Category: University of Waikato

“Professor Lodge was the first person to be made a Professor of the music programme at the University and his guiding hand has helped build music at the University to what it is today,” says University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor, Professor Neil Quigley.

Dr Tangiwai Rewi (Waikato-Ngāti Tīpā, Ngāti Amaru, Ngāti Tahinga) is a Waikato alumna, completing a Bachelor of Education in 1989 and Higher Diploma of Teaching in 1997. She also holds a Master of Indigenous Studies (2006) and PhD (2018) from the University of Otago.

Dr Rewi currently manages customary fisheries nationally at the Ministry for Primary Industries,

and has previously held senior roles at the Ministry of Education, Te Tumu, School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago and was the foundation Tumuaki (Principal) at Tōku Māpihi Maurea Kura Kaupapa Māori.

Dr Rewi’s research interests and expertise include te reo me ngā tikanga Māori, Māori Education and Māori Pedagogy, and preserving the narratives of rūruhi, koroheke, and kaumātua.

Dr Rewi is looking forward to returning to Waikato and will join the University in November.

“Mahia te mahi hei painga mō te iwi,” Te Puea Herangi.

Te Ihorangi Māori, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Māori, Dr Sarah-Jane Tiakiwai, says the University is delighted to have someone of Dr Rewi’s calibre joining the leadership team and also paid tribute to Professor Sandy Morrison for her leadership of the Faculty over the past couple of years.

The University of Waikato has achieved significant results in the latest funding round from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Endeavour Fund.

One research programme, and six Smart Ideas projects have been awarded grants through the highly contested fund.

Tauhokohoko: Indigenising trade policy and enabling mana motuhake through Indigenous trade ($14.9m over 5 years)

Associate Professor of the School of Management and Marketing Operations and Associate Dean Māori Dr Jason Mika (Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Kahungunu) is investigating different ways of doing business to mitigate climate change and environmental harm.

He is head of a Māori-led partnership between Māori practitioners of Indigenous trade at Te Taumata, and Māori, Indigenous, and non-Indigenous researchers at Te Kotahi Research Institute.

On learning about the funding, Dr Mika said:

“Ko te mea tuatahi, he mihi ki te Atua, nana nei ngā mea katoa. Tuarua, ka mihi ki ō tātau mātua tīpuna, nā rātau mā i taea ai te kawe i ngā kaupapa Māori pēnei nā. Tuatoru, ka mihi ki ōku hoa mahi o Te Kotahi me Te Raupapa o te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, me Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa mō ā koutou nā tautoko, ō pūkenga anō hoki. Tuawhā, he mihi nui ki Te Taumata, nā koutou i taea. Tēnei rā, e tika ka whakanui i te hōnore nui nei. Ae, me kai pihikete me te kapū tī. Nā te mea, hei āpōpō, ka timata te mahi.”

Together the research team will be looking at approaches where business achievement and prosperity are not measured by individual accumulation, but by the extent of the contributions to the wellbeing of others and the environment.  Dr Mika said,

“Everything we now desire in business and society might have been: sustainable and inclusive trade, environmental sustainability, fair and equitable access to opportunity and outcomes. Instead, we’ve been constrained by legacies of believing there was only one right way, and that way was not the Māori way,” says Dr Mika.

Using kaupapa Māori and Indigenous methodologies, the research seeks to transform trade policy to achieve the aspirations shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples — a climate-resilient economy that is equitable and produces high-value goods and services from innovative entrepreneurial activity.

“Imaginethe definition of triple bottom-line performance is mauri (wellbeing).This doesn’t mean Māori entrepreneurs and businesspeople aren’t interested in making a profit – profit is important for enterprise viability. It is why and how they do this and who benefits that can be decidedly different,” he says.

The research aims to create a new Indigenous-based framework for international trade that puts the wellbeing of te taiao (the environment) and ngā tāngata (the people) at the centre.

“We want pragmatic outcomes from our research. For example, new frameworks, standards, guidance, and practices for trade policy, using the Aotearoa variant of indigeneity found in the notion of te ao Māori and te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

It is anticipated that the framework will have multiple positive outcomes.

“By amplifying the role of Indigenous knowledge of environmentally responsible trade policy our framework will normalise Indigenous perspectives and support the transition to a low-emissions, climate-resilient economy.”

