How can we embody values like manaakitanga (mutual respect and care for each other), kaitiakitanga (guardianship for our planet) and whanaungatanga (kinship and connectivity) as we seek to heal and renew? In our first Wiser Conversation with a New Zealander we host Dr Hinemoa Elder, psychiatrist, researcher, Māori language advocate and author of the upcoming book on indigenous wisdom, ‘Aroha’.

Dr Hinemoa Elder

Dr Hinemoa Elder is of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi descent and an advocate for use of Te Reo Māori, the Māori language. She is a mother of two adult children. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and has been a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist for more than 10 years working in youth forensic and neuropsychiatry as well as the Mother Baby and Acute inpatient units at Starship Children’s Hospital Auckland.

Why you should join?

Hinemoa is also the Māori Strategic Leader for the Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for the Ageing Brain based at University of Auckland. She continues to be involved in research regarding traumatic brain injury, stroke and dementia.

She has a PhD (Massey University, 2012) and NZ Health Research Council Eru Pomare Post-Doctoral Fellowship that developed theory and a novel recovery approach grounded in Te Ao Māori, for Māori with traumatic brain injury, a condition recognized locally and internationally as over-represented in incarcerated populations.

Appointed to the Prime Minister's Science Advisor's Cannabis Panel in 2019 for the referendum in 2020.

She is the author of the upcoming book featuring reflections on indigenous wisdom embedded in whakataukī (proverbial sayings) as tools for our health and wellbeing, ‘Aroha’.

In Conversation with: Derek Handley

Derek Handley is a futurist, entrepreneur and the founder of Wiser, a platform helping people ask better questions to develop self-knowledge and purpose in their lives. Wiser programs have run at AUT University in Auckland where he is an Adjunct Professor and through workshops for families, professionals and elite athletes around the world. He is currently studying towards a Masters in Religion at Harvard.

Derek is also a founding General Partner at Aera VC, investing in transformative companies tackling the UN Sustainable Development Goals and an aspiring civilian astronaut signed up with Virgin Galactic. He co-founded The B Team, a business sustainability alliance with Sir Richard Branson.

He created the Aera Foundation in 2015 as a charitable studio catalysing social innovations to reframe the status quo for a sustainable future.

Wiser Conversations, Together at Home

'Together at Home' is a series of virtual conversations designed to help us reflect and respond to our new surreality. Brought to you by the Aera Foundation, a New Zealand-registered charitable trust.