The first 2024 issue for MAI Journal, Volume 13, Issue 1 contains 12 articles of different subjects and 1 Commentary. This reflects the multi-disciplinary approach for NPM research in Aotearoa. From Traditional Knowledges to a Framework for Vision Matauranga and Safer travel options for tamariki to Reinvigorating homeplaces for our whanau and communities, we see the different areas of research undertaken by our researchers and authors in this issue for 2024.
Our lead article “Ma wai e kawea taku kauae ki Tāwhiti? Utilising mātauranga Maori to convey us into the future” by Maia Heteraka. “Traditional knowledges are not homogenous or tidy; they often contain hidden meanings and tensions”. The author explores Indigenous knowledges in contemporary contexts and sets to critically examine traditional Māori knowledge and epistemology in relation to modern challenges and meaning making. A key argument presented is that to utilise mātauranga Māori in genuine and transformative ways, we must first strip back layers of misunderstandings caused by colonisation.
In our second article by Katharina Ruckstuhl and Maria Amoamo “Practice Theory - A framework for enabling Vision Mātauranga in science, technology and innovation”. The authors introduce us to Vision Mātauranga (VM) science policy framework launched to unlock the science and innovation potential of Māori knowledge, resources and people. An initiative amongst several others at the time that might be referred to as the “Māori potential” aimed at ensuring “Māori aspirations for optimal quality of life”.
A narrative review and model “The importance of culturally safe active school travel options to enable tamariki Maori to flourish” by Shannon Mihaere, Melody Smith and Rhys Jones helps us to better understand the low and declining trends in active transport. They call on town planners to develop sensitivity and sensibility towards the cultural backgrounds, realities and priorities of Māori towards producing more sustainable, healthy and equitable neighbourhoods. Factors influencing the feasibility of active transport options for tamariki Maori including school choice, concerns about neighbourhood safety and lack of access to places of importance to whānau Māori. The review reinforces the importance of creating culturally safe active transport options that enable tamariki Māori to flourish.
“Reinvigorating homeplaces, the impact of house repairs on Maori wellbeing” by Fiona Cram explores when the dwelling needs repairs, it can compromise health and wellbeing and be a barrier to homemaking. The Hawke’s Bay qualitative study of whanau members and the impact of government funded critical house repairs that were primarily needed as the result of financial hardship. Overall repairing Maori owner-occupied homes improved occupant’s health and wellbeing, revitalised homemaking, inspired renovation plans and comforted older whanau members about the longevity of their homes for future generations.
The fifth article entitled “Balancing Anga Faka-Tonga (The Tongan way of life) with financial well-being” by Victoria Ongolea and Carla Houkamau explores how Tongan’s honour anga faka-Tonga, balancing cultural obligations to their famili, kolo, siasi and Fonua with their own financial well-being. Utilising the Kakala framework and drawing on narratives gathered from talanoa elucidate how culturally embedded value systems and faith-based beliefs have crucial implications for financial decision-making.
“Mirumiru Papa – houhia te whanokei | Bursting bubbles – the unusual new normal. Nga pūrākau o etahi kaiako whare wananga I te wa o te mate uruta KOWHEORI-19 | narratives of kaiako at one initial teaching education provider during the COVID-19 pandemic” authors Geraldine Koopu et al. This article explores the research experiences of some kaiako during the COVID-19 epidemic drawing inspiration from the pūrākau of Ranginui and Papatuanuku to write a personal narrative from kaiako, well-being and bicultural practice to prepare for future events with uncertain and shifting circumstances.
The seventh article entitled “ TE PŪNGĀWEREWERE PUKUMAHI A research paradigm for within Te Ao Māori” by Deborah Tania Davies and Rochelle Mackintosh “has been developed to guide researchers in creating a culturally safe space within which to undertake research collaboratively. While there are many excellent Māori research frameworks, we felt there was something missing: an all-encompassing research paradigm that embraces the underpinning values of Te Ao Māori.” The authors state “our hope is that using Te Pūngāwerewere Pukumahi framework will help to broaden and strengthen the elements of research in Te Ao Māori.”
