May 29, 2025

Project Update: Reconnecting Māori Youth

Whakauae Senior Researcher Dr Logan Hamley is celebrating six months of work on his Health Research Council funded project Expanding connection: the process of reconnection for Māori youth study.

This project explores how we can better support rangatahi to connect with their identity as Māori, recognising that rangatahi who are strong and confident in their identity have a foundation to flourish. E ai ki te kōrero, poipoia te kākano kia puāwai, nurture the seed and it will blossom. With the right guidance and support, all rangatahi can flourish in their cultural identity.

Supported by a tuākana and teina rōpū made up of experts and rangatahi, the project will take place over the next 2.5 years, wrapping in August 2027. The first phase of the project explores the current literature around rangatahi, culture and identity. A summer research student, Saffron Stanley, has supported this work over the past 3 months. Upon completing her summer research project, she reflected on how this work has shown how rangatahi are multifaceted, fluid, and diverse. This phase of the project has further emphasised the need for rangatahi to be involved throughout the research project, to ensure their voice, insights, and wisdom are carried throughout the research journey.

The next phase of the project looks to embed this through engaging in wānanga with rangatahi about what cultural identity looks like to them, and what barriers and facilitators they see in their own cultural identity journey. This phase will likely begin in September of this year, concluding in August of 2026. The final phase of the project will develop a survey based on the wānanga that can be more widely shared with rangatahi across the motu to further deepen the insights and develop a list of recommendations for policy as well as iwi, hapū or Māori organisations based on the findings.

As an Emerging Researcher First Grant, the project represents Logan’s first independent research project, building from his PhD thesis that explored rangatahi tāne Māori identity in Tāmaki Makaurau. We thank the Health Research Council of New Zealand for their ongoing support of Whakauae and its staff as well as their broader support for Māori health research.

Project Update: Reconnecting Māori Youth
Logan Hamley alongside tuāhine of the Advisory Rōpu
Logan Hamley alongside tuāhine of the Advisory Rōpu
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