations. This includes representation of her rununga and iwi on…
Climate change disproportionately affects Indigenous communities across the globe. In Aotearoa, Māori face these inequities while also holding deep-rooted knowledge systems that offer powerful, holistic responses to environmental transformation.
View projectExamining the contribution of mātauranga Māori to climate health in Aotearoa
Climate change disproportionately affects Indigenous communities across the globe. In Aotearoa, Māori face these inequities while also holding deep-rooted knowledge systems that offer powerful, holistic responses to environmental transformation.
Kairangahau · Researchers
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Dr Ken Taiapa
Dr Ken Taiapa
Ken Taiapa is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Whāriki Research Centre, and is part of the HRC funded Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora research programme. His research interests include the relationship between healthy environments and healthy people, with a focus on Māori & indigenous values and eco-health, and kai sovereignty. His PhD work told the story of a hapū mārakai inititiative and the healing that occured through connecting people to whenua. He is also employed by the University of Otago as a Post-Dpctoral Research Fellow on the Climate Health Aotearoa project; a multi-institutional… -
Professor Bridgette Masters-Awatere
Professor Bridgette Masters-Awatere
Bridgette Masters-Awatere (Te Rarawa, Ngāi te Rangi, Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau) is a Professor in Te Kura Whatu Oho Mauri - School of Psychology - in the Division of Arts, Law, Psychology and Social Sciences at the University of Waikato. In addition to her role as Director of the Community Psychology postgraduate programme for registration as a psychologist, she is the Director of the Māori & Psychology Research Unit. Both Directorships are situated within the School of Psychology. Bridgette trained as a psychologist, with a special interest in community and Indigenous wellbeing. Before joining… -
Associate Professor Christina Mckerchar
Associate Professor Christina Mckerchar
Christina Mckerchar is of Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūhoe, and Ngāti Porou descent. She trained as a nutritionist and worked for a number of years for Te Hotu Manawa Māori, a national Māori Health provider, before her academic career. Her research has focused broadly on the right to healthy food. She has researched the food environment, especially food availability and marketing, food security and food sovereignty, and other aspects of public health that impact hauora Māori, including alcohol, transport, and housing.Christina is a member of Climate Health Aotearoa, and is on the Food Expert panel for… -
Summer Rangimaarie Wright
Summer Rangimaarie Wright
Summer (Ngāti Maniapoto) trained as a dietitian and is a public health researcher focused on climate justice, health equity, and food sovereignty. She has also worked in disability as a youth worker and support worker. Summer has a few creative pursuits and likes to spend time outside and with animals.
Māori (and Indigenous) women engage in embodied relationship with the natural environment in a range of ways, such as raranga, rongoā, or physical activity. This research explored what these embodied relationships can teach us about the potential for reciprocal healing between wahine and whenua, person and place, by developing a network of Māori and…
View projectWhakarongo, titiro, korikori kōrero ki ngā wāhine – exploring embodied and reciprocal healing relationship with our natural environments
Māori (and Indigenous) women engage in embodied relationship with the natural environment in a range of ways, such as raranga, rongoā, or physical activity. This research explored what these embodied relationships can teach us about the potential for reciprocal healing between wahine and whenua, person and place, by developing a network of Māori and Indigenous women and prioritising mātauranga wāhine.
Kairangahau · Researchers
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Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes is based out of Massey University and is currently Director of Whāriki and Co-director of the SHORE and Whariki Research Centre. She has worked on research in many areas; more recently relationships between the health of people and the health of environments, sexual coercion, alcohol and youth well-being and identity.Her work is both qualitative and quantitative and she is also involved in developing research within Māori paradigms. Helen is a long time NPM researcher and is now a NPM Theme Leader (Te Tai Ao - Natural Environment ) and member of our Research… -
Meretini Bennett-Huxtable
Meretini Bennett-Huxtable
I was born in Whanganui and raised in Taihape, where I now live as a mum to three young mana wahine on our ancestral lands in Mōkai Pātea. I'm raising our girls in the lessons of sustainability and survival with the whenua whether as a gardener, hunter, gatherer or diver immersed in our taiao. We live flanked by the landmarks and sites of significance as told through our whakapapa.An eagerness from a young age to learn the intricate art of whakapapa, under my mother's watchful eye, has helped to acquire transferable skills in building relationships, networking and collaborating. I have always… -
Assistant Professor Melissa Vera
Assistant Professor Melissa Vera
Dr. Vera is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and The Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH).As a citizen of the Tsm’syen and Yaqui First Nations, her research focuses on Indigenous health and climate change and is heavily grounded in Indigenous research methods and Indigenous knowledges. She focuses on social determinants of health, anti-racist praxis, and amplifying marginalized voices in health literature and policy.EducationBachelor of Arts (BA), Creative Writing, Seattle University, Seattle, WABachelor of Science (BSN), Nursing, Boise… -
Dr. Lillian Bartlett
Dr. Lillian Bartlett