6^th Month : Whiringa-ā-rangi  

Nau mai haere mai

Whakatairangatia i te mana o te rangahau ā-hāpori me te mahi tahi

Community and whānau aspirations for research.

Kaiwhakahaere kōrero 

Kia ora

In the for-purpose sector, it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of our work and forget to pause and celebrate what we’ve achieved. Our recent AGM in October gave us the opportunity to reflect on our successes from the past year. Despite the challenges of our times, Community Research has continued to serve the community and remains committed to a more equitable, engaged and inclusive Aotearoa informed by community knowledge.

You can explore the highlights of our 2023-2024 year in the Community Research 2024 Annual Report.pdf

Looking ahead, our focus will include:

• Expanding Content and curation: New content creation and curation, will continue to amplify diverse voices in our communities.
• Supporting Researchers: We’ll keep fostering connections among researchers, and promoting good practice in community-led research.
• Strengthening Sector Connections and Collaboration: Working with values-aligned organisations will remain central to amplifying our collective impact.
• Te Tiriti-led Practices: We’ll embed Te Tiriti o Waitangi across all our work, guiding both our operations and community engagement.
• Sustainability and Infrastructure: To ensure long-term resilience, we’ll keep refining our systems and infrastructure.

Thank you for supporting Community Research’s kaupapa, and we look forward to the year ahead with your continued engagement and support.

Lifetime membership for our long standing mentor Garth Nowland-Foreman

A special moment at our AGM was the awarding of our first-ever Life Membership to Garth Nowland-Foreman, honouring his extraordinary contributions to Community Research over 15 years as Kaitiaki.A highlight for all attending was Garth's presentation. It was a pleasure to hear about recent research and his perspective about how to make the most of our aspirations with limited resources as a Not for Profit. We recommend you watch this fascinating 30-minute presentation here

Monday 11^th November marked the first day of the Toitū te Tiriti hikoi.

Our team looks forward to supporting the hikoi when it arrives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. This hikoi will be the most significant peaceful protest in decades sending a clear message to the coalition government that the people do not support the proposed Treaty Principles Bill. 
Follow the link to find out more information and where to meet up with the action and show your support for te Tiriti. Find more details here https://toitutetiriti.co.nz/
See you there 

He Kōrero podcasts: Te Tiriti 2024 and Beyond. 
This year we released a brand new series of podcasts regarding te Tiriti o Waitangi. To tautoko the hikoi we encourage you to listen to this podcast featuring Luke Fitzmaurice-Brown. 
In this informative podcast Luke articulates how we can utilise Te Tiriti principles for a more inclusive multicultural society, a greater framework for environmental protection and respecting indigenous practices.
Listen to the podcast here

PAST WEBINARS: Oro Atua: Support your hauora
This webinar is a hauora offering of a self-reflection and a sound healing experience created by the amazingly talented Jerome Kavanagh (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Kahungunu) Listen closely and realign as Jerome shares his pūrākau (story) and puoro (Māori musical instrument) in a sound healing experience using his collection of unique and rare Māori musical instruments. (We recommend headphones for this webinar) 
Click here
“Taonga Puoro, traditional Māori musical instruments, reflect the sound of our natural environment from the mountains, rivers, land to the sea. Our ancestors used these instruments in days gone by as tools to heal and promote a healthy body, mind and spirit. Taonga Puoro holds the vibration of the natural world and when played, this vibration resonates within us and helps to reconnect to the intelligence and power of nature.” Jerome Kavanagh

WHAT WORKS
We're really pleased with the positive feedback we've received and suggestions for ways to improve the Community Research hosted What Works website from our Pop-up survey, small group discussions and at the session we ran at the November ANZEA evaluation conference. A lot has changed in Aotearoa since the website was first developed in 2014, however, the need for the Tangata Whenua, Community and Voluntary sector to tell their stories and demonstrate value and impact remains a priority.  

Many thanks to Ned Hardie-Boys and the team at Allen + Clarke who have reviewed the What Works approaches and methods pages as part of their 2024 pro-bono programme. We will be refreshing and updating the links and information based on their suggestions. 

We’re excited to now move onto the next phase of our What Works refresh which explores how we can work together with others to strengthen and emphasise the website as a community-sector facing, inclusive space that speaks to the te Tiriti and multicultural context of Aotearoa now and for the future. We will be providing Ngā Kete updates as we progress this mahi – so watch this space!  

