NEWS & EVENTS

Te Puna Vai Marama Research Fellow Merita Tuari'i is pictured, back row, second from right.

HOW'S YA HEALTH?

2th January, 2024
Front page news! Centre director Prof. Heather Worth voices concerns over the Cook Islands' poor ranking in the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) 2023 Global Monitoring Report in a letter to the editor in the Cook Islands News.

You can read Heathers original piece here: Letter: How’s ya health? - Cook Islands News

And read the front page article, including comments from Sir Bob Williams, Minister of Health, by clicking the button below.

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ARTICLE HERE

"Where are the women at the Pacific Islands Forum Leadership?"

PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM: Rarotonga, Cook Islands

6th-10th November 2023
Centre director Prof. Heather Worth questions the lack of women in political decision making at the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting in Rarotonga in an opinion piece in the Cook Islands Newspaper.
ARTICLE HERE

Our disaster management needs to do more for diverse voices

After a trip to Japan as part of the Australia Institute of International Affairs Indo-Pacific Co-operation Network, Senior Research Fellow Merita Tuari'i reflects on the gendered nature of climate and weather information services and disaster early warning systems in the Cook Islands.
ARTICLE HERE

PAST EVENTS

RESEARCH SEMINAR: VALERY WICHMAN

Wednesday 28th February, 2024
Valery Wichman is the chief advisor of Te Tiare Association and an advocate for equality and giving a voice for those who cannot speak. Valery is currently the Director of Central Policy and planning office at the office of the Prime Minister. She is a lawyer by trade but has worked in the public policy space for the last 10 years, her recent notable working including the development of the Te Ara Akapapa’anga Nui 2020+ which gives a 100 year vision towards Turanga Memeitaki.

As part of TPVM's research seminar series, Valery delivered a seminar on her Masters research on Turanga Memeitaki (Wellbeing) and the Anuanua (Rainbow) community in the Cook Islands, highlighting her innovative methodology Kai Vananga-Vatavata, a method grounded in Akapapa'anga that makes spiritual space for dialogue with particular attentiveness and empathy to better provide for the sensitivities working with diverse and marginalized groups.

Meitaki ma'ata to Val for sharing with us.

THE 5TH PACIFIC ISLANDS UNIVERSITIES RESEARCH NETWORK CONFERENCE

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

4th - 6th July, 2023
The 2023 PIURN conference, 'Exploring this Sea of Islands', promises to bring together researchers from across the Pacific for three days of interdisciplinary discussion and learning, as well as the chance to explore the beautiful island of Rarotonga.
LEARN MORE

TIVAEVAE EPISTO-METHODOLOGY

Wednesday 22nd February, 2023
Threading through traditional borders to weave marginalised voice, honour local knowledge and use cultural metaphor to guide method in hard-to-reach communities.

Join us as we hear from Dr Debi Futter-Puati on the metaphor of tivaevae as a research episto-methodology and how this was applied to her research on to Pacific sex, gender and sexuality education.