This article draws on historical research and presents kōrero with three kaumātua in order to explore the relationship between Māori and fire. By presenting a Māori perspective on fire use and conservation practices, the paper aims to assist rural fire authorities in managing and mitigating the risk of wildfire.

This article examines literature on the motivation and effective entry of indigenous students into mainstream tertiary education. The paper compares and contrasts findings from Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, Aboriginal peoples from Australia and Native Americans of the United States of America. 

This article discusses original research conducted with Māori high school students in order to explore factors that motivate migration between particular identity positions. It presents the Māori identity migration model as a way of conceptualising the dynamic and diverse nature of urban Māori youth identities, and to allow for an analysis of the resources and threats available to urban Māori youth who occupy different identity spaces.

This article discusses the findings of a pilot project on food security, food sovereignty, nutrition and health conducted with a small Māori group based in Whakatāne. The article, concerned with healthy lifestyles and Māori access to affordable and nutritional food, discusses a community-based response and points to the necessity of a multifaceted, comprehensive national plan to address Māori food insecurity.

This article examines the use of kaupapa Māori and Pan-Pacific research methodologies within Aotearoa New Zealand and considers the tensions in navigating both of these methodologies simultaneously. The paper suggests that the “Give Way Rule” can be used in order to address some of these tensions and to ensure that research is carried out in a way that is respectful and culturally sensitive.

This article presents the findings from narrative interviews conducted with Māori healers about their understandings of the underlying values of rongoā Māori. The paper considers the implications for the inclusion of Māori and indigenous cultural values in indigenous research methodologies, and considers the implications of their alignment and integration with accepted Western research methodologies. 

Central to the concept of iwi vitality is the notion that iwi are able to actively determine what matters to them from a mana whenua perspective. This paper argues that progress towards the achievement of iwi vitality can be measured in a way that is consistent with iwi values and aspirations. The paper reports on research that explores what it means to be well at the iwi level for Ngāi Tai. The research involved wānanga at Tōrere Marae with Ngāi Tai participants and

Recent changes to health ethics oversight in New Zealand has presented a number of challenges for the way in which health and disability ethics committee (HDEC) members handle Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities. Informants suggest that indigenous research ethics has either virtually dropped off the table or taken a “cultural turn” in the sense that the meaning of consultation has been “trivialised”; however, this fate is not indicated uniformly across all HDECs.

This article provides a brief synopsis of using kaupapa Māori approaches in initiating my doctoral research and collecting the data through interviews. I examine these approaches from four different aspects. The first discusses whanaungatanga as a recruitment methodology. Additional topics explored include tikanga Māori and accessing knowledge. The second considers the insider–outsider relationship and the advantages or disadvantages of holding either position. I also discuss whether these positions are a binary or dichotomy from a Māori perspective, in my role as interviewer and my interactions with Nana, the fi rst participant.

Type-2 diabetes and other illnesses associated with a sedentary lifestyle have a high prevalence among Māori. While the application of knowledge from exercise physiology, a specific discipline of the health sciences, could be used to enhance Māori health aspirations, Māori-led research in this field is relatively uncommon. Exercise physiology seeks to understand physical performance and the relationships between fitness, body composition, health and illness. Rarely have the key tenets of exercise physiology been applied to Māori populations.