Titiro Whakamuri Kōkiri Whakamua is a project within the “Tangata Whenua, Tangata Ora : Health Research Council Research Programme” hosted by Whariki Research Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau.
This programme investigates whenua initiatives that aim to produce health gains for people and whenua. As a dynamic and unified concept of health, Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora, places relationships between tangata and te tai ao as central to our understandings of supporting hauora. Kaupapa Māori methodology guides four co-created research projects, with Māori driving local initiatives aimed at developing deeper understandings of reconnecting people to whenua and place as a conceptual and practical way of producing Māori health gains. Drawing upon Graham Smith’s model of Kaupapa Māori transformative praxis, and the interconnectedness of theory, practice and reflection, each of the projects will support transformative actions and pathways to improved health outcomes.
The programme consists of four research projects undertaken across Māori community sites to co-create knowledge, and investigate multiple ways whenua based health initiatives provide pathways to wellbeing and Māori health gains. (https://shoreandwhariki.ac.nz/whariki)
Titiro Whakamuri, Kōkiri Whakamua: Investigate Journeys to Wellbeing as a Māori Health Intervention
Taranaki has a significant place in the history of Aotearoa, involving the proclamation of martial law throughout Taranaki by the Crown in 1860, ensuing war that dispossessed the Iwi of Taranaki of nearly all of their whenua and access to resources (Waitangi Tribunal 1996). The illegal sale and later confiscation of Te Ātiawa lands in Waitara became the catalyst for the first colonial wars against our people. As a means through which to maintain Taranaki resistance to colonial invasion, hapū and iwi engaged in a wider range of strategies, including the rise of the Paimarire faith and the non-violent movement centred on Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi at Parihaka. The brutal treatment of the passive resisters and the invasion of Parihaka in 1881 have been in the memory of all Iwi across Aotearoa. In 2017 the Crown formally and publicly apologised to the Iwi of Parihaka for the violent actions perpetrated upon them.Further negotiations for redress are ongoing.
This research project focuses on a process of healing grounded in an understanding that, in order to move forward we must heal the historical trauma that has embedded itself within our communities (Walters, 2011). The research has been co-produced with Tū Tama Wahine o Taranaki, a Māori health service provider that specialises in violence prevention and intervention within whānau, hapū and iwi. The project will focus on the journey to understanding the origins of violence within Taranaki and the commitment our tupuna had to ensuring the wellbeing of future generations. Pathways to health gains will be investigated using healing journeys as an approach; this involves people travelling through landscapes usually associated with trauma, learning stories and histories and reconnecting and healing.
Researchers: Leonie Pihama, Ngāropi Cameron, Awhina Cameron