2019-2020

Project Title: Indigenous Spirituality and mental well-being: Development of a measure of wairuatanga

Project Description: The fundamental role of wairua to Māori well-being is widely endorsed. However, practical tools enabling experiences of wairuatanga to be empirically assessed are lacking. There is an identified need to develop a tool assessing wairuatanga that can be utilised and applied with in Aotearoa. Although measuring wairuatanga does pose challenges, including whether it should be ‘measured’ as a construct at all, ascertaining the relationship of wairuatanga to a host of well-being indicators holds promise for enhanced understandings of what contributes most to transformative Māori development. The project contributed to the development and piloting of such a measure to be used in the HRC-funded research project Interpretation of Anomalous Experiences.

Summer Scholar: Deanna Haami (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa)

Project Title: Kōkōrangi Māori: Māori astronomical lore and well-being

Project Description: Popular interest in aspects of kōkōrangi Māori, such as Matariki, has resurged in recent years, and the work of prominent academics like Professor Rangi Matamua has been instrumental to this. Such work has tended to focus on what Matariki means for Māori, traditional pūrākau (stories) associated with this constellation, and how the ‘appearance’ of the constellation at any particular moment in time ‘signalled’ particular outcomes (e.g., whether a season might yield a bountiful or limited crop). One aspect of kōkōrangi Māori that has yet to be examined is the relationship to human well-being, specifically how aspects of kōkōrangi Māori be related to or interpreted as having relevance for hauora Māori on both the collective and individual levels? The project explored this relationship through a review of published and oral mātauranga.

Summer Scholar: Nathan Matamua (Ngāi Tuhoe)

Project Title: Hauora kaumātua: A longitudinal analysis of cultural identity and well-being in kaumātua Māori

Project Description: Ageing for kaumātua Māori should be considered in the context of the collective and community. In particular, kaumātua Māori who readily affiliate and engage with Te Ao Māori are likely to have more responsibilities to whānau, hapū and iwi as they age. The impact of these responsibilities in terms of enhancements to well-being are little known; equally, the impact on well-being for kaumātua Māori who do not have the same level of engagement with community, are also unknown. Utilising data obtained from the Health and Ageing Research Team’s longitudinal study, the project examined findings of preliminary analyses investigating the relationship between Māori cultural identity and kaumātua well-being.

Summer Scholar: Ariana Apiti (Te Whakatōhea, Tainui)

Project Title: Te tatau o te pō. An exploration of Indigenous psycho-spiritual needs in end-of-life care in hospice settings

Project Description: The spiritual dimension is fundamental to the maintenance of cultural identity and holistic well-being for many Indigenous peoples around the globe, connecting the tangible and intangible and the worldly with the divine. Although, years of colonisation, exploitation and oppression have eroded Indigenous knowledge systems and significantly undermined spiritually relevant knowledge, many Indigenous communities recognise the necessity and potency of the spiritual realm, particularly around thresholds related to life and death. A small body of literature suggests Indigenous peoples tend to underutilise end-of-life care facilities, such as hospice, and that the reasons for this tend to be associated with perceived differences in understanding related to cultural needs at the end-of-life, particularly psycho-spiritual needs. The project will conduct a literature review on the end-of-life care needs of Indigenous peoples, with a specific focus on Māori and Pacific populations in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Summer Scholar: Aroha Igatia (Ngā Ranginui, Ngāti Maniapoto)