Māori research funding cuts don’t surprise experts

Atereano Mateariki Tahu Kukutai | Māori research funding cuts don't surprise experts

Download Audio

A co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, Aotearoa’s only Māori Centre of Research Excellence says changes to research funding weren’t a surprise but weren’t planned either.

Last week, Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins announced a change to the Marsden Fund, worth $75 million in annual funding, to focus on core scientific research that helps lift our economic growth and contributes to science with a purpose.

Tahu Kukutai, from Waikato University, says this was the only avenue for kaupapa Māori social research to be funded, now there is none.

She says kaupapa Māori research has influenced all research fields, and all their colleagues don’t want to see these cuts.

“At the moment, there really doesn’t seem to be any pathway to renegotiating it or to coming up with a plan B, so it’s really just, this is a decision. This is the way it’s going to be like it, or lump it, carry on,” says Kukutai.

The funding changes come into effect for the 2024/2025 funding round.

RELATED NEWS

Launch of Toi Ngapuhi at Kohewhata Marae Maori Council asks court to resolve CFRT crisis More settlements set in motion