The Panel

Pou Matarua Co-Director Linda Waimarie Nikora (Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Tūhoe, Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Ngāti Pahauwera)

Based at the University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau, Waimarie has research and teaching interests in: Indigenous psychologies; Maori flourishing; Tangi : Māori ways of mourning; traditional body modification; ethnic and Māori identity; cultural safety and competence; Māori mental health and recovery; social and economic determinants of health; homelessness; relational health; and social connectedness.

Associate Professor Mohi Rua (Ngai Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Whakaue)

Mohi is NPM's Pou Pātai Whānau and is based at the University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau. He has research and teaching interests in: Māori health and inequities; Social determinants of health; Māori culture, heritage and identity; Poverty, the precariat and homelessness; Kaupapa Māori research, theory and methodologies; Decolonial practices; indigenous psychological perspectives of the interconnected self; Sport and rangatahi (Māori youth).

Associate Professor Te Taka Keegan (Waikato-Maniapoto; Ngāti Porou; Ngāti Whakaaue)

Te Taka is NPM's Pou Pae Auaha. He is based at the University of Waikato | Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. Te Taka has worked on a number of projects involving the Māori language and technology. These include the Māori Niupepa Collection, Te Kete Ipurangi, the Microsoft keyboard, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office in Māori, Moodle in Māori, Google Web Search in Māori, and the Māori macroniser. In 2009 Te Taka spent 6 months with Google in Mountain View as a visiting scientist assisting with the Google Translator Toolkit for Māori. Further work with Google led to Translate in Māori.

Associate Professor Ocean Mercier (Ngāti Porou)

Ocean is NPM's Pou Pae Tawhiti and is based at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka. Ocean focuses on how mātauranga and science connect and relate, particularly in educational and environmental contexts. Her current research includes understanding how te taiao advocacy connects communities to place; ocean knowledge to support iwi interests; understanding groundwater with mātauranga and Māori perceptions of novel biotechnological controls of pest wasps in Aotearoa. Her research also explores Māori and Indigenous conceptions of mapping and place, and kaupapa Maori reading of films. She is the presenter of Maori Television's Project Matauranga and presents for TVNZ’s Coast.

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence (NPM) brings you the second session of our Wānanga Paetukutuku series on high quality research and evidence for interventions and policies. With colleagues, Pou Matarua Co-Director Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora will advance a panel discussion on what needs to be done to realise the vision of flourishing Māori futures.