Lay summary
Our co-research relationship with Lincoln University will be to develop a holistic framework encompassing housing, education and whenua development. This involves a community-led research initiative into the transformation of the rohe of Te Whakatōhea over the next generation into a ‘healthscape’. This is a concept developed by Lincoln University’s Centre of Excellence ‘Designing Future Productive Landscapes’, and has been agreed and adopted as a concept that resonates with our thinking “Te toto o te tangata he kai, te oranga o te tangata he whenua” (while food provides the blood in our veins, our health is drawn from the health of the land).
The basis of our healthscapes collaboration is simply stated: let our relationship and potential with the whenua be realised through our whakapapa, which is supported by mātauranga Māori and validated by western science, as the foundation for overcoming the present diabetes and oral health-related illness impacting our people.