Author: Zoe Heine

Team Updates

We are pleased to announce two new team members, filling some crucial gaps.

Mark Webley, Challenge Manager

Mark Webley takes on the role of Challenge Manager. Mark has spent the last 14 years working at NIWA in a project coordinator position for the previous nine. Luckily for us, he is already familiar with the Deep South Challenge; his current position has been as the project coordinator for DSC. This meant working directly with all the previous challenge managers and project management team.

Mark says, “The way Deep South Challenge’s research works to help New Zealand navigate a changing climate and reaches out to people at the forefront appeals to me. It is a privilege to work with such a diverse group of people.”

Mark is a Wellingtonian born and bred, and he lives in Miramar. He is kept busy outside work raising two young children and coaching football. We look forward to having Mark at the helm to help us all to deliver success over the remainder of the Challenge.

Maximillian Scott-Murray, Events Director 

Maximillian Scott-Murray (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Awa) has joined our Engagement Team as Events Director. This new role focuses on the many events, from hapū-based noho wanaga to corporate and central government symposia, which we will be running between now and the end of the Challenge. Max joins us from the community justice space, alongside photography and events management, and brings with him a wealth of knowledge on navigating challenging spaces.

For Max the most important aspect of our Deep South mahi is building interconnections and ensuring wide access to tools, information, and resourcing.

It is important to me that at each step of this journey we uphold the importance of whēnua to Māori, and amplify the voices of tangata whēnua wherever we can.

Maximillian Scott-Murray

Max’s whakapapa is to the Hokianga and Whakatane areas, although he has lived most of his life in Wellington. He’s lucky enough to now reside in the beautiful Titahi Bay. Max will be kept busy as we seek to maximise outcomes from our research; the team has already appreciated his skill in running hui and his eye for details, like having quality kai. 

Building strong stakeholder relationships

How are the eleven National Science Challenges (Challenges) meeting the needs of their stakeholders? Results from interviews suggest we are on the right track.

Every two years Kanter Public, