Congenital anomalies are amongst the leading causes of fetal and infant mortality and morbidity, yet are not consistently monitored within existing indicators used to assess the health and wellbeing of the New Zealand population.

In this practice-based research the use of attachment assessments to assist with decision-making about the placement of children in State care is explored. In Aotearoa New Zealand care and protection legislation emphasises the importance of working with families. The central decision-making forum is the Family Group Conference where families, their support people and statutory social...

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is common world-wide and associated with obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hyperuricaemia and dyslipidaemia. These conditions are common in New Zealand, but the prevalence of NAFLD in New Zealand is unknown. New Zealand has a high prevalence of overweight and obesity, so it is likely that NAFLD is also...

Rakiura Māori (New Zealand's southern-most group of indigenous peoples) have harvested the chicks of burrow-nesting sooty shearwaters (Tītī; Puffinus griseus) for generations. As part of the harvest process some families have maintained annual harvest diaries, some of which date back to the 1950s. Throughout this thesis I investigated how these diaries could be used to...

In ancient Hawai'i, elites employed ideology as a way of acquiring and stabilising political and economic power. Material evidence of this is found in the numerous temples throughout the islands and in the formalised rules for constructing elite households. Ethnohistoric literature describes Hawaiian households as a collection of buildings with specific functional purposes. By segregating...