Māori and Pacific research

Research interests:

• Performance art/live art
• Visual art
• Experimental performance and choreography
• Curation
• Ecology (social, environmental, land and sea)
• Mātauranga Māori
• Arts and cultural policy
• Transdisciplinarity

Research expertise/skills:

• Collaboration and co-design
• Community engagement
• Facilitation
• Interdisciplinarity/transdisciplinarity
• Mātauranga Māori perspectives

Active research projects:

• Toi Taiao Whakatairanga (transdisciplinary research, curating Māori artists in relation to forest health, funded by MFA, NRT and the National Science Challenge). See more about the project
• Toitū te Ngahere (transdisciplinary research, with mātauranga Māori, arts, and education in relation to forest health, funded by MFA, NRT and the National Science Challenge).
  
• Mobilising for Action (transdisciplinary research umbrella project, with mātauranga Māori and social dimensions in relation to the environment, funded by NRT and the National Science Challenge). See more about the project
• Whakahoki (transdisciplinary project with arts, ecology and mātauranga Māori with waitī and waitā locations in the Horowhenua with Tu Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies). See more about the project

Research interests:

• Creative and embodied knowledge, performance, and practice
• Embodied relationality
• Indigenous methodologies
• Indigenous pedagogy
• Decolonisation
• Oceanic arts and wellbeing
• Dance and Dance studies
• Cultural/intercultural/multicultural studies

As a woman, artist, educator, researcher and storyteller, I am drawn to discourse that unearths socio-cultural narratives, pertaining to identity and the sustainability of indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being. My interests lie in indigenous methodological practices within education, community and creative spaces. I am curious about ideas of embodiment and particularly, how vā might be understood as an embodied concept within diverse fields of creativity. Grounded in Oceanic theories and methodological approaches, I am driven by research that serves and supports Pacific communities in areas of the arts, education, and wellbeing.

Research expertise/skills:

• Pacific dance practices
• Dance choreography and creative practice
• Curriculum and pedagogy development
• Pacific research methodologies
• Community engagement

Active research projects:

• Embodying vā: Relationality within Samoan dance performance practices (PhD).
  
• Cultivating Wellbeing through Dance for Samoan Women with Breast Cancer (Transdisciplinary Ideation Fund Project).

Research interests:

• Vocal pedagogy
• Studio pedagogy
• Community music
• Indigenising music education
  

Research expertise/skills:

• Community music education
• Vocal pedagogy
• Applied classical voice studio
• Indigenising music education and the vocal arts curriculum
• Founding member of Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education Special Interest Group (ISME)
• Expert advisor for the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation (CAST)
• Research fellow for Laurier Centre for Music in the Community, Ontario, Canada

Active research projects:

• Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education: First Peoples Leading Research and Practice
• The role of First Nations’ music as a determinant of health (international adviser)
  
• Community music in Canada: Leading music in culturally diverse contexts (international adviser)

Research interests:

• Contemporary Māori art
• Installation art
• Ngāi Tahutanga

Research expertise/skills:

• Sculpture
• Installation
• Drawing/tuhituhi
• Relational art and community engagement
• Performance art

Active research projects:

• Kā Kaihōpara, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ōtepoti Dunedin, 22 April to 23 July 2023. See more about the project
  

Research interests:

My research interests include Mana Moana choreography and dance, dance pedagogy, and ideas centered around identity and belonging for Māori and Pacific students within the tertiary context. Creative and embodied practice, alongside sharing and exchanging knowledge and lived experiences, interest me.

Research expertise/skills:

• Pacific contemporary choreography/dance
• Practice-led artistic research
• Dance pedagogy development
• Mentorship of undergraduate Māori and/or Pacific students

Active research projects:

• PhD thesis
• Prime Minister's Scholarship to Colombia