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Community Research

The place to find and share good community research & resources, and connect with researchers in Aotearoa.

The place to find and share good community research and researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand.

04/10/2026

The evidence that we have been drawing together in Community Research's upcoming Special Collection, ‘Navigating the Online Landscape,’ shows a need for safer online platforms. We support .

22/09/2026

What becomes possible when we recognise communities as experts in their own lives?

Our latest press release reflects on a powerful webinar kōrero with Paula Ormsby, Rangatira of Wāhine Toa. The webinar explored Tīhei Wāhine Ora: Wāhine from Gang Whānau Healing Intergenerational Trauma, research by Paora Moyle, grounded in the knowledge, leadership and lived experience of wāhine Māori from gang whānau.

Faciltated by Kaye-Maree Dunn, the kōrero shared stories of resilience, healing and practical solutions created within communities. It also offered a clear invitation: listen to wāhine, recognise their authority and resource the mahi they are already leading.

Read the press release:
https://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scoop.co.nz%2Fstories%2FAK2609%2FS00565%2Fthe-community-led-solutions-that-are-changing-lives-community-research-showcases-new-publication-tihei-wahine-ora.htm
watch the webinar and find ways to support Wāhine Toa:
https://communityresearch.org.nz/webinar/tihei-wahine-ora-through-pu-ra-ka-u-te-auaha-pito-mata-awards-series/

08/09/2026

We're delighted to announce that Atelaite Mapa won a the Billie Award at the 2026 Te Auaha Pito Mata Emerging Researcher Awards

As the lead researcher and evaluator, she was recognised for ‘LALAGA ŌTARA LEADERS Knowledge Exchange.’

“Lalaga is a card game designed to create connection through talanoa in our communities,” Atelaite shared. “Today it has grown to be a Pacific-led community action research approach working alongside our Lalaga Leadership Program.”

Atelaite’s report documents the meaningful impact of the Lalaga Leadership Program. “Our research centers whole narratives, the stories, dreams, identities, and futures our rangatahi carry. We call those dreams in and dreams out in our report,” Atelaite said.

“Our evaluation report is designed to be accessible, meaningful, and culturally grounded, but also a legacy for our rangatahi and their whānau. A time capsule of their stories, dreams, laughter, growth, and memories from their time in the Lalaga Leadership Program.”

Atelaite and the Lalaga team have centered rangatahi as knowledge holders, ensuring that young people shape both the research process and the way their stories are shared. “I see research and evaluation as a form of weaving. It brings together stories, lived experience, and evidence so that communities can shape their own futures,” shared Atelaite. “For me, research is not about studying communities; it is about being answerable to them.”

“A huge shout out to our rangatahi for trusting us and allowing us to hold space with them and their stories.”

Atelaite’s work is a strengths-based project that places rangatahi voice, community aspirations, Indigenous knowledge, and creative practice at the centre of community research.

You can now read ‘LALAGA ŌTARA LEADERS Knowledge Exchange’ here > https://communityresearch.org.nz/research/lalaga-otara-leaders-knowledge-exchange/

07/09/2026

Paula Ormsby was recognised at the 2026 Te Auaha Pito Mata Awards for her contribution to ‘Tīhei Wāhine Ora: Wāhine from Gang Whānau Healing Intergenerational Trauma,’ conducted by sole researcher Paora Moyle.

Emerging from a critical gap identified during the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, the project was carried out in relationship with Wāhine Toa and Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki.

"’Tīhei Wahine Ora’ looks at gang wāhine healing intergenerational trauma through Pouhine, through traditional Māori practice," said Paula. The Pouhine wānanga, a Hauraki healing approach designed for wāhine, provided support for the 20 women who shared their stories of survival, resistance, and transformation with the research.

"The research captures their pain, their stories, their traumas and how they have managed to navigate their way out of this,” shared Paula.

As Rangatira of Wāhine Toa, Paula's longstanding relationships of trust helped connect participants with the researcher, while her leadership provided strength, guidance, and community oversight throughout the project.

"I read a quote once that said until the lion learns to write, the hunter will always be glorified," Paula concluded. Shaped by relationality, the research is an uncompromising rejection of deficit framing. It embodies a reciprocal living commitment to healing as well as research.

Tīhei Wāhine Ora has now been published. You can read it here: pouhineresearch.nz

31/08/2026

Join us for the second webinar of our Te Auaha Pito Mata Awards Series!

In this webinar, we meet Paula Ormsby, winner of the Billie Award, and learn about her outstanding contribution as a community researcher to ‘Tīhei Wāhine Ora: Wāhine from Gang Whānau Healing Intergenerational Trauma’. As Rangatira of Wāhine Toa, Paula’s longstanding relationships of trust helped connect participants with the researcher, while her leadership provided strength, guidance and community oversight throughout the project.

We will also be joined by esteemed researcher Paora Moyle, who conducted the Tīhei Wāhine Ora research. Paora brings 30 years’ social work experience and extensive Hauraki-based research into family violence, housing poverty, agency harm, disaster response, and abusive child-protection processes.

The webinar will be facilitated by Kaye Maree Dunn.

Register here to attend https://events.humanitix.com/tihei-wahine-ora-through-pu-ra-ka-u

18/08/2026

Join us for the first webinar of our Te Auaha Pito Mata award winner series!

In this webinar we meet Corrina Thompson, winner of the Community Researcher Award, and learn about her research ‘Learning from lived experience: How phenomenology could help transform Aotearoa’s justice system and navigate the barrier of public opinion.’

This innovative, community-led research centres the experience of children of people in prison - tamariki who are often invisible in public debate yet over-represented across indicators of adversity. It explores how solutions can be shaped by those most affected by intergenerational harm.

