Pacific project | Lūsia ki taulanga
What do we hope to do?
We aim to understand Pacific community needs and aspirations for living well and how best to support people living with lifelong conditions, and develop innovative and culturally-centred models of how health and social services can support and work alongside families and communities to enable supported ‘self’-management within their own context.
What are we up to at the moment?
The Pacific study protocol has been submitted for peer review so at the moment the main things we’re working on are:
(1) completing our application for HDEC ethical approval for submission as soon as the peer review reports are received;
(2) preparing our resources for the second phase of our work - intervention and evaluation - which we aim to roll out as soon as ethical approval is received;
(3) finalising two draft manuscripts on our work in the first phase of the study; and co-designing research proposals for upcoming funding calls.
Our team
The project is led by Dr Ofa Dewes.
Ms Malia Tagatanu’u is the Research Fellow for the project.
Ms Lina Seve is the Research Assistant for the project.
News
We were delighted to host the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery (MWC) fono at The Cause Collective on 27 February 2026. The Cause Collective is a Pacific-led community organisation that is setting out to transform the way in which community and public services are experienced by individuals, families and whole communities. The MWC is a national Centre of Research Excellence established by the government to underpin world-class research targeting cancer immunology, metabolic health, and infectious diseases – long term conditions that are disproportionately represented among Pacific Peoples.
Highlights of the fono included the research of our early – mid-career Pacific biomedical scientists from the University of Otago (Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington campuses), Victoria University of Wellington, Waikato University, Auckland University of Technology, and University of Auckland, and the formal launch of the Centre’s inaugural Pacific Strategy, Tautai fa’atonutonu folau (take the lead, set the course). For the Pacific title, Malia, Lina and I had a talanoa (in English) about an appropriate Pacific name for the Strategy. Malia then took our ideas to her group of friends and came back with some amazing titles to choose from. We’re excited that we were able to contribute in this small way with the title, Tautai fa’atonutonu folau. befitting the framework for strengthening Pacific leadership, participation, and excellence across biomedical research while enriching partnerships with Pacific communities. These are strategic qualities we see in our Pacific project and in the next phase of our journey - Mau Maru. We’re so excited we can’t wait to share the Mau Maru story in the next newsletter, and a new development with The Cause Collective. An article on the fono was published in Matangi Tonga online on 23 February, in NZ Doctor on 2 March, and also on the University of Auckland website via the following link: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/03/20/pacific-strategy-launched-by-maurice-wilkins-centre.html
Ofa invited to workshop for MWC early career researchers and talanoa with them on Pacific research engagement and perspectives. The workshop was hosted by the University of Otago.
In November, we welcomed the visit by Leigh and the team to The Cause Collective to meet colleagues on the executive team, and Talanoa about TCC and the overall research programme.
