Cats occupy a complicated space in Aotearoa New Zealand. Domestic cats are valued companion animals. In contrast, feral cats are recognised as one of the most damaging invasive species nationally and internationally. Given this duality, it is important to understand how all New Zealanders perceive and value both feral and companion cats. This literature review explores contemporary Māori attitudes and values towards cats, as documented in academic and grey literature, as well as iwi and hapū management plans.

Research on the health outcomes of Pasifika people in New Zealand has begun to focus on the church’s role as well as that of the Pasifika worldview. This study explores the relationship between the church, Pasifika families and the health system through the concept of vā. Five Pasifika participants, four parishioners and their church minister were interviewed online to facilitate dialogue and gather their voices. Four themes emerged from the interviews and the data analysis: (1) the role of family and close relationships, (2) interactions with healthcare, (3 the role of the church and (4) overarching systemic discussions.

The story of Te Whakatōhea is indistinguishable from its relationship with kai. Starting with the iwi’s migration narratives from Hawaiki to Aotearoa New Zealand, through an economic flourishing that followed initial contact with European settlers, then as a matter of survival following raupatu, kai has been an integral component of Te Whakatōhea culture and tikanga. Today this relationship with kai is manifest in the industry-leading aquaculture enterprises of the iwi; however, there are also serious challenges present in terms of its people’s nutritional wellbeing, with access to fresh kai in the Ōpōtiki rohe limited for a high portion of the population.

This research investigated how mātauranga Māori through a pūrākau could be used to increase a tauiwi teacher’s confidence and practice within a tuakana–teina learning relationship. Mātauranga Māori relates to the interwoven connections between humans and the world that inform tikanga. Relationship with the local hapū and their tikanga of partnership and whakamana provided a framework of whanaungatanga, through which ako occurred between the hapū and the tuakana–teina.

Whakataukī are metaphors that provide us with ethical guidelines, and tikanga and kawa are the wisdom, knowledge and history handed down from the past to future generations to help people navigate their lives and support aspirations for today and the future. Using a twin-hulled waka ama as a metaphor for the relationship between participants and researchers in Indigenous research, this article explores Māori and Indigenous ethics as having equal status to Western research ethics. In relation to research, ethics can be a complicated domain when working alongside Māori and Indigenous peoples.

Māori economies have unique foundations, which differ fundamentally from Eurocentric economies, making it difficult to identify appropriate epistemological and methodological approaches to understanding them. Critical Māori economies scholars emphasise the importance of whakapapa-based approaches to understanding Māori economies. In this article, whakapapa is conceptualised as a way of both knowing (epistemology) and coming to know (methodology) Māori economies. It introduces a whakapapa-based episto-methodological framework based on four key tenets—dimensionality, relationality, obligations, and multi-temporality—to understand Māori economies from a te ao Māori perspective.

Indigenous leadership in healthcare is one way for Indigenous peoples to exercise sovereignty over their health. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the establishment of the Māori Health Authority (MHA) was grounded in a decades-long imperative to address Māori health inequities and operationalise te Tiriti o Waitangi within the health system. However, the populist National-led coalition government formed in November 2023 included the abolishment of the MHA in their first 100-day plan and eventually disestablished it in February 2024.

Māori and Pacific researchers are working hard to transform our research system to enable Māori and Pacific postgraduate students to thrive in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Yet barriers remain, and each new postgraduate generation inherits evolving challenges and opportunities to navigate. This paper is written for Māori and Pacific people who are about to enter the postgraduate STEM space, recognising that we need our own words to help future students to navigate this journey.

To address the freshwater crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand, regional councils must give effect to a relatively new term, Te Mana o te Wai, which is based on a very old word: “mana”. While local understandings are emerging, questions remain among Māori about what Te Mana o te Wai means. This conceptual article reviews the literatures to discuss and define Te Mana o te Wai. Four types of mana emerge from the scholarship: mana comes from the atua; mana is a spiritual power; mana is a generative power, and mana is the authority to control. There is also a fifth aspect: mana is a power that can be taken. The answer to the question of what Te Mana o te Wai means lies in the old words.

Te Paa Harakeke is a metaphor for protection of Māori culture, pūrākau, whenua and whānau wellbeing. It is a framework for protecting children and an allegory for working alongside whānau to achieve oranga-ā-whānau, and it nestles in a Kaupapa Māori and mātauranga Māori space. Watson (2017, 2020) applied Te Paa Harakeke as a model for research through unpacking 10 components to the research setting; these are rito, awhi rito, tūpuna, pakiaka, kōhatu, pakawhā, kakau, kōrari, ngā manu and whenua.