Projects

This internship was a literature review evaluating the available academic research pertaining to the role of wairua in whare tangata ora. It responds to the serious deficit of academic outputs in this area and contributes to the rationale on why it is needed.

Project lead: Professor Waikaremoana Waitoki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Māhanga), The University of Waikato | Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

The ACT Party introduced the Treaty Principles Bill in 2024, proclaiming to protect everyone’s equal rights before the law. The Bill has sparked immense debates over the Crown’s attempt to rewrite the articles of te Tiriti o Waitangi and undermine Māori tino rangatiratanga.

Project lead: Dr Ani Kainamu Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research

Across Te Tai-o-Araiteuru, mana whenua must dispute the controversial issue of ‘kina barrens’; a biased view that is used to increase commercial kina quota.

Although mana whenua have intimate knowledge of their rohe moana, the current decision-making process priviledges Western science. There is little known scientific information about the stock or the impacts of fishing on the kina population within this coastline; except a questionable quota-owner led survey in Moeraki.

Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) requires Te Tiriti partnership by supporting multiple knowledge in decision-making. We aim to contribute to existing partnerships and ensure robust evidence. Utilising multiple-methods this research project draws on mātauranga of kina and associated systems as taonga.

Project lead: Professor Tom Roa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato, Ngāti Apakura), The University of Waikato | Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

This project will document Māori-led responses to climate change through a Te Ao Māori (Māori worldview) lens, focusing on the connection between Māori communities and their ancestral whenua (land).

Through wānanga (digital storytelling workshops) and interviews, the research will explore how Māori of the Waikato-King Country region have addressed in the past and are addressing today the effects of climate change through their deep understandings of traditional knowledge and innovative Māori solutions.

Universities in Aotearoa hold a vast, largely unmapped, collection of Māori data. With that, these institutions are in positions of power to control the ways in which Māori data is collected, stored, accessed and used, often without meaningful involvement from Māori communities. Organised across three objectives, this project explores how Māori data governance can be strengthened within academic policy and institutional contexts in ways which give effect to Māori Data Sovereignty for Māori hāpori, hapū and iwi.

The first objective investigates the potential for Machine Learning to identify and locate Māori research data held within universities.

Objective two examines existing approaches to Māori data governance within a university context and identifies opportunities to bring institutional policies and practices into alignment with Te Kāhui Raraunga's Māori Data Governance Model.

The third objective focuses on the relationships between Māori rightsholders and their data, exploring how Māori aspirations for MDSov can be at the centre of all decision-making.

Awardee: Hamiora Te Momo (Ngāti Porou (Ngāti Konohi), Ngāti Raukawa (Ngāti Whakatere), University of Waikato

This doctorial study in computer science explores the design and development of a culturally grounded mobile augmented reality (MAR) system where carvings on the marae can see, recognise, and respond to users through tikanga-led interaction. Using on-device face detection with portable machine learning models, each carving retains relational awareness of individual users—including those sharing whānau devices—supporting personalised engagement without requiring internet connectivity. Users are guided through a whakapapa-based network of pouwhenua, where permission and sequence matter: deeper storytelling is unlocked only through culturally correct pathways.