New Year Ethnic Data Classification Standards Project 

Early in the New Year, we will be running community Awhe awhe (workshop) sessions and bringing together resources to support ethnic community organisations/researchers to respond to the upcoming StatsNZ consultation on New Zealand Ethnic Data Classification Standards. These Standards play a crucial role in determining the scope of our research and evaluation activities. This includes being able to understand how diverse ethnic communities in Aotearoa are faring, visibility in data analyses and official statistics, and how such data can be connected with lived experience and community naratives. 
You can be kept updated about this mahi by registering your interest here.  

Research Reflections 
Ah conference season! Although it can be tiring, it's always incredible to realise how much is 'going on out there' which we might not know about, and great to connect with people doing amazing mahi. Bev, Lorna and I have been at various events to keep us connected with the sector and the communities we engage with. For my part, I've been at the New Zealand Game Developer's Conference (wearing my other-mahi hat), and at the Collective Currents Conference. At the latter, we had a fantastic talk from Vu Le, author of the blog 'Nonprofit AF'; he challenged the sector to remember that it's us who deliver on our funders' goals (whether they're government or beyond) and so we should take an attitude of collaboration, not of begging for funding. At the NZGDC, I was reflecting on how much the ethos of the community and voluntary sector – of seeking positive change for communities – is visible even in what is (at least from the outside) a 'commercial' space.  

Unlike what has been the dominant cultural norm in other countries in the gaming sector, the industry in New Zealand has notable amounts of women, queer folks, and a range of ethnicities all in positions of influence – while this can always improve, it's a space which feels more closely reflective of the diversity of our communities. Also, every year at the conference we see many talks about how to use games to influence positive change, such as this cool game 'Kaupapa', which challenges players to stretch their kupu Māori to progress around the board. While our society can be fraught with negative attitudes at times, it can be a wonderful balm to the soul to be reminded of how many people are doing the mahi to help make this world a little better – even in spaces you might not expect. Nā Moana

TAUTOKO SESSIONS

Join us this Thursday for our last Tautoko session for 2024 and connect with other researchers, former refugees, and migrant peers who are passionate about research by and for ethnic communities. The conversation starter for this session will be “top of mind” thoughts about community research gaps, ideas, and potential opportunities. We’ll also spend a little time evolving our approach and guidelines for how we connect, network and operate together as a community. 

We celebrate all forms of community-led knowledge-making, whether it’s community-based mahi and mātauranga, or based within organisations, the public service, or academia.
When: Thu, 14 Nov, 11am - 12pm 
Register here 

Working to End Racial Oppression International Conference 2025  – 2nd Call for Papers and Keynote speakers  

When: 9th-12th February 2025 
Where: University of Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Keynote speakers announced:
Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Distinguished Professor, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi. Ruha Benjamin, Professor, Princeton University
Michelle Johnson-Jennings, Professor, University of Washington
Jeffrey Ansloos, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Donna Cormack, Associate Professor, University of Auckland
Nate Rew, Lecturer, University of Waikato

Early bird registration is open now until 15th December 2024 
Find out more here 

Webinar: Transformational Participation: Leadership, Governance and Philanthropy as tangata whenua (Māori) and tangata tiriti (non-Māori)

WEAll Aotearoa hosted three local and international thought leaders on transformational participation. This webinar presented ideas and case studies on approaches spanning leadership, governance and philanthropy to drive participatory economics forward including sociocracy, equitable access to funding and indigenous frameworks from Te Ao Māori.  Our three guests were Maria Ngawati, IndigiShare (Aotearoa New Zealand), Alanna Irving, Gift Collective, Fundsorter, and Wellbeing Protocol (Aotearoa New Zealand) and Ted Rau, Sociocracy for All (US). 
Find the recording here

Ko ta mātou whakakitenga he Aotearoa e tōkeke ana, e whai kiko ana, e whakamohio mai ana e te matauranga hapori.
Our vision is a more equitable, engaged and inclusive Aotearoa informed by community knowledge.

Community Research is a registered charity funded through donations and grants. Our services are provided free of charge for the benefit of the tangata whenua, voluntary and community sector.  

If you appreciate our work please consider supporting us by making a donation today.