Maria Maniapoto

I grew up in a house full of books, manuscripts and audio recordings from my tupuna. I saw how these cherished taonga were slowly deteriorating becoming yellowish/brown in color a sign that the documents were breaking down. I have attempted to use different methods such as interleaving to preserve what we have left of our tupuna's manuscripts. We also had an audio recording of my great-grandfather Raureti Te Huia who recorded our hapu history and matauranga, this recording was in reel to reel format commonly used in the first magnetic recording systems. I have grown a strong interest to help my whanau and others understand the need to preserve such taonga so that we may retain the important matauranga and capture the original essence of recordings and manuscripts.

As a trustee for our PSGE - Te Nehenehenui i have had the opportunity to develop governance and leadership skills to ensure that i am equipped with the relevant skills, knowledge and resources required to act as a responsible trustee.

Te Tohu Whakamaumaharatanga ki a Wiremu Parker/Wiremu Parker Award, School of Māori Studies, Victoria University.

Between 2003 and 2004 I worked at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research where I contributed significantly to the research and writing of the following reports: - (2002-2003) Te Hiringa I te Mahara- Māori teacher professional development program, an initiative funded by the Ministry of Education that aimed to reduce the workload pressures for Mäori secondary teachers. - (2002-2003) Te Rerenga ä Te Pïrere(‘The flight of the Fledgling’), a study involving children in Maori medium pre-school and primary school. - (2003-2004) Kaupapa Ara Whakawhiti Matauranga was a Ministry of Education initiative that brought together a number of ICT school improvement initiatives under one umbrella.

• Maniapoto, M "Maori expressions of healing in just therapy", in A. Lock and T. Strong (Eds) Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice. Oxford University Press.
• Waldegrave, C., King, P., Maniapoto, M.,Tamasese, T., Parsons, L., Sullivan, G. (2011) Resilience in Sole Parent Families: A Qualitative Study of Relational Resilience in Māori, Pacific and Pakeha Sole Parent Families.
• King, P.,Maniapoto, M., Tamasese, T. K., Parsons, T. L., and Waldegrave, C. (2010) "Socio-cultural Factors Associated with Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori and Pacific People in Aotearoa New Zealand."