Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini: Learnings from emerging wāhine researchers undertaking community-based resilience projects

Abstract

Despite increasing attention on the importance of earthquake and tsunami risk reduction for Aotearoa New Zealand communities, there are limited Māori-medium resources available, and more representation of Māori, and wāhine (women) researchers is needed within the field. This poster illustrates key learnings from three emerging wāhine researchers who utilised a range of novel approaches to engagement and collaboration including traditional story-telling, Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and design technologies to increase resilience for Māori communities from tamariki (children) to kaumatua (elders) during recent community-based research projects. These projects were: Te Hīkoi a Rūaumoko (digitising a bilingual book based on Ngāti Kahungunu iwi pūrākau), Te Kura e Te Āniwhaniwha (educational outreach programme piloting a tuakana/teina (sibling) mentorship model for Māori-medium schools), and memorialising the 1868 tsunami in Wharekauri-Rekohu (the Chatham Islands) through interactive and recipricol hui and event. Weaving together these three projects is a wider narrative of ethnographic reflection exploring the role of three emerging wāhine researchers collaborating in the discipline of seismic research and the challenges and successes involved within this. A number of themes emerged from our collective experiences including the importance of maintaining a Te Ao Māori or bicultural lens, engagement, reciprocity and academic and cultural support. From our experiences as early career Māori researchers and in light of the suggestions in the work of our Māori and indigenous colleagues we offer a number of initiatives for universities, research institutions and researchers to consider, for supporting a pathway to a strengthened, inclusive and diverse earthquake/tsunami resilience field.