Māori and Pacific research

Meet our exceptional Māori and Pacific creative researchers. Discover their diverse research interests, skills and current projects. Connect with them to collaborate.

Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei

Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei outside the University of Auckland's fale pasifika in summer, smiling to camera.
Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei

Villages of Tatakamōtonga, Houma, Ha'alalo, and Pukotala, Ha'apai in the Kingdom of Tonga

Associate Dean Pacific, Creative Arts and Industries
Senior Lecturer, Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning
Email: charmaine.‘ilaiu.talei@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Charmaine's full research profile

Research interests:

The architectural practice and architectural histories of Pacific peoples within and outside of the Moana, or Pacific Islands; Culturally responsive design methodologies and built outcomes; Pacific wellbeing, Pacific livelihoods and Pacific housing; Applying Indigenous knowledges to solve modern architectural problems.

Research expertise / skills:

  • Registered architect services
  • Cross-cultural design engagement
  • Community and stakeholder engagement
  • Indigenising systems and processes of organisations
  • Research experience in the Pacific region, including Tonga and Fiji
  • Architectural practice and built projects in the Pacific region
  • Digitalised and accessible learning tools

Active research projects:

  • Tauranga Moana Courthouse: Action research investigating cross-cultural design methods (Jan 2022 - Nov 2026)
    Funded by Industry Partner Guymer Bailey Architects (GBA)
    Role: Principal Investigator of action research & Senior Architect co-leading GBA project team and co-design lead during Project Establishment through to Preliminary Design phases. Technical reviewer from Developed Design phases through to Construction.
    Value: $112,640 NZD
  • Translating Pacific Health Research to improve Pacific Housing (Sept 2022 - Feb 2024)
    Funded by Health Research Council (HRC) Role: Principal Investigator
    Co-Investigators: Dr Ruth Faleolo, Dr Dion Enari Research Assistant: Mark Meyers Value: $30,000 NZD
  • Examining Tonga’s Architectural Built Heritage – Post-Disaster (Volcano Eruption and Tsunami 2022)
    Funded by Faculty of Creative Arts & Industries Research Development Fund, Large Project Scheme (July 2022 - Feb 2024)
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Value: $25,000 NZD
  • Robust and low-damage structural design for housing [in Aotearoa, New Zealand] Funded by Toka Tū Ake Earthquake Commission (EQC)
    Role: Associate Investigator and advisor for architectural and social outcomes. Value: $450,000 NZD
  • Digitalised Construction Site Visits and Integrated Online Learning Funded by Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries Teaching and Learning Grant (May 2023 - May 2024) Role: Project Lead and Course Director Project Assistant: Grayson Croucher Value: $11,560 NZD

Associate Professor Michael Davis

Palagi, Samoa

Deputy Head of School, Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning
Email: m.davis@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available for practice based research.
View Michael's full research profile

Research interests:

My research looks at the role and potential futures of the architectural discipline in isolated economies. On one hand it asks for a discussion of the practice of architecture (collective and individual) in Aotearoa. On the other, it asks for a discussion of current and future materials and fabrication processes.

Research expertise / skills:

  • Design pedagogy, research and practice
  • Fabrication technologies and timber tectonics
  • The role and future of the architectural discipline in isolated economies

Active research projects:

Dr Mark Harvey

Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toarangatira

Senior Lecturer, Ngā Akoranga Kanikani Dance Studies Programme
Email: m.harvey@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Mark's full research profile

Research interests:

  • Performance art/live art
  • Visual art
  • Experimental performance and choreography
  • Curation
  • Ecology (social, environmental, land and sea)
  • Mātauranga Māori
  • Arts and cultural policy
  • Transdisciplinarity

Research expertise / skills:

  • Collaboration and co-design
  • Community engagement
  • Facilitation
  • Interdisciplinarity/transdisciplinarity
  • Mātauranga Māori perspectives

Active research projects:

  • Toi Taiao Whakatairanga (transdisciplinary research, curating Māori artists in relation to forest health, funded by MFA, NRT and the National Science Challenge). See more about the project
  • Toitū te Ngahere (transdisciplinary research, with mātauranga Māori, arts, and education in relation to forest health, funded by MFA, NRT and the National Science Challenge).
  • Mobilising for Action (transdisciplinary research umbrella project, with mātauranga Māori and social dimensions in relation to the environment, funded by NRT and the National Science Challenge). See more about the project
  • Whakahoki (transdisciplinary project with arts, ecology and mātauranga Māori with waitī and waitā locations in the Horowhenua with Tu Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies). See more about the project

Ayla Hoeta

Waikato Tainui

Assistant Associate Dean Māori, Creative Arts and Industries
Lecturer, Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts and Design
Emailayla.hoeta@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Ayla's full research profile

Research interests:

  • Mahi maramataka
  • Hautū Waka
  • Whānau oranga and wellbeing

Research expertise / skills:

  • Maramataka knowledge
  • Kaupapa Māori
  • Hautū Waka
  • Whānau centred co-design
  • Facilitation
  • Community whānau engagement

Active research projects:

  • Te Rau Ora
  • Maramataka ki te tiri o te moana
  • Maramataka restoration in Puhinui
  • Maramataka oranga in connection to the taiao

Teuila Hughes

Vaimoso, Manono - Samoa

PhD Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ngā Akoranga Kanikani Dance Studies Programme
Email: teuila.hughes@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Teuila's full research profile

Research interests:

  • Creative and embodied knowledge, performance, and practice
  • Embodied relationality
  • Indigenous methodologies
  • Indigenous pedagogy
  • Decolonisation
  • Oceanic arts and wellbeing
  • Dance and Dance studies
  • Cultural/intercultural/multicultural studies

As a woman, artist, educator, researcher and storyteller, I am drawn to discourse that unearths socio-cultural narratives, pertaining to identity and the sustainability of indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being. My interests lie in indigenous methodological practices within education, community and creative spaces. I am curious about ideas of embodiment and particularly, how vā might be understood as an embodied concept within diverse fields of creativity. Grounded in Oceanic theories and methodological approaches, I am driven by research that serves and supports Pacific communities in areas of the arts, education, and wellbeing.

