Moana is of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāti Rangiwēwehi tribal descent. With more than 30 years’ experience in social and community work, Moana is a registered social worker with a PhD in indigenous studies. Her working career and vision have been spent committed to strengthening child/family safety and wellbeing, reclaiming and application of Maori frameworks in social and community work, family violence prevention and the design of practices for working with Maori. Moana spent a number of years supporting the development of more responsive practices for Māori into the Aotearoa New Zealand child protection services. She continues to support her Ngāpuhi Iwi (tribal) social services and is involved in whānau and hapū papakainga initiatives. Moana is active in the social work sector and a founding member of the Tangata Whenua Association of Social Work (TWSWA) professional network. She has published extensively on indigenous social work and a specific research focus for Moana has been working with taitamariki Maori (youth) on their intimate partner violence prevention solutions and strategies. She has strong indigenous and international connections and participates regularly in sharing information and evidence from Aotearoa New Zealand.

 
Moana is currently Senior Research Fellow for Taupua Waiora Centre for Māori Health research at Auckland University of Technology and also undertakes social and community work consultancy projects.

Whitiao is of Ngapuhi, Ngati Hine and Ngati Ruanui descent.

Her thirty years plus career in the social services sector has incorporated practice in the health, NGO and Maori sectors both at front-line leadership and governance levels. Whitiao was the Kaiwhakahaere For Aotearoa New Zealand Association for Social Workers (ANZASW), the Tangata Whenua Representative for the Ethics committee for Aotearoa New Zealand Association for Social Workers (ANZASW). Whitiao is a Kahui member for Tangata Whenua Social Workers Association (TWSWA) where she promotes Tangata Whenua / Indigenous social work practice to ensure practitioners and students have a voice in decision making and policy development. She also provides placements for students and supervision for social work practitioners.

Whitiao is currently the Team Leader / Kai Awhina at Manaakitangata e Rua, Transitional Housing Provider at Te Puea Memorial Marae in Mangere Bridge Auckland. She works alongside Nga Wai A Te Tui - Maori & Indigenous Research Unit at Unitec where she is analyzing social work narratives and data taken from the whanau who have been part of the transitional housing space at Te Puea Memorial Marae.

Michael Anthony Hart is a proud citizen of Fisher River Cree Nation in central Turtle Island. While he has always been involved in Cree ways of being through the guidance of his family and Elders, he has been actively learning Indigenous ceremonial practices focused on well-being for almost four decades, with a focus on Cree concepts such as mâmawi-wîcihitowin, mîno-pimâtisiwin, mamatawisowin, and kisêwatisiwin.

 Dr Hart lead the development of the Master of Social Work in Indigenous Knowledges program at the University of Manitoba and was the first Director of the program. His research focuses on Indigenist helping perspectives, theories, and practices, as well as anti-colonialism and Indigenist research methods. He holds a BSW, MSW and PhD in Social Work from the University of Manitoba, as well as a BA in Psychology from the University of Manitoba.

In 2018 he moved to Calgary, Alberta to be the inaugural Vice-Provost of Indigenous Engagement, and professor in Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. He has recently received the additional appointment as the Associated Vice-President, Research for Indigenous Engagement. Previously, he held a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Knowledges and Social Work through the University of Manitoba from 2012 to 2018.

Tracies ancestry flows from both the global north and global south, but identifies as someone with Indigenous roots in moana-nui-a-kiwa, in Oceania. On her father’s side, she has Tongan heritage, from the village of Te’ekiu, and also to Nukulaelae, Tuvalu. On her mother’s side, she is Pākehā, with English, Scottish and Irish ancestry. Born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand, she has lived in different parts of Oceania over her lifetime.

Tracies career involved work in New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tokelau. She collaborates with colleagues to coordinate the Social Work Regional Resource Centre of Oceania (SWRROc) with a focus on strengthening social work research and education informed by Pacific-Indigenous approaches. She recently served as a member of the Asia-Pacific Association of Schools of Social Work.

“My teaching and research promote the advancement of Pacific cultural knowledges and ways within social work and community development regionally and internationally. Specific topics of study have included Tongan social work, cultural humility, youth development in PNG, HIV prevention, health systems and leadership and Pacific research strengthening. While I have participated in mixed-method research teams, I primarily engage in qualitative research methods and is developing my interest in arts-based methods.”

Tracie is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Associate Dean Pacific within the College of Health, Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand.

