The recently HRC-contracted Te Hao Nui, Te Hao Kōmārohi research project is being led by co-investigators, Andrew Sporle (McDonald Sporle Ltd) and Dr Amohia Boulton (Whakauae). Other members of the research team include Gill Potaka-Osborne (Whakauae) and Dr Reremoana Theodore (University of Otago).
This rangatahi wellbeing quantitative research project aims to improve the policy and service interventions that support rangatahi wellbeing by making high-quality information available to inform iwi and regional Māori development planning. The work is intended to contribute to the enhanced targeting of interventions and monitoring of rangatahi outcomes. The research seeks to link together data from Te Kupenga, the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) and other government administrative databases to create the world’s largest and most comprehensive Indigenous youth longitudinal study. Focusing on informing local interventions and policy, the study will transform national statistical data into the locally accessible information, linked into service delivery planning and evaluation at the iwi, rohe and regional levels, that Māori providers and communities have been asking for. Three sites have been recruited to partner with us in the research; Te Oranganui Trust (Whanganui), the Auckland and Waitematā District Health Boards and Te Hiku o te Ika Iwi Development Trust (Northland).
Te Hao Nui, Te Hao Kōmārohi has now begun in earnest with the contracting of HRC funding, the negotiating of research relationships and the letting of sub-contracts with key research partners. In mid-May 2019, Auckland-based Andrew Sporle travelled to Whanganui to meet with Te Oranganui Trust CEO, Wheturangi Walsh-Tapiata. Together with Dr Amohia Boulton and Gill Potaka-Osborne, they discussed the aims and benefits of the research, specifically to Te Oranganui as a case study site. The Whanganui-based Maori health and social services provider will, as part of the project, be funded to employ their own part-time data researcher over a period of three years to participate in building the data portal, or hub, for the rohe. In the lead up to that appointment, the research team will work closely with Te Oranganui management and governance, along with selected community leaders, to explore local data requirements, issues and priorities.
