Dr Kelly Tikao

Kairakahau Matua Māori
Māori Research Lead

(Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu)

Kia ora, I am Kelly and I have been working part-time with the Donald Beasley Institute (DBI) for about 18 years! I work as a Kaupapa Māori Researcher, which means I love using Māori frameworks and cultural practices to gather information and stories and understand the kōrero that has been gifted through the interviews. I'm also a core part of the DBI's Māori Leadership Team, I enjoying creating connections, particularly with kaupapa Māori researchers, and bringing them in to the DBI whānau to share their mahi.

I am a Registered Nurse by trade, broadcaster by history and Māmā by day and night! Although my tamariki are no longer babies they are rangatahi, and this phase of my life is much harder than when they were little, with no opinions!

However, my whānau is my world and therefore if I am not working for DBI, lecturing at the Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka (University of Otago, Canterbury Campus) in the Nursing and Māori Indigenous Health Department, I am on the side of a rugby or football field, at the beach for surf life-saving or side of stage or on the end of my phone with any of my five tamariki. To break away from the demands of mahi and whānau I love to go to the gym and do a burn class or go silent with yoga!