The blue coat and scientific hope

11 Sep 2025 | Our stories

11 September 2025 In an inaugural lecture, newly-minted professors often talk about their journey. But Te Pūnaha Matatini Co-Director Priscilla Wehi used hers to challenge us to reimagine who we are as New Zealanders, and how that relates to the work we do as...

Call for abstracts: Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026

9 Sep 2025 | Our stories

9 September 2025 Nau mai haere mai ki tēnei hui! Te Pūnaha Matatini warmly invites you to the 2026 Capital City Complex Systems Symposium in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The theme for the conference is Understanding complex systems: theory, practice and impact. The third...

What makes our backyards happy spaces for us and nature

8 Aug 2025 | Our stories

8 August 2025 Backyards can be refuges for nature, dens for children, sources of food and nourishment, and spaces of speculation on what might have gone on before and what may be happening out of sight. They can tie us to the rhythms of nature, give us space to relax...

The choices we make today will affect the voice of tomorrow

6 Aug 2025 | Our stories, Storytelling

6 August 2025 A collaboration between PhD candidate Michael Miller and illustrator Jean Donaldson. Edited by Jonathan Burgess. How many people in Aotearoa speak te reo Māori? This may seem like a simple question to answer, but what looks simple often hides complexity....

Countdown – an extract from Shaun Hendy’s new book, The Covid Response

16 Jun 2025 | Our stories

16 June 2025 An excerpt from Shaun Hendy’s new book, The Covid Response – A Scientist’s Account of New Zealand’s Pandemic and What Comes Next. Just after 1.48 p.m. on Monday 23 March 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that, following the recently introduced...

A new approach to tackling gender pay gaps in New Zealand’s public sector

13 Jun 2025 | Our stories

13 June 2025 A new study from researchers at Te Pūnaha Matatini and the University of Canterbury has developed a powerful new method to understand and address gender pay gaps in New Zealand’s public research sector – just as the country’s Crown Research Institutes...