We regularly conduct interviews with researchers who are working with communities. If you are a community researcher and would like to share your story, please contact us here.
Jen Margaret
“When working with communities or groups, on research, it needs to be a collaborative process that is either initiated by the community or that the community supports.”
Jen Margaret talks about what community research means to her, and about the working for allies research process.
Roz Dibley
“If you follow the Centre for Digital Storytelling model, it’s about sharing stories. It focuses on the relationships between the people involved in the story.”
Roz Dibley talks about Digital Storytelling, what it is and how it can be used in research and evaluation.
Rawiri Blundell
“The recognition of the rights of Māori as the indigenous people must take preference in any community research, especially with the number of global influences that can undermine Kaupapa Māori practices.”
Erena Kara, (Ngapuhi) Project Manager at Te Hau Ora o Kaikohe, spoke to community researcher Rawiri Blundell (Ngati Porou), Equity Manager Midland Cancer Network about what he does, his career journey and a challenge he has been grappling with.
Fay Pouesi
“We all have potential, we were born with it. And we all have the ability to achieve. I have witnessed it in the women I have worked alongside.”
Fay E Pouesi, (Ngati Ruanui, Ngaruahinerangi, Te Atiawa, and Pakeha) winner of a Community Research New and Emerging Researcher Award in 2010, spoke to us about how she got to where she is, how winning the award helped her and what her next steps are.
Bonnie-May Shantz
“In stage four of our research our emphasis is to reach out to “hard to reach groups”; those who are not in formalized groups or who we aren’t necessarily networked with. We specifically put it in the project plan to challenge ourselves, because it is so important.”
Bonnie-May talks about how the people at Community Waitakere took a step back from their everyday practice, to determine how they wanted to evaluate and record the ways that they make a difference in their community.
Donna Lester-Smith
“I’m learning that I’m not alone and…We all learn differently. We all have different research elements, but Māori and Canadian researchers, we’re very connected spirit-wise.”
Donna Lester-Smith from the University of British Columbia speaks to us about her research with Aboriginal communities in Canada and her thesis: ‘Hope for Change—Change Can Happen: Healing the Wounds of Family Violence with Indigenous Traditional Holistic Practices’
Liz Gordon
“What sort of a society are we that locks up its indigenous group in such high – and growing –numbers?”
We talk to Liz Gordon of Pūkeko Research about her recent research on children of prisoners and how a Member of Parliament became a community researcher.