Smart Ideas (each funded for $1m over 3 years)

Physically plausible record-shattering drought events in a warming Aotearoa 

Climate change scientist Dr Luke Harrington will look atdata from climate models, coupled with guidance from historical observations and mātauranga Māori, to identify drought events capable of occurring over Aotearoa within the next three decades. In a country reliant on primary industries the research is a crucial step towards ensuring our economy remains resilient to a rapidly warming climate.

Safe, solid-state hydrogen storage technology – Enabling New Zealand’s zero-carbon emissions target 

Dr Fei Yang Associate Professor of Engineering will lead a team to deliver optimised high-entropy alloy hydrogen storage materials and technologies that meet weight, volume, thermodynamic, kinetic, and safety requirements. This research will enable the use of hydrogen for transportation and stationary energy storage uses, to help establish a working low-carbon economy.

High-capacity, responsive thermal storage for coupling mismatched energy supply and demand 

Dr Fei Yang and Dr Murray McCurdy (GNS Science) will work together to lead a team to develop a new thermal energy storage technology to couple renewable heat sources, such as geothermal, biomass and solar, to heat demand in process heat and electricity generation. This will reduce the need for fossil fuels in our primary processing sectors, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It will also mean carbon charges can be avoided so increases to the cost of electricity and food products will also be avoided.

Probiotic Inoculants for Seaweed Hatcheries and Aquaculture 

Associate Professor of Marine Science and Aquaculture, Dr Marie Magnusson will identify and assess seaweed microbiomes that stimulate growth and development and/or disease resistance in seaweeds. The aim is to select seaweed probiotics to improve the performance of seaweed produced in hatcheries for aquaculture.

Microwave Brain Scanner for Early Alzheimer’s Disease Detection

Professor of Engineering and biomedical imaging expert, Dr Yifan Chen will lead a highly skilled, multi-disciplinary team that is developing a novel, non-invasive, low-cost microwave scanner to aid ‘point of care’ testing for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). AD is the most common cause of dementia, the seventh leading cause of death among diseases worldwide.

Smart-antigens for ovine antiviral hyperimmune milk production

Applied immunologist Dr William Kelton, in collaboration with structural biologist Dr Adele Williamson, and biotech innovators Ruakura Technologies will develop milk with enhanced immune protection against norovirus. The science mimics nature and can be compared to the way a mother’s milk protects a newborn baby from disease causing pathogens.

University of Waikato Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Bryony James, says these results are fantastic for Waikato, in what is a notoriously competitive research funding environment.

“The work that goes into preparing and submitting high quality applications is significant and I would like to acknowledge all those involved.”

The most recent protest by the Restore Passenger Rail climate protest group, in which a Wellington car dealership was defaced with red paint, is not just the latest in a local movement – it’s part of a global trend.

Airline bosses have been hit with cream pies, Just Stop Oil protesters have glued themselves to iconic pieces of art in famous galleries, school students are skipping school to march for climate justice, and airport runways have been invaded. Everywhere, including in New Zealand, roads and highways have been blocked.

It’s entirely likely such protests will continue and escalate in their impact as the climate emergency worsens, and frustration grows with a perceived lack of meaningful government action.

Groups such Extinction Rebellion view “non-violent direct action and civil disobedience” as not only justifiable but crucial in the face of what they see as an urgent existential threat.

But for every climate action there has been a political and legal reaction. From Europe to Australia there have been crackdowns. New laws have been drafted in Britain to create specific offences such as obstructing major transport works, interfering with key national infrastructure, and causing serious disruption by tunnelling.

Earlier this year, a New Zealander living in Britain was given a “draconian” three-year prison sentence for his role in a protest that shut down a busy road in London.

With the stakes rising, it’s important that governments and legal systems find ways to adapt, without risking a climate protest arms race that may only encourage increasingly unreasonable impacts on the general public.

Rights and freedoms

In New Zealand, a trend towards authorities reaching for harsher penalties is also evident.

The traditional sentence for obstructing a public road without consent is a fine of up to NZ$1,000. Such penalties are now being augmented with potential charges of criminal nuisance, and police have warned that protesters could face up to 14 years in jail for endangering transport.

That is longer than many serious crimes, including the maximum ten years under proposed law changes for ram-raiding.

At the same time, protest is a critical part of free and democratic societies, and has been used (often in novel ways) to achieve change we now take for granted.

Although there is no specific right to protest in law, protesting is a manifestation of the rights to freedom of movement, association and peaceful assembly in most liberal societies.

