Projects

Otago has very low numbers of Māori language speakers – French is the most widely spoken second language in the region. Given this context, it is important that any interventions aimed at revitalising and maintaining the Māori language are evidence-based.

The population of kanakana (piharau, lamprey) is poorly understood and believed to be declining. In Murihiku concern for this taonga species led to this research in the Waikawa River.
 

Te Reo Māori represents an amazing opportunity to New Zealand for its potential to enrich society and culture and transform the experience and consciousness of those who are exposed to and use the language. The Māori language is an official language of New Zealand and is indigenous to our country. It is part of our country’s national character and identity.

This project draws together in digital form taonga exchanged during European voyages to Polynesia between 1765 and 1840. The digital format helps increase knowledge of the collections and reconnects iwi with their taonga held in archives and museums worldwide.

The Hauraki Māori Trust Board and the Cawthron Institute collaborated in this research project which stemmed from a spate of dog deaths on the beaches of Tikapa Moana (the Hauraki Gulf) in August 2009.  The dogs died from the poison tetrodotoxin (TTX) and this poison was present in sea slugs that had washed up on beaches.

The late Dr Pei te Hurinui Jones (Ngāti Maniapoto), one of Māoridom’s leading scholars, amassed a significant collection of books, manuscripts and taonga during his lifetime. His son Brian Hauāuru Jones donated the vast majority to the University of Waikato and a room, He Mahi Māreikura, was established in 2004 especially to house the collection. The room’s layout is based on a whare puni and adheres to tikanga principles.