Ngā Kare-a-Roto | Taranaki Thought Space Wānanga

Ngā Kare-ā-roto: Māori understanding and expressions of emotions - A research wānanga and workshop.

Ngā Kare-ā-roto is a Kaupapa Māori investigation of Māori views understanding and expressions of emotions. Research highlights that emotions are relational, contextual and culturally constructed. Emotions play a significant role in regards to Indigenous wellbeing.

The suppression of emotions including through experiences of racism and colonisation has detrimental impacts on our lives.

This research asks: How, within mātauranga Māori, do Māori understand and express emotions and how can those understandings support Māori wellbeing?

Kaupapa Māori informs the research and we explore this question through a range of methods including: hui (gatherings); kōrero (interviews); pūrākau (traditional narratives) whakatauakī (proverbs) and māramataka (lunar calendar).

Ngā Kare-ā-roto is a Marsden Fund, Royal Socitey Funded project and is hosted by Tu Tama Wahine o Taranaki. The project team are Professor Leonie Pihama, Professor Jenny Lee-Morgan and Professor Rangi Matamua.

Te Ati Awa, Waikato, Taranaki

Professor Leonie Pihama is a Kaupapa Māori researcher, working in a range of interdisciplinary fields including education, health, decolonisation, and intergenerational trauma healing. She is an expert in Māori education, well-being and approaches to healing intergenerational trauma, having worked as a researcher, lecturer and director in both academic and independent organisational roles.

Leonie is a Director for the research arm of Tū Tama Wāhine o Taranaki and the founder of the research consultancy, Māori and Indigenous Analysis Ltd. These roles are indicative of the community impact and policy relevance of her research knowledge and skills.

Tūhoe

Professor Rangi Matamua is a pioneering Māori scholar who has revolutionised understanding of Māori astronomy, and in particular Matariki. His research has been ground-breaking in terms of its contribution to mātauranga Māori; he has enlightened both national and international populations on the mātauranga of astronomy.

He is renowned for his role in communicating his research in an accessible and engaging way and reaching both academic and non-academic audiences. Rangi is both the author of the bestselling book Matariki: The Star of the Year (published both in English and te reo editions), presenter of the award winning te reo Māori web series Living by the Stars and has an extensive social media following on Living by the Stars page.

He has challenged widespread misconceptions about Māori astronomy and has enhanced our understanding of a Māori world view of the stars. His research is situated at the interface between mātauranga Māori and Western science, and he is helping to reconnect people with maramataka – the Māori lunar calendar – and the environment.

Rangi is also part of a wider movement, reclaiming Indigenous astronomy as part of a continued process of decolonisation. He has won the 2019 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize, the first Māori scientist to be awarded the prize, in 2020 he was awarded the Callaghan Medal for science communication from Royal Society Te Apārangi, and in 2021 was elected as a ‘Fellow’ to the Academy of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. In the 2023 New Year Honours, Mātāmua was appointed an Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori astronomy. More recently Mātāmua was named New Zealander of the Year in the 2023 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards.

Waikato, Te Ahiwaru, Ngāti Mahuta

Professor Jenny Lee-Morgan is a Director of Pūrangakura, an independent Kaupapa Māori research and development centre. Jenny has a distinguished track record of teaching and kaupapa Māori research. She is the science lead on several large community-led projects including two Endeavour MBIE- funded projects ‘Generation Kainga: Rangatahi building resilient and regenerative Aotearoa’, ‘Marae Ora Kainga Ora, and ‘Urban Intergenerational Kāinga Innovations’ funded by BBHTC, National Science Challenge. In 2016 Jenny was awarded Te Tohu Pae Tawhiti Award by the New Zealand Association for Research in Education for recognition of her high-quality research and significant contribution to the Māori education sector.

Jenny’s co-edited book (Hutchings & Lee-Morgan, 2016) presents a broad, decolonised agenda for Māori development and won Te Kōrero Pono (non-fiction category) in the Ngā Kuku Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Awards 2017. Building on her interest in pūrākau as methodology, she published a co-edited book with Prof Joan Archibald and Dr Jason DeSantolo entitled ‘Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology’ (2019), published by Zed Books. Her most recent publication is a co-edited book with Dr Leonie Pihama “Tiakina te Pā Harakeke: Ancestral knowledge and tamariki well-being’ (2022).

Dr. Naomi Simmonds

Raukawa, Ngāti Huri, Ngāti Wehiwehi

Dr Naomi Simmonds is director of Taku Tapuwae Ltd, an independent research organisation. She works across Kaupapa Māori, mana wahine, and taiao research and advisory spaces, with a specific focus on the relationality between the wellbeing of whenua, taiao and whānau. Naomi joins the project as an expert on Kaupapa Māori methodologies and provides academic and research leadership and input.

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