Marama Cook to receive the 2020 Raewyn Good Study Award

Marama's research trajectory will highlight the environmental impacts and poisoning of Papatūānuku, the impact on whakapapa and the trauma experienced by the wāhine connected to this kaupapa as a wife, partner, daughter and mokopuna of former Whakatāne sawmill workers.

The nexus of this research stems back to the work of Sawmill Workers against Poisons (The Green Chain, 2011) and Te Ohu mō Papatūānuku – Bioremediation Project (2016-2018). 

In her research, Marama will engage with vital wāhine Māori voices that have been underrepresented to uncover the intergenerational trauma experienced as a result of chemical poisoning.

The aims of her research project are to: 

1. Connect to stories through whakapapa and our relationship to Papatuanuku as a healing mechanism towards health and wellbeing.
2. Find common themes and engage with vital Wāhine Māori voices around intergenerational trauma experienced as a result of chemical poisoning.
3. Create networks of Wāhine Māori and environmental health experts.
4. Implement whanau, hapu and iwi environmental health projects and to ensure that Wāhine Māori are integrated into all research and decision-making processes in a meaningful and participatory manner.

Marama will use a kaupapa Māori and mana wahine approach to support wāhine in sharing their experiences about land contamination and its impacts on whānau from the disposal of sawmill waste from the 1970s to the 1990s within Ngāti Awa.

Marama’s hope is that the learnings from this research will provide a basis of support and resistance. She will advocate from mātauranga-a-wahine perspective to ensure that wāhine Māori have a central role in directing future change in order to achieve sustainable solutions. 

About the Raewyn Good Study Award for Māori and Pasifika Social Science Research

The award was established in the memory of the late Raewyn Good who was an activist and a researcher in the social sciences. She was active on the Royal Society Te Apārangi Council and was an integral member of the Society's Social Sciences Advisory Committee. 

The study award is available for one year to students who are engaged in, enrolled in or applying for a Master’s degree that undertakes social sciences research at any New Zealand university or wānanga. The award includes a cash grant of $6,000.