Hinemoana Baker (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Raukawa-ki-te-Tonga, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa, Kāi Tahu, England, Germany)
Kia ora! I am a poet, performer, educator and current PhD student. My research is based on a series of online poetry wānanga called ‘Ruri Rongoā’. These offer a regular time and space for takatāpui participants (Māori with diverse genders, sexualities and sex characteristics) to read queer, indigenous poetry together, and then write their own in response, all within a kaupapa Māori framework. Through a series of interviews, and using Dr Elizabeth Kerekere's well-being model Te Whare Takatāpui, I am investigating how these wānanga, and how poetry, can function as a form of rongoā – healing and repair – for our hāpori.