Doctoral thesis

Bonnie Maihi (Waikato-Tainui), University of Waikato This project explores education and work pathways for Maaori Rangatahi/youth growing up in Aotearoa gang spaces. The research aims to create awareness of pathways for Maaori children growing up in Aotearoa gang spaces and contribute to the development of Maaori whaanau in Aotearoa gang spaces by providing…

Rev Wayne Te Kaawa (Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Awa, Yūhoe), University of Otago The aim and objective of this project is to publicise what a Christological Creed or Faith Statement would consist of using Māori whakaaro rather than a western Christian hermeneutical framework. The expected outcome of this work is to stimulate discussion in the Māori ecumenical…

Jessica Gerbic (Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Pikiao), The University of Auckland Māori mothers are a taonga (treasure precious) for Māori society in the role they play for Whānau, hapū and iwi. The age when wāhine have tamariki has never been a barrier within Māori culture. Yet the process of colonisation has significantly impacted the status of young Māori wāhine…

Kirsty Dunn (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), University of Canterbury My PhD thesis, tentatively titled “‘Into the Dark, We Are Moths’” Centering Whakapapa, Representing Animals in Māori Writing in English” is an exploration of the ways in which human-animal relationships are represented and reimagined in contemporary Māori writing in English. I aim to both…

Louise Kewene-Doig (Tainui, Ngāti Haua), University of Otago My research focus is Māori music experiences of the 1960s through the Māori Showband phenomenon. Using Kaupapa Māori and whakapapa research methods, my thesis will explore the importance of the Māori Showbands from the perspective of band members. I am creating unique ways of retelling cultural…

Riripeti Haretuku (Ngapuhi, Taranaki, Te Arawa me Whakatohea), The University of Auckland In this work, I rethink SUDI: SIDS, also known as cot death, within a kaupapa Māori framework. I use the term mate ohorere pēpi, not as an equivalent of SUDI: SIDS, but to encompass all the aspects of a Māori experience of the sudden death of a pēpi (baby). I argue…

Nikki Barrett (Ngāti Hauā me Ngāti Porou), University of Waikato My PhD will focus on Māori-specific interventions that refocus delivery of health services to become holistic and responsive to Māori need. The key feature of my research is the use of the He Pikenga Waiora (HPW) Implementation Framework to co-design a holistic Harti Hauora Māmā Assessment…

Aaron Smale (Ngati Porou, Nga Puhi, Whakatohea), Victoria, University of Wellington Although there is a significant research showing Maori are over represented in negative social statistics, there has been very little research connecting these statistics to the impacts of abuse in social welfare custody. For Maori to flourish, particularly those in hard to…

Grace O'Leary (Te Arawa, Nga Puhi), University of Waikato Māori sex workers are over-represented in street level sex work - an area known to be prone to more human rights abuses, unreported violence, riskier health and safety workplaces, higher rates of illicit substance abuse, and lower age of entry. As with many sex workers in Aotearoa, Māori sex workers…

How do fat Indigenous wāhine reclaim body sovereignty as a form of resistance? This research centred on the lived experiences of fat Māori wāhine, challenging colonial and biomedical narratives through the lens of mātauranga Māori. It reclaims tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake of the body, and reimagines access, wellbeing, and worth beyond systems of…

Griffin Manawaroa Leonard (Te Arawa), University of Otago The Radical Nonviolence in Aotearoa hui was the first hui of its kind in Aotearoa New Zealand. Nonviolent movements and the academic study of them is not new. Nor are such movements organised by Māori seeking to uphold their rights. What is inovative about the proposed research, however, is that it…

Sophie Williams (Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa), University of Auckland He tōnga kākano – The planting of the seed is a collaborative study of indigenous performative knowledge within a contemporary dance context. The focus for this work is the ways in which whakapapa and Māori identity are integral to the expressions of indigenous (Māori) performative knowledge within…