Māhina: Program Overview

Māhina International Indigenous Health Research Training Program Offers

A 10-week intensive international summer research training program consisting of:

• Two week orientation in Seattle, WA and Honolulu, HI where trainees will learn about the social, cultural, and historical determinants of health and health disparities. Trainees will also engage with local indigenous leaders and will be immersed in learning cultural protocols. Moreover, trainees will also learn about the history related to Native Hawaiian, Pacifika peoples and Māori of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
• 7-10 weeks of coursework and research internships in Aotearoa/New Zealand with internationally known indigenous scholars.
• Trainees will be supervised by an international network of mentors with expertise in social, cultural, and historical determinants of indigenous health and health disparities, community based participatory/tribal participatory research, indigenous ethics and research protocols, and indigenous research methodologies.
• Trainees will also gain experience with administrative, editorial, and technical assistance for developing conference presentations and be exposed to community-based research experiences
• Trainees will learn how to develop digital stories which will used as a tool to reflect on their training, learning and career in health research
• At the end of the research training institute, students will have prepared an oral presentation, and a visual presentation (a digital story) to the scientific host community and mentors).
• Trainees will also have access to year-round multidisciplinary learning opportunities such as lectures, workshops and seminars related to indigenous health research

In addition to a having a research mentor, trainees will be engaged in Tuakana-teina relationship to help assist them in understanding their person and professional health research career trajectory.

Tuakana-teina refers to the relationship between an older or more knowledgeable (tuakana) and a younger or less expert (teina) person and is specific to teaching and learning in the Maori contexts. The tuakana–teina relationship, an integral part of traditional Maori society, is a culturally-grounded way of creating a 360 degree learning experience and “buddy” system. It is based on the value of the older or more expert relative- tuakana (brother, sister or cousin) that helps and guides a younger or less expert teina (originally a younger sibling or cousin of the same gender).

In a learning environment, the tuakana and teina roles may be reversed at any time. For example, the student who yesterday was the expert on the lunar calendar may need to learn from her