Maori Quant Analysts: Dr Tahu Kukutai

Dr Tahu Kukutai

SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW

Qualifications: BA(Hons) MSocSc Waikato, MA PhD Stanford

Research Interests

I have two distinct platforms of research. The first underpins the NIDEA research programme Te para one te tū mai nei: Māori and indigenous futures. This programme spans a broad range of population research: from the very local, which involves working with communities, iwi and organisations; to collaborative research with other indigenous demographers around the world. Recent work includes a major report on the use of secondary mental health and addiction services by young Māori; a comparative critique of applied indigenous demography in Australia and New Zealand; and an interdisciplinary project to measure and monitor the wellbeing of Māori in Auckland.

My second research platform reflects my interests in state practises of ethnic counting and classification. With colleague Dr Victor Thompson (Rider University, USA), I am currently engaged in a three-year project looking at how ethnic enumeration is carried out in more than 200 countries. The project, Ethnicity Counts?, spans the period 1985 – 2014 and is funded by a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fast-Start grant. I am also interested in how official ethnicity data are employed in statistical analyses that inform popular and political understandings of ethnic relations and inequality. To that end I have published several papers critiquing the use of ethnicity variables in demographic research, particularly when applied to indigenous peoples.

About Me

I have degrees in History and Demography from the University of Waikato, and a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University. My tribal affiliations are Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto and Te Aupōuri. I currently serve on the Population Association of New Zealand Council, the Māori Statistics Advisory Committee to the Government Statistician, and Taki Ao, a group of emerging and mid-career scientists sponsored by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. I am on the editorial boards of the International Indigenous Policy Journal, and Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online. I am firmly committed to inter-disciplinary research and have worked with colleagues in sociology, economics, education, history, Māori and indigenous studies, public policy, and law.

Recent Publications

• Kukutai, T. (2013) The structure of urban Māori identities
  Book Chapters - Indigenous in the City: Contemporary Identities and Cultural Innovation
• Kukutai, T. (2012) Quantum Māori, Māori quantum: State constructions of Māori identities in the Census, 1857/8 - 2006
  Book Chapters - Counting Stories, Moving Ethnicities: Studies from Aotearoa New Zealand
• Kukutai, T. (2011) Building ethnic boundaries in New Zealand: Representations of Maori identity in the census
  Book Chapters - Indigenous Peoples and Demography: The Complex Relation between Identity and Statistics
• Kukutai, T. (2011) Contemporary issues in Māori demography
  Book Chapters - Māori and Social Issues

Find more research publications by Tahu Kukutai