We’re delighted to announce that the winner of our General Community Researcher Award at the 2026 Te Auaha Pito Mata Emerging Researcher Awards is Corrina Thompson!
Corrina won the award for her research titled ‘Learning from lived experience: How phenomenology could help transform Aotearoa’s justice system and navigate the barrier of public opinion.’ It’s now available to read in Community Research’s open-access database here →https://communityresearch.org.nz/research/learning-from-lived-experience-how-phenomenology-could-help-transform-aotearoas-justice-system-and-navigate-the-barrier-of-public-opinion/
Building from a completed Master’s thesis and current collaborative research with Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou: Children of Prisoners and Koi Tū Centre for Informed Futures, Corrina’s research amplifies voices of lived experience from people affected by the justice system. Not only that, but it translates them into practical recommendations for change.
Her findings have real relevance for policy, community services, and justice reform. “Currently, some of those incredible ideas and insights from our whānau, from our rangatahi and from participants have leapt up off the page and are becoming a real and tangible part of that justice reform conversation,” said Corrina. A key recommendation — the proposed Kaiwhatu Kura Whānau role within the criminal District Court — has emerged directly from the work and is already gaining momentum.
“We were privileged to walk alongside participants who were whānau of people in the prison system, who had been through the prison system themselves, who were whānau of people who had been harmed or who had been harmed directly themselves,” Corrina shared.
“No matter which side of the courtroom, so to speak, that they were sharing their taonga and their stories from, all of our participants ended up singing a unanimous chorus of: ‘we need more support.’”
Corrina’s trust-based, trauma-informed, mana-enhancing work highlights the capability of rangatahi and whānau to shape transformative, community-led solutions.