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December 08, 2023
Rangatahi perspective built into housing research
Adam Gifford
Posted On December 8, 2023
Download AudioIndependent Auckland-based Māori research organisation Pūrangakura has formed a new research partnership with six rangatahi Māori organisations to look at issues of housing and homelessness.
The partnership started this week with a wānanga in Point Chevalier to co-design and plan the build of an urban tiny home.
Pūrangakura researcher and PhD candidate Maia Ratana says the Generation Kainga project is a new way of thinking about the connections between housing and mana motuhake.
“Generation Kainga really speaks to that idea that kainga is more than just bricks and mortar. It’s whenua, its environment, it’s the taiāo, it’s climate change – it’s sustainable economically. It also has social implications for rangatahi and their whānau. So these rangatahi organisations that we’ve brought on board, represent all of those things, and have diverse aspirations for kainga,” Ms Ratana says.
The six rangatahi-led partners are: ŌRUA, rangatahi leaders challenging the architectural industry to include more mātauranga Māori; Mā te Huruhuru provide housing and education to rangatahi in South Auckland and recently opened the first Kaupapa Māori transitional housing for homeless rangatahi; Te Mana Akonga is the national Māori student body; 4th Gen are descendants of Ngāti Kuri and focus on conservation mahi in the far north; Cuzzies i te Māra teach rangatahi to grow maara kai across Poneke; and Project Rangatahi are create pathways for rangatahi to undertake and lead kaupapa in Wairoa.
Pūrangakura was behind the successful urban-based MOKO – or Marae Ora, Kainga Ora research project – which ran from 2020 to this year – and focused on the links between 5 South Auckland marae, their communities, and potential housing solutions.
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