Research expertise / skills:

  • Pacific dance practices
  • Dance choreography and creative practice
  • Curriculum and pedagogy development
  • Pacific research methodologies
  • Community engagement

Active research projects:

  • Embodying vā: Relationality within Samoan dance performance practices (PhD).
  • Cultivating Wellbeing through Dance for Samoan Women with Breast Cancer (Transdisciplinary Ideation Fund Project).

Dr Karamia Müller

Lano, Faleāsi'u ma Malaelā

Lecturer, Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning
Co-Director, MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre
Email
: k.muller@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Karamia's full research profile

Research interests:

My research has focused on transdisciplinary research that expand my current expertise in Pacific spatialities, research-led creative practices and indigenous research principles. My research interests reflect my academic commitment to bringing up-to-date research, innovative tools, and methods into dialogue with indigenous principles and creative practice for research outcomes advancing Māori and Pacific aspirations for their built environments within the context of Aotearoa New Zealand, and Indigenous communities globally.

That architecture and creative practices may positively impact generations of Pacific people underscores my approach to research, teaching and service. Furthermore, as an Indigenous Pacific educator I look to improve architectural outcomes for tangata whenua through my teaching practices in solidarity with Māori aspirations for mana motuhake (self-determination), and as tangata Tiriti. Rising to the challenges facing indigenous communities, either in motherlands, or as diaspora invites creativity. This belief informs my research interests in Pacific Art and Architecture, Māori and Pacific housing, drawing-based research, decolonial theory and kai (food) sovereignty.

I am a regular opinion column writer for Architecture New Zealand, a leading national industry journal which publishes on the country’s built realm, current discourse and award winning projects. My columns discuss issues related to housing, as well as salient issues relevant to the profession and industry.

Research expertise / skills:

  • Indigenous research: drawing-as-research, research-led creative practices, co-design, studio-design
  • Pacific spatialities
  • Māori and Pacific Housing

Active research projects:

  • Pacific housing
  • Pacific knowledge systems
  • Pacific methods

Associate Professor Te Oti Rakena

Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Ruanui, Kāi Tahu

Manutaki Tuitui Rāwaho Coordinator of Vocal Studies, Te Whare o ngā Pūkōrero Pūoro School of Music
Email: t.rakena@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Te Oti's full research profile

Research interests:

  • Vocal pedagogy
  • Studio pedagogy
  • Community music
  • Indigenising music education

Research expertise / skills:

  • Community music education
  • Vocal pedagogy
  • Applied classical voice studio
  • Indigenising music education and the vocal arts curriculum
  • Founding member of Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education Special Interest Group (ISME)
  • Expert advisor for the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation (CAST)
  • Research fellow for Laurier Centre for Music in the Community, Ontario, Canada

Active research projects:

  • Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education: First Peoples Leading Research and Practice
  • The role of First Nations’ music as a determinant of health (international advisor)
  • Community music in Canada: Leading music in culturally diverse contexts (international advisor)

Arielle Roache

Arielle sits at a table in the architecture studios smilimg to camera in a white blouse and gold hoop earrings, atop the table is a small model of a fale she made
Arielle Roache

PhD Candidate in Architecture, Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning
Email: aroa845@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate

Research expertise / skills:

  • Community engagement
  • Rangatira workshops
  • Research methodologies
  • Pacific value-based design

Active research projects:

Associate Professor Peter Robinson

Ngāi Tahu

Manupiri Māori Associate Dean Māori, Creative Arts and Industries
Ahonuku Associate Professor, Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts and Design
Email: p.robinson@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Peter's full research profile

Research interests:

  • Contemporary Māori art
  • Installation art
  • Ngāi Tahutanga

Research expertise / skills:

  • Sculpture
  • Installation
  • Drawing / tuhituhi
  • Relational art and community engagement
  • Performance art

Active research projects:

Syrai-Tiare Taumihau

Tahitian, Tongan, Cook Island, Australian Pākehā, New Zealand Pākehā

PhD Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ngā Akoranga Kanikani Dance Studies Programme
Email: stau226@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Syrai-Tiare's full research profile

Research interests:

My research interests include Mana Moana choreography and dance, dance pedagogy, ideas centered around identity and belonging for Māori and Pacific students within the tertiary context. Creative and embodied practice alongside sharing and exchanging knowledge and lived experiences interest me.

Research expertise / skills:

  • Pacific contemporary choreography/dance
  • Practice-led artistic research
  • Dance pedagogy development
  • Mentorship of undergraduate Māori and/or Pacific students

Active research projects:

  • PhD thesis
  • Prime Ministers Scholarship to Colombia

Vula To‘ofohe

Ha‘ato‘u, Ha‘apai, Kingdom of Tonga

PhD Candidate, Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning
Emailv.toofohe@auckland.ac.nz
Status: Available to collaborate
View Vula's profile

Research interests:

  • Pacific architecture
  • Tā-Vā theory of reality
  • Tauhi Vā
  • Architectural theory
  • Indigenous knowledges and practices
  • Pacific arts
  • Sustainability
  • Pacific co-design
  • Talanoa

Research expertise / skills:

  • Tongan language speaker
  • Talanoa facilitator
  • Community engagement
  • Mentoring and tutoring

Active research projects:

  • Nīmoi ‘i Talafau: Towards an Oceanic Architectural Theory through Tongan Architecture (PhD thesis)