December 03, 2012
Rena mauri features in research plans
Ngā Pae ō Te Maramatanga, the centre for indigenous research excellence, has commissioned research on how the mauri of communities and areas affected by the Rena disaster can be restored.
Dr Kepa Morgan, from the University of Auckland, lead a team looking at environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts of the grounding of the ship on the Astrolabe Reef or Otaiti, with a particular focus on how the resulting oil spill affected communities like Maketu, Motiti, and Papamoa.
He says because Mauri is the force between the physical and spiritual attributes of something, the research can help to understand how iwi and hapu responded to the event and help with planning how to respond to future disasters.
Other projects to be funded include creating a tool to measure indigenous well being, identifying ways to encourage families to be healthy and prosperous, and looking for heritage threads and leadership principles that connect New Zealand and Polynesia.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd