23 Apr 2014

Doubt cast on future of Maori research

7:07 am on 23 April 2014

A researcher is rejecting a Government claim that Maori research will continue and grow.

The Maori Research Centre of Excellence recently missed out on further government funding but Minister of Science and Innovation Steven Joyce believes Maori research will prosper through existing organisations.

He suggests the sector will continue and grow through initiatives such as the Callaghan Innovation Fund and the National Science Challenges, which conducts research relating to tangata whenua.

But director of Te Kotahitanga Institute of Research, Leonie Pihama, disagrees.

She says the initiatives referred to by Mr Joyce are funds which are available to all researchers, and any tangata whenua who receive that funding would have to work under mainstream guidelines.

Ms Pihama says Maori research is different because it's done by tangata whenua for tangata whenua and takes in to account Maori ideas and philosophies.