“WHAKATŌ TE PŪ HARAKEKE Embedding bicultural principles into a design process” by Megan Potiki, Ray O’Brien, Alex Macmillan, Gordon Roy, Janet Stephenson and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett. “Aotearoa New Zealand is changing. The relationship between the inequities iwi Māori face and centuries of colonisation is clear. The need to address these inequities and the embedded colonial thinking that reinforces them in our society is more widely accepted and the challenge of embedding bicultural principles into all aspects of education is a significant step in decolonising education. The practice of learning design and the design of frameworks that guide education rarely have a clear process to support a bicultural approach.”
The ninth article is in this issue Communicating Maori Health and Wellbeing authored by Christine Nga Hau Elers “highlights the experiences of whānau Māori as they discuss the factors that impact their health and wellbeing. It also explores how they deal with socioeconomic challenges, which are contextualised in relation to the whenua, associated ancestral place names and kinship ties. The opening of discursive spaces provides platforms for voice and led to the establishment of Māra kai on ancestral whenua and the reclamation of Indigenous knowledge and place names in Feilding, Manawatū. Māra kai are positioned here as a site for decolonising health and wellbeing meanings, generating conversations in the Feilding community to disrupt colonial narratives that threaten Māori health and wellbeing.”
Tikanga Informed Considerations for Māori gender diversity by Maia Berryman. “Māori research is increasingly recognising the diversity of Māori, and no area displays this internal variation more than academic considerations of Māori gender diversity and Takatāpui, which are slowly but significantly rising. While researchers have focused significantly on unearthing the diversity and realities of Māori sexuality, gender diversity has been largely overlooked. This research proposes that there is a tikanga-informed basis for current Māori expressions of gender diversity and explores the early imposition of colonial gender roles onto Māori. It lays a foundation for future researchers to build from and opens new considerations of how tikanga and gender are connected to one another in modern Māori cultures.”
“What’s in the kete? An inventory of Māori-centred resources for disaster preparedness in Aotearoa New Zealand” by Ruby Mckenzie Sheat and Kristie-Lee Thomas. “Māori collectives are drawing from mātauranga and asserting rangatiratanga over disaster preparedness for the wellbeing of their communities. However, long-standing impacts of colonisation have contributed to Māori being disproportionately impacted by disasters, and to a lack of knowledge concerning the existence and availability of Māori-centred disaster risk and resilience (DRR) tools that help whānau prepare. Two key findings were drawn from a desktop literature review and thematic analysis.”
In our 12th article headed “Understanding the workforce for Diabetes management with Māori and Pacific peoples” by Tania Mullane, Isaac Warbrick, Taria Tane, Anneka Anderson, Vanessa Selak and Matire Harwood. “A key objective for this research was for its findings to inform workforce development strategies that will achieve equity for Māori and Pacific peoples with T2D and other long-term conditions. Using the Tangata Hourua framework, a Kaupapa Māori and Pacific research model, the experiences of people enrolled in Mana Tū—a mana-enhancing programme that supports people with poorly controlled T2D to “take charge” of their condition—and their whānau were gathered, analysed and then compared with the experiences of health workers. This approach has yielded new and rich knowledge strongly supporting the view that Māori and Pacific health workers who are based in the community are best positioned to make genuine relationships with Māori and Pacific clients and their whānau.”
“Pacific Youth Well-being - Diaspora perspectives” by Dion Enari and Sione Vaka is our final commentary in this issue. “Pacific youth in diaspora have faced many well-being challenges. This group has had to navigate the tensions between holding on to their Pacific values and participating in Western society, which at times can be contradictory. As this group comes of age in their host country, their well-being becomes ever more important. In this article, we explore the well-being journey of this cohort and their stories of resilience. We show how these groups have been able to use their Pacific culture(s) as a form of positive well-being.”