Love and Compassion in a Time of Crisis

Ko Parengarenga te moana, Parengarega is the ocean.
Ko Tawhitirahi te maunga, Tawhitirahi is the mountain.
Ko Awapoka te awa, Awapoka is the river.
Ko Kurahaupo te waka, Kurahaupo is the ocean going canoe.
Ko Potahi raua koTe Reo Mihi oku marae, Potahui and Te Reo Mihi are my traditional meeting places.
Ko Te Aupouri, ko Ngati Kuri, ko Te Rarawa, ko Ngapuhi nui tonu oku iwi, My tribes are Te Aupouri, Ngati Kuri, Te Rarawa and Ngapuhi.
Ko Hinemoa taku ingoa, my name is Hinemoa Elder.

Dr Hinemoa Elder has lived on Waiheke Island for 21 years. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, working at the Child and Family Unit at Starship Hospital, in Auckland. She is also a Maori Strategic Leader for the Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for the Ageing Brain.

Professor Rangi Matamua (Tūhoe) is Professor of Mātauranga Māori at Massey University and a pioneering Māori scholar who has revolutionised understandings of Māori astronomy, and in particular Matariki. His research has been ground-breaking in terms of its contribution to mātauranga Māori; he has enlightened both national and international populations on the mātauranga of astronomy. He is renowned for his role communicating his research in an accessible and engaging way, and reaching both academic and non-academic audiences. Rangi is both the author of the bestselling book Matariki: The Star of the Year (published both in English and te reo editions) and presenter of the award winning te reo Māori web series Living by the Stars. He has challenged widespread misconceptions about Māori astronomy and has enhanced our understandings of a Māori world view of the stars. His research is situated at the interface between mātauranga Māori and Western science and he is helping to reconnect people with maramataka – the Māori lunar calendar – and the environment. Rangi is also part of a wider movement, reclaiming Indigenous astronomy as part of a continued process of decolonisation. He has won the 2019 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize and the 2020 Callaghan Medal for science communication from Royal Society Te Apārangi.