Register here https://events.humanitix.com/transforming-justice-centring-tamariki-and-lived-experience

15/07/2026

We're delighted to announce that the winner of our Tangata Whenua Community Researcher Award at the 2026 Te Auaha Pito Mata Emerging Researcher Awards is Ria Te Uira Holmes.

Ria won the award for her doctoral research titled ‘Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Tikanga Māori and Labour Frameworks: An Exploration of Collective Agreement Clauses and the Experiences of Māori Workers.’ It is now available to read via Community Research’s open-access database here!
→https://communityresearch.org.nz/research/te-tiriti-o-waitangi-tikanga-maori-and-labour-frameworks-an-exploration-of-collective-agreement-clauses-and-the-experiences-of-maori-workers/

This mahi is her PhD, completed at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Ria looked into the obligations that stem from Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the engagement of tikanga Māori in the law, and ultimately Māori workers’ perspectives on collective agreement clauses in their workplace.

“I had the absolute privilege of interviewing and spending time with my kaumātua, who helped really guide my understanding of tikanga Māori as a system of law that is lived from the ground up,” said Ria. “[They] enabled me to engage with the academic discourse on tikanga as a system of law in a different way - in a way that really asserted and recognised tikanga Māori as the first law of Aotearoa.”

Ria also worked alongside the Public Service Association (PSA) union within the research project. With their support, she was able to survey and engage with leaders in the Māori union movement. This also allowed her to speak directly with survey workers across different ministries, and gain an understanding of how they understood and engaged with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, tikanga Māori, te reo Māori and te ao Māori.

“This enabled me to build from worker voice and participation,” Ria continued, “to understand the ways that we can take some immediate steps to improve Māori workers—and actually more broadly all workers—in Aotearoa's experiences, and how we can look to the future to consider what might appropriate reform look like.”

Her rigorous, courageous, and deeply culturally-grounded research asks how we in Aotearoa can continue to build Te Tiriti and tikanga Māori not only into the fabric of workplace relations, but into the fabric of how we engage and deal with each other.

“It really is built from my whānau and from my community,” said Ria. “The strength of this research is that it’s built through the story of my whānau, and the struggles of my whānau, and really just more generally, the fight for Tiriti justice. It is a community led and community driven project.”

06/07/2026

We're delighted to announce that the winner of our General Community Researcher Award at the 2026 Te Auaha Pito Mata Emerging Researcher Awards is Corrina Thompson!

Corrina won the award for her research titled ‘Learning from lived experience: How phenomenology could help transform Aotearoa’s justice system and navigate the barrier of public opinion.’ It’s now available to read in Community Research’s open-access database here → https://communityresearch.org.nz/research/learning-from-lived-experience-how-phenomenology-could-help-transform-aotearoas-justice-system-and-navigate-the-barrier-of-public-opinion/

Building from a completed Master’s thesis and current collaborative research with Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou: Children of Prisoners and Koi Tū Centre for Informed Futures, Corrina’s research amplifies voices of lived experience from people affected by the justice system. Not only that, but it translates them into practical recommendations for change.

Her findings have real relevance for policy, community services, and justice reform. “Currently, some of those incredible ideas and insights from our whānau, from our rangatahi and from participants have leapt up off the page and are becoming a real and tangible part of that justice reform conversation,” said Corrina. A key recommendation — the proposed Kaiwhatu Kura Whānau role within the criminal District Court — has emerged directly from the work and is already gaining momentum.

“We were privileged to walk alongside participants who were whānau of people in the prison system, who had been through the prison system themselves, who were whānau of people who had been harmed or who had been harmed directly themselves,” Corrina shared.

“No matter which side of the courtroom, so to speak, that they were sharing their taonga and their stories from, all of our participants ended up singing a unanimous chorus of: ‘we need more support.’”

Corrina’s trust-based, trauma-informed, mana-enhancing work highlights the capability of rangatahi and whānau to shape transformative, community-led solutions.

01/07/2026

We're delighted to announce that the winner of our Ethnic Community Researcher Award at the 2026 Te Auaha Pito Mata Emerging Researcher Awards is Taylor Le Cui崔乐.

Taylor won the award for his community-based research titled, ‘For Q***r migration, heteronormativity and the ‘ethnic closet’: Chinese q***r international students’ intersectional experience in New Zealand.’ It’s now available to read in Community Research’s open-access database here! 👉 https://communityresearch.org.nz/research/q***r-migration-heteronormativity-and-the-ethnic-closet-chinese-q***r-international-students-intersectional-experience-in-new-zealand/

Taylor’s research brings forward the lived experiences of q***r Chinese international students, highlighting the heteronormative microaggressions, tokenism, and structural exclusion many face in New Zealand. “These research interests are shaped by my own experience and identities,” said Taylor. “I was born and raised in China, and I'm a first-generation immigrant in New Zealand. I have lived here for almost nine years, first as an international doctoral student, then as a migrant worker, and now as a resident.”

At the heart of the piece is a deep engagement that centres voices often rendered invisible. For Taylor, the work highlights “how their journeys are shaped by the intersectionality of sexuality, ethnicity, and migration status.”

The research findings generate knowledge that is key to help improve inclusion in tertiary education. This strengths-based research highlights resilience, intersectional identity, and community knowledge.

25/06/2026

One week left - submissions close Thursday 2nd of July!

At Community Research, we’ve been shaping up a Special Collection of research and resources about q***rness in Aotearoa - so here’s an exploration of a few things some of that research is saying.

Other resources you might find helpful for making your submission:
🦋 ’s online submission guide
🦋 Te Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission’s online article
🦋 Matt McKillop’s online LawNews article
🦋 Yeah Nah online submission builder (yeahnahbills.org)
All linked in our bio!

Your voice is valuable in creating a more equitable, inclusive, thriving and informed Aotearoa.

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