Prestigious award for indigenous health researcher

Wed Aug 24 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Prestigious award for indigenous health researcher

24 August 2016

Indigenous health researcher, Erena Wikaire, receives her Rose Hellaby Maori Education scholarship.

World-leading indigenous health researcher Erena Wikaire (Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine) was awarded a prestigious postgraduate scholarship by the Rose Hellaby Māori Education Fund recently.

The fund, managed by Perpetual Guardian, has distributed almost $4 million to support Māori education since 1977.

Erena has worked and studied at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori (TKHM), the University of Auckland’s Department of Māori Health, for more than five years.

She is now studying for a Doctorate in Public Health at the Tāmaki Campus, focusing on how Māori healing traditions can be used to improve health outcomes for Māori.

Erena is researching how to re-normalise the use of rongoā Māori (traditional Māori health practices) in everyday life to empower Māori to regain control over their own wellbeing and thereby improve Māori health outcomes.

Erena took up the cause after her cousin Melissa Wikaire, who had been a tireless supporter of rongoā, passed away from cancer in 2013.

Her research is based within Ngāti Whātua ō Orākei (central Auckland) and is already attracting international attention in the field of indigenous health.

She says being the recipient of a Rose Hellaby Scholarship is a “huge honour” and she is proud to be using it for research that values traditional Māori knowledge, aligns with the aspirations of Māori and contributes to Māori health and wellbeing.

“Cost is one of the biggest barriers to postgraduate study for Māori,” says Erena. “The $30,000 Rose Hellaby Scholarship is a major help financially and enables me to concentrate fully on my studies. I am very grateful for the support.”

Her former research supervisor from the Department, senior lecturer, Dr Elana Curtis, says “Erena is an exceptional post-graduate student who has an excellent ability to conduct high quality quantitative and qualitative research from a Kaupapa Māori framework."

“We are very proud of Erena's achievements,” Dr Curtis says. “She first began with TKHM as a research assistant on a project.

"Her research ability was clear and we were able to support Erena to complete her post-graduate diploma papers whilst working with us, and eventually to start her Masters in Public Health.”

“Erena is an asset for TKHM as well as her wider whānau of Ngāti Hine - he mihi maioha!”

For an insight into Erena’s background at TKHM see here.

For media enquiries email Suzi Phillips, Media Advisor, Medical and Health.