Dr Moana Rarere: From Colonial Counts to Indigenous Peoples - Re-imagining Māori Demography

Seminar Overview

As part of a Māori-led inter-disciplinary research collaboration funded by the Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund, this seminar shares how Māori historical demography can be re-imagined by turning colonial population science on it's head.

Rather than inferring Māori experience through national-level colonial censuses, this work prioritises Māori tribes (iwi and hapū) as the fundamental units of demographic analysis.

Drawing on kaupapa Māori and Indigenous methodologies, we critically examine censuses as instruments of colonial surveillance and show how national Māori rates often produce implauisble accounts of population change.

By combining archival research with statistical demography, this work advances new approaches to reconstructing Māori population histories grounded in local Māori collectives rather than colonial abstractions.

Research Team: T. Kukutai (PI), J. Bryant, J. Zhang, M. Rarere, H. Kani, E. Pēpi Tarapa-Dewes, R. Jacob  

Speaker

Dr Moana Rarere (Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūhoe, Ngāti Whare, and Whakatōhea) is a Senior Research Fellow in demography and population studies at Te Ngira Institute for Population Research, The University of Waikato, Hamilton Aotearoa NZ.

Moana researches Māori population change, specialising in tribal demography and fertility, with broader interests in Māori data sovereignty and Māori community health and social wellbeing. Through commissioned research and reports, her work supports iwi governance, strategic planning, and evidence-informed decision-making.