Māori and Pacific researchers are working hard to transform our research system to enable Māori and Pacific postgraduate students to thrive in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Yet barriers remain, and each new postgraduate generation inherits evolving challenges and opportunities to navigate. This paper is written for Māori and Pacific people who are about to enter the postgraduate STEM space, recognising that we need our own words to help future students to navigate this journey.

To address the freshwater crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand, regional councils must give effect to a relatively new term, Te Mana o te Wai, which is based on a very old word: “mana”. While local understandings are emerging, questions remain among Māori about what Te Mana o te Wai means. This conceptual article reviews the literatures to discuss and define Te Mana o te Wai. Four types of mana emerge from the scholarship: mana comes from the atua; mana is a spiritual power; mana is a generative power, and mana is the authority to control. There is also a fifth aspect: mana is a power that can be taken. The answer to the question of what Te Mana o te Wai means lies in the old words.

Te Paa Harakeke is a metaphor for protection of Māori culture, pūrākau, whenua and whānau wellbeing. It is a framework for protecting children and an allegory for working alongside whānau to achieve oranga-ā-whānau, and it nestles in a Kaupapa Māori and mātauranga Māori space. Watson (2017, 2020) applied Te Paa Harakeke as a model for research through unpacking 10 components to the research setting; these are rito, awhi rito, tūpuna, pakiaka, kōhatu, pakawhā, kakau, kōrari, ngā manu and whenua.

Many Indigenous- specific research paradigms are used internationally. Kaupapa Māori is one such paradigm that privileges and legitimises Māori knowledge, culture, language, customs and protocols. The qualitative Kaupapa Māori paradigm presented here includes establishing an expert advisory rōpū and a Māori- led research team, developing and pilot testing a Māori data collection method (wānanga interviews), conducting wānanga, and analysing the collected data. Two wānanga were held with groups of rangatahi and whānau. Wānanga 1 centred around components of hauora important for rangatahi Māori.

Amid Aotearoa New Zealand’s housing crisis, rangatahi Māori face unique challenges in accessing not just houses but kāinga—places that nurture whānau and cultural identity. Using Kaupapa Māori research, He Tātai Whetu ki te Rangi, he Rangatahi ki te Kāinga (2020–2024) explored rangatahi realities and aspirations for kāinga in Tāmaki Mākaurau. Findings reveal that rangatahi struggle to secure appropriate housing, while navigating discrimination, intergenerational impacts of land alienation and invisibility in housing policy. These systemic barriers cascade into effects on mental health, cultural identity and whānau formation.

Little is known about non-government services (hereafter “service providers”) for elderly Māori. As part of the research project Kaumātua Futures, a case study of kaumātuatanga in Ngāti Whakaue—an iwi from the Rotorua District of Aotearoa New Zealand—a service provider scoping exercise was undertaken in the summer of 2019–2020. The purpose of the exercise was to garner an understanding of the number of service providers and their services available to koeke, including kaumātua, in the Rotorua District, the home base of the iwi. What the survey showed was no lack of services but a need to further develop existing services that respond to the specific needs of koeke.

The study presented in this article is underpinned and guided by Kaupapa Māori theory and research principles (G. H. Smith, 1997; L. Smith, 2015). The purpose was to explore support systems comprising health, social, financial, education and whānau that exist for teenage Māori mothers/māmā Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. Research participants were sourced from one Teen Parent Unit and are Māori who became mothers as teenagers. Effectiveness of support was assessed in terms of contribution to holistic wellbeing and success for māmā Māori.

Many Pasifika students in Te Tari Kikokiko at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka face challenges while living in Ōtepoti and studying in our department. We conducted online talanoa with 24 Pasifika undergraduate students to gain feedback about their experiences. Students reported having challenges in living independently, culture shock, and academic struggles while living in Ōtepoti. Reasons for choosing our institution and studying anatomy were discussed. Students reported challenges in adapting to learning styles for anatomy, workload content, personal barriers, lack of culturally competent support, difficulties in essay writing, and tutorials (timing conflict, delivery method).

In this article, four taiohi Māori of Te Tai Tokerau provide critical insights into their experiences of racism and their perspectives of school, teaching and education systems in Aotearoa New Zealand. Participants in this project all positively identified as Māori but have very different ways of conceptualising that identity. Western schooling in Aotearoa has, since its introduction, been a site of cultural contestation. Schools are also highly visible locations where Indigenous and Western epistemological differences play out with real-life impacts and consequences.

Gut diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Aotearoa New Zealand, with higher rates of these conditions in Te Waipounamu. Māori experience both worse outcomes and different patterns of incidence in gut diseases than non-Māori. Overall, Māori have lower life expectancies than non-Māori and experience barriers to accessing determinants of health. We aim to illuminate how Māori understand the gut and navigate the health system when the topic is the gut and gut disease, based on interviews with Māori participants in a wider study of gut symptoms.