Wāhine Māori acknowledged with awards for cancer research

Source: Radio New Zealand

Three emerging Māori researchers leading innovative projects to improve cancer outcomes for whānau Māori will receive this year’s Māori Cancer Researcher Award.

Their research range from exploring how papakāinga living can strengthen the practice of Rongoā Māori, to developing next-generation immunotherapies with fewer side effects, to enhancing genomic tools that more accurately predict treatment responses for Māori and Pasifika patients.

This is the fifth year for the awards, which are a partnership between Te Kāhui Matepukupuku o Aotearoa (Cancer Society New Zealand) and Hei Āhuru Mōwai Māori Cancer Leadership Aotearoa.

This year, two PhD scholarships and a master’s scholarship have been awarded.

Rongoā Māori practitioner and researcher Robbie Richardson (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Hauiti ki Rata, Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngāti Tuwharetoa) is completing her doctoral research through Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuārangi.

Her work focuses on her whānau’s ancestral home, Mangamāhoe, exploring how papakāinga living and Rongoā Māori practices can help protect whānau and whenua in the face of PFAS contamination from the neighbouring Ohakea Air Force Base – chemicals that persist in the environment for more than 150 years and have been linked to increased cancer risk.

For Richardson, the impact was real not just on her community but within her whānau as her father passed away from cancer a year after residents were first informed of the contamination.

“So there we are with my dad not even 200, 300 meters living from the Ohakea Air Force Base all his 83 years, only having eaten from the land, drank the water from the land, animals such as like chooks and all of that sort of stuff, and all of the vegetation and the crops, that’s all he’s known. He very rarely had takeaways.”

The revelation of PFAS contamination was a shock to community with the Base taking a long time to engage with the papakāinga, she said.

“It’s what they call a forever chemical, so it stays, it moves in water, it doesn’t dissipate in water. So the impact to the whenua is 150 years plus that it will then be able to move out of the so-called red zone.”

Richardson has been practising Rongoā Māori for more than 15 years, among the goals for her research include building evidence for Rongoā Māori within cancer prevention and survivorship frameworks and supporting whānau and hapū health sovereignty in contaminated environments such as at Mangamāhoe.

Her father lived on the papakāinga all his life and Richardson said her research will look into the ways papakāinga living facilitates the expression of rongoā.

“[Rongoā has] been missing since the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act. So we’ve had this backwards and forwards…. all the medical kind of questions around it, when in fact all it’s simply about is bringing out ease, whatever that might be.”

Ariana Drabble’s (Te Arawa – Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Raukawa – Ngāti Koroki, Ngāti Toa – Ngāti Kimihia) PhD research at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka will look to tap into and better understand the power and potential of Natural Killer (NK) cells.

“Our immune system can be reprogrammed to destroy cancer cells, but current CAR T cell therapies for blood cancers often fail when tumours evade detection or suppress T cell activity. NK cells have powerful cancer-killing abilities and a safer profile. By combining CAR T cells with CAR-engineered NK cells, we aim to harness their complementary strengths. NK cells can guide and support T cells while reducing factors that shut down immune responses.”

In the last five years, Drabble’s mother, grandmother, an aunt and uncle have all received cancer diagnoses.

“Each diagnosis was not just a moment of grief, but confirmation that this mahi is not simply academic, but it is a commitment to my whānau, my tūpuna and generations to come,” she said.

Katya Hutton (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Kura) from Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland is undertaking her Master’s looking at the impact of using Māori genomic information to improve the accuracy of cancer immunotherapy predictions for Māori and Pasifika patients.

Current biomarkers guide treatment decisions and predict treatment responses but rely on global DNA reference databases that lack representation from Indigenous populations. If we don’t take into account the natural variability among underrepresented communities when using DNA reference databases to interpret genomic biomarkers, there is a risk that we lose the precision in our precision health approach.

“This could lead inappropriate care for them,” Hutton said.

“My goal is to accelerate precision care and precision heath research to ensure that every patient in Aotearoa – no matter what age, sex, ethnicity or ancestry – is getting the best care they can get.”

Cancer Society director of research and innovation, Christelle Jolly said the awards empower Māori researchers to pursue the questions that matter most to their communities.

“Each of these projects has the potential to directly improve cancer outcomes for whānau. This is why investing in a strong and supported Māori cancer research workforce matters so much.”

Hei Āhuru Mōwai Tumuaki (chief executive) Anna-Marie Ruhe said the organisation is immensely proud to stand alongside these emerging researchers whose work carries the aspirations of their whānau, hapū, and iwi.

Their projects demonstrate what becomes possible when mātauranga Māori and scientific innovation are supported to flourish, she said.

“These awards are not just an investment in individual researchers – they are an investment in a future where Māori leadership in cancer research is strong, visible and transformative. When Māori are empowered to ask the questions that matter to our communities, we move closer to a health system where whānau Māori can access care, treatments, and solutions that truly work for them.”

As part of the award, each master’s scholarship will last for one year and will comprise:

• Stipend of $35,000
• Tuition fees of $10,000

Each PhD scholarship will last for three years and will comprise:

• Stipend of $40,000 per year
• Tuition fees of $10,000 per year
• Tikanga contribution of $10,000 across the course of the award

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand