Project Grants

This project, founded on the adage that we are a product of our environment, seeks to unlock the power of indigenous ways of knowing and interacting with the environment for heart health equity. First, our heart health and approach to its prevention and management reflects the dominant cultural context, dominated as it is by western values, knowledge and systems. These world views regard people and their health as autonomous individuals who are independent from the wider environment. Second, in contrast, according to Te Ao Māori, we are literally of the environment – yet we behave as though we are not. The consequences of this disregard for the environmental underpinnings of heart health have been devastating for Māori and Pacific peoples and will be for future generations. This proposed IRM will therefore, draw on the strength of a range of knowledges - social theory, Te Ao Māori (via Tiwaiwaka) and physiology (homeostasis and adaptation) to investigate how best to intervene in ways that prevent the perpetuation of cardiotoxic environments and thereby improve the prospects for future intergenerational heart health equity.