NGATI POROU, RONGOWHAKAATA, TE AITANGA-A-MAHAKI, NGAI TAMANUHIRI, NGATI KAHUNGUNU-KI-TE WAIROA

He uri ahau no Porourangi (I am a descendent of Porourangi), living in the rohe (tribal area) of Ngati Raukawa to be with my mokopuna (grandchildren) and mokomoko (great grandchild). My Ngati Porou tīpuna (grandparents), whānau (family), hapū (sub-tribes) and whenua (land) have been instrumental in shaping and informing my thinking, approaches and responses in the many journeys and their kaupapa (issues) throughout my life. They presented me with opportunities to seek proactive ways to move forward, founded upon the thinking and approaches of my old people, refashioned for kaupapa today. Working with the Māori Affairs Department, Auckland University of Technology and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa provided real contexts where people's mauri (wellbeing) were daily being impacted upon, either positively or negatively. My whakapapa sources have been constant hoa-haere (valued travelling companions) in the range of ‘worlds’ I have moved in, with their myriad of cross-roads and inter-sections. I experienced culturally informed options in personal, vocational, professional, intellectual, emotional situations. Hariata has been my hoa-piri (constantly close companion), enabling such journeys to be undertaken, contested and locating ‘a courage’ to select, re/create, use and defend culturally-informed choices. Inviting the wisdom, clarity and rationales of the ‘old peoples’ koha (valued contributions) into each new time and kaupapa is a gentle reminder that they can always be journeying with us their uri (descendants), if we turn and genuinely say to them, ‘aroha mai, āwhina mai’ (please help).

TE WHANAU A APANUI ME NGATI POROU

I am of two closely-related iwi/tribal groups located in the North Island, Aotearoa-New Zealand; Te Whanau a Apanui in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Ngati Porou, on the East Coast. The theme, of this hui/conference has opened a door for me to participate. Being more than 75 years old, I have seen and experienced the applied lived responses of whanau life, kaupapa/issues and relationship challenges and crisis. Experiencing and appreciating the methods used by my kuia (grandmother) confirmed to me how applicable, the patterns created, developed and utilised by past generations of my whakapapa groupings are for their uri/descendents. They have left me clear examples of how to care for my uri. The opportunity to be Taina’s hoa-haere/travelling companion in the creating and shaping of a Social Work degree programme for delivery by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in 2003, allowed us āhurutanga/safe space to deliberately place Māori options of practice, approaches and processes at it’s heart. Āta was a constant presence throughout the journey of the degrees development and delivery. It affirmed to us, how whanau experiences are imperative to appreciating the timeless wisdom within Mōhiotanga and Mātauranga Māori/Māori Indigenous knowledge, mo te oranga whanau, for family wellbeing. During 50 years in Auckland, most of my working years, were spent in Education; I continued with my academic studies. Retirement came towards the end of 2016, when we left Auckland moving to Tokoroa be with our mokopuna/grandchildren and mokomoko/great grandchild.

Associate Professor | Hawaii Pacific University, and member of the Journal of indigenous Social Development (previously Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work) Editorial Board

NGATIPOROU, RONGOWHAKAATA, TE AITANGA-A-MAHAKI, KAHUNGUNU

I am a social worker, an educator, researcher, writer, dad, and a grandad (or as my daughters affectionately call me “g-pops”). Throughout my career, I have always been passionate about looking for innovative, audacious, and at times, unconventional ways of helping reempower, revitalise and reconnect indigenous communities. And by virtue of doing this, disrupt those systems that exploit, threaten, corrupt and persecute the alienated and the disenfranchised.

It is through what I see as SMART acts of building intentional alliances, growing leadership capacity, promoting cultural entrepreneurship, through critical thinking and education, and the teachings and guidance of many remarkable people both living and passed, that I have been able to remain grounded and committed to the health and wellbeing of families, groups and individuals. My social work practice has navigated from the clinical
wards and mental health institutions to the back roads and inaccessibilities frequently experienced in rural communities.

From my role as a substance abuse counsellor and prevention worker, to vocational rehabilitation and disabilities researcher and programme evaluator, to an academic instructor, I remain true to the echoing words of Ta Apirana Ngata in his whakatauaki, “E Tipu e Rea,” which defines for me the key elements to cultivating and nurturing, resistance, resilience, inner-strength and self-confidence. I continue to focus on indigenous health disparities, on decolonising and indigenising institutions, on clinical and community practice, and on research, in my present role as an associate professor of social work at Hawai’i Pacific University. A far distance from my humble upbringing as a kid raised in Ruatoria along with my seven siblings. I pay homage to my beautiful mother, Mereana Takoto ki te Whenua i Poneke (nee KARAKA), of Ngatiporou affiliations, born at “Mokonui”, Whakaangiangi, Te Araroa, and my dad, Morris Te Mumuhu MATAIRA, raised in Manutuke and of Rongawhaata, Te Aitanga-a-Makahi, and Kahungunu descent.