Whakauae Senior Researcher Dr Logan Hamley enters the final year 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.
Over the past year, Logan has run wānanga supported by two research assistants, Saffron Stanley and Ruby Macomber, exploring what cultural identity looks like to rangatahi, and what barriers and facilitators they see in their own cultural identity journey. This process has taken the team throughout the country, connecting with rangatahi passionate about te reo Māori, whakapapa, and nurturing identity.
Logan has recently launched the survey for the project, the final phase of the study. The survey, launched at Huinga Tauira at Massey University, was co-created with rangatahi, with translation of the survey into te reo Māori and the survey website done by two rangatahi who participated in a wānanga. The research team are hoping to get 300 rangatahi aged between 16 and 24 to participate in the survey (found at https://expandingconnection.co.nz/survey).
The team will also have a summer research student who will work with Logan to develop a choose-your-own-adventure web story based on the findings from wānanga. Anyone interested in learning more can contact logan@whakauae.co.nz
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.