Globally, such rights are protected by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the related framework of human rights treaties. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees those rights.

No absolute right to protest

And yet, the right to protest is not absolute. As with most rights, it can be subject to such reasonable legal limits as can be justified in a free and democratic society.

In practice, this means not all forms of protest may be permissible, such as disorderly acts or ones that risk violence or public safety. Tolerance of protest and some levels of inconvenience should be expected in liberal democracies. But intentional and serious disruption to ordinary life may be illegal if it is done unreasonably.

Determining what is reasonable is the hard part. It involves assessing the scale and impact of the inconvenience, and the rights and freedoms of others affected.

So, peaceful protests that cause temporary inconvenience and limited obstruction might be permissible. But repeatedly blocking people from going about their business for prolonged periods may not be.

Climate protests exist at a moral and legal intersection. Reducing carbon emissions means targeting roads, highways and fossil fuel-powered vehicles by creating blockades and choke-points. But for centuries, authorities have been charged with keeping those vital routes open for citizens.

Worlds collide

The challenge is to find the balance between two world views that are colliding. It’s wrong to try to silence legitimate dissent, but how do governments and other authorities make room for, and even facilitate, a protest movement aimed at altering fundamental behaviours?

One response might be to designate new areas where such protests can be held (including on roads) as a way to help those messages be heard and seen. These must be authorised and conducted in ways that don’t unreasonably hinder the rights of other citizens.

But it is unlikely to be enough for more radical ends of the protest movement, which clearly view direct and increasingly disruptive actions as the only effective method.

There may be no simple answer. But New Zealand’s next government should review the current legal frameworks to ensure they are fit for purpose. People are equal before the law, and breaking the rules means being held to account. But the penalties must not be disproportionate.

Law and policy already acknowledge the climate crisis will demand enormous effort and change. They cannot also become blunt tools for repressing social movements dedicated to holding those same powers to account.

Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The CBIKS centre is about connecting Indigenous knowledge with mainstream Western sciences to create new ways to address some of the most pressing issues of our time: climate change, including impacts on ecosystems; the threat to irreplaceable archaeological sites, sacred places, and cultural heritage; and the issues around changing food systems, all of which disproportionately affect Indigenous communities. The research team brings together the world’s leading Indigenous natural, environmental, and social scientists, representing Native American, First Nations, Métis, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, Māori and Aboriginal Australian peoples.

Community-based research and place-based studies will be done in partnership with Indigenous communities in eight international “hubs.” Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute Associate Professor Maui Hudson (Te Whakatōhea, Ngāruahine, and Te Māhurehure) and Senior Lecturer Dr Haki Tuaupiki (Waikato, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) at Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao – Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies will work as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand contingent based at the Pacific Hub.

“Combining Indigenous and mainstream Western sciences to address complex global problems is an important step towards more equitable partnerships with Indigenous communities, the co-production of knowledge, and the development of place-based, community-centred solutions,” Associate Professor Hudson says.

Dr Tuaupiki adds: “Indigenous ancestral knowledge, with thousands of years of articulation and practice, has always been important and extremely valuable, never more so than now. This international collaboration of Indigenous leaders and experts will see us utilise Indigenous ancestral wisdom in an ethical and culturally grounded way with the best of Western science to find solutions to climate change for our communities and the world.”

Dr Tuaupiki is Co-Director of the Pacific Hub alongside Kelley Uyeoka from the cultural resource management non-profit Huliauapa’a in Hawai’i. Dr Tuaupiki says, “Our work will focus on   food sovereignty, traditional food restoration, wāhi kupuna (ancestral spaces) stewardship, and voyaging and navigation responses to climate change.”

Associate Professor Hudson will co-lead the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Working Group. He says that “this work is primarily about developing approaches and processes that enable the hubs and different studies to share traditional knowledge in the context of the different research activities while protecting that knowledge and ensuring it is not misappropriated.”

Alongside research, CBIKS has an important educational mission. The centre will train postdoctoral researchers and graduate research assistants. Workshops and camps for young people and government agencies will share knowledge and processes for ‘braiding’ Indigenous knowledge. Associate Professor Hudson says that as part of the CBIKS Indigenous Science Study Abroad Program, the University of Waikato will also host students travelling from U.S.-based CBIKS Hub institutions.

The United States National Science Fund has invested over US $ 30 million (NZ $50 million) into CBIKS for five years, after which it will be eligible for further funding.