Tumana Research

Homai te Waiora ki Ahau is a research project that began with Stephanie's PhD thesis in the mid 90's - the thesis wanted to why Māori identity or "being Māori" might make a difference to our birthing experience. The research methods involved the development of Homai te Waiora ki Ahau, a technique for measuring Maori wellbeing. This tool combines concepts from Te Wheke (from Dr. Rangimarie Pere), Nga Pou Mana (from The Royal Commission on Social Policy), Te Whare Tapa Wha (from the Maori Women's Welfare League and Mason Durie) and The Galleries of Life (from Bob Elliot and the whanau at Tokanui).

Homai te Waiora ki Ahau takes the form of a series of pictures that aim to present and describe the components of wellbeing for Maori. The following poster shows how this approach has helped to demonstrate the importance for waiora of Maori birthing Whanau.

Over the last decade, Tumana Research has been using psychometric techniques to improve the validity and generalisability of Homai te Waiora ki Ahau for Maori regardless of iwi affiliations, level of involvement in te Ao Maori or ability to speak te Reo Maori. Between 2004 and 2007 this involved an electronic survey, focus group discussions and personal interviews which have aimed to improve understanding of waiora component themes.