Mission

To assist Māori to reach their potential by sustainably delivering Māori research founded on academic and research excellence, and mātauranga Māori, in a way that brings together Ngāti Hauiti interests, with the interests of Māori in general.

If you are interested in Māori centred research, Māori public health research or Māori health services research then this site will interest you.

Here you can meet the team, find out what  work we are currently doing, read our latest publications and find out how to contact us. We are a small team of dedicated, well qualified researchers with an established track record of success in being awarded contestable funding, generating academic outputs and carrying out quality research alongside Māori communities.

Latest News

NPM Colloquium

A recently completed study by researchers at WRMHD will be the focus of a presentation at the upcoming Māori and Social Issues Colloquium to be held in Wellington on the 5th of April 2012.
 
Research conducted as part of the Facilitating whānau resilience through Māori primary health intervention study form the basis of a chapter in the recently published book entitled “Māori and Social Issues”. Published in collaboration with Huia Publishers at the end of 2011, the book has been edited by Dr Tracey McIntosh and Malcolm Mulholland. This edited collection of 14 chapters from leading researchers covers a wide range of topics including education, mental health, obesity, smoking, poverty, gangs, child maltreatment and incarceration.
Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga is holding a national colloquium on April 5th 2012 to launch the publication, to discuss Māori and social issues research and policy needs and priorities, and to explore the contribution research may make to address these issues. Speakers include Hon. Dr Pita Sharples, Dr Tracey McIntosh and leading researchers on Māori social issues.
Volume one in the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Edited Collections Series, Māori and Social Issues, will be launched as part of the event. Authors will engage with colloquium participants, speak on their research and take part in a panel discussion on the role of current and future research, identifying solutions and policies to address social issues and needs.
  
Māori and Social Issues Colloquium
 
Thursday, 5 April 2012
10 am – 2pm
Te Raukura, Te Wharewaka o Pōneke
Ruma Hui Tuatahi | Meeting room 1
 
DRAFT FULL PROGRAMME
Mihi Whakatau
10.00 – 10.15
Welcome
Dr. Joe Te Rito
10.15 – 10.30
Morning Tea
SESSION 1 Book Launch – Māori and Social Issues
10.30 – 10.45
Overview
Editor, Dr. Tracey
10.45 – 11.00
Launch
Text launched/blessed
11.05 – 11.15
Guest Speaker
Hon. Dr. Pita Sharples
11.15 – 11.25
Author, Tahu Kukutai
Contemporary issues in Māori Demography
11.25 – 11.35
Author, Te Kawehau Hoskins
Māori Education and Achievement
 
 
11.45 – 11.55
Author, Tracey McIntosh
Incarceration and confinement
12.05 – 12.15
Authors, Rawiri Taonui and Greg Newbold
Māori Gangs
11.55 – 12.05
Authors, Amohia Boulton and Heather Gifford
Resilience as a Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Māori Experience: Positions, Challenges and Risks
12.05 – 12.30
Facilitated Panel Discussion
12.30 – 1.00
Working Lunch
SESSION 2 Research – Māori and Social Issues
1.00 – 1.20
NPM Research
Past and present addressing the social issues
1.20 – 1.50
Future Research and Needs
Community and agency needs and/or wants
1.50 – 2.00
Close and karakia
 
 

7th Health Services & Policy Research Conference 2011

Adelaide, Australia, 5-7 December 2011

Toward the end of 2011 Dr Boulton spent a busy week in Adelaide attending the 7th Health Services and Policy Research Conference and several satellite research meetings with colleagues from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
 
 
 
As a member of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand Executive Committee, Dr Boulton assisted her Australian colleagues organise the indigenous events associated with the conference. Key amongst these was the inaugural indigenous pre conference workshop. The venue for the workshop was Tandanya, the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute. Established in 1989, Tandanya is Australia’s oldest Aboriginal-owned and managed multi arts centre. The word Tandanya comes from the language of the original inhabitants of the Adelaide plains, the Kaurna people (pronounced Garna), and means "place of the Red Kangaroo". Workshop participants found the day to be stimulating and useful as it provided a safe space to meet and network with indigenous colleagues, make linkages, and confirm indigenous approaches and issues. Participants valued the opportunity to meet with other passionate indigenous colleagues and learn of the diversity of perspectives in Aboriginal and indigenous health services research.
 
 
At the conference Dr Boulton presented or co-presented three papers: the first based on the results of the recently completed Resilience study entitled “We can’t actually help them unless they want to be helped”: the extent to which Māori health service providers can contribute to building more resilient whānau”; a second paper entitled “Multiple presentations to the emergency department: A conceptual framework” led by a colleague from Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Katherine Nelson; and a third paper on the implementation of an Indigenous gambling harm minimisation model in community-based health services, with Laurie Morrison of AUT and Layla Lyndon-Tonga of Nga Manga Puriri Health Service.
 
In addition, Dr Boulton presented to the Emerging Researchers Group (ERGO) of the Health Services Research Association of Australia & New Zealand at their lunchtime “Meet the Experts” session. The purpose of that session was to outline for the emerging researchers the various experiences and career pathways available to researchers contemplating a career in health services research.
 
After the conference, Dr Boulton attended a number of collaborative research meetings with colleagues from Flinders University, SA, Australia, the University of Northern British Columbia, BC, Canada, the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington. WRMHD’s links with the Lowitja Institute, Australia’s National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research and the Department of Health Care Management at Flinders University, SA were consolidated through the gift to WRMHD of an original artwork painted by Sarah Nelson Mbitjana, a member of the Anmatjerre people of Central Australia. Sarah paints about her country and the Dreamtime stories that come from both sides of her family.

ASPIRE 2025

The University of Otago together with Massey University and partners Whakauae Research for Maori Health and Development and Tala Pasifika, have recently launched ASPIRE 2025, a new research collaboration designed to help achieve a tobacco-free New Zealand.
 
Associate Minister of Health and co-leader of the Maori Party, the Hon. Tariana Turia, launched the new research collaboration at the University of Otago, Wellington on Friday 22 July 2011.
 
 
ASPIRE 2025 will collaborate with all researchers and health groups in New Zealand to conduct world-class original research. The focus will be on helping to achieve a tobacco-free New Zealand, in line with the New Zealand government aim of minimal tobacco use by 2025. 
ASPIRE 2025 Director, Professor Richard Edwards from the University of Otago, Wellington, together with partners Dr Heather Gifford from Whakauae Research, Professor Chris Cunningham from Massey University, and Stephanie Erick of Tala Pasifika, and Professors Janet Hoek and Rob McGee, from the Departments of Marketing and Preventive and Social Medicine, stated a bold vision for the new centre. Professor Edwards says: “ASPIRE 2025 comprises a team of innovative and exceptional public health researchers who are known nationally and internationally for their abilities and contributions to tobacco research.”
“We believe this collaboration will contribute to a rapid reduction in smoking prevalence in New Zealand, and bring about the tupeka kore Aotearoa, ortobacco-free New Zealand,that so many people want.”
Further information about the collaboration may be found on the ASPIRE 2025 webpage: www.aspire2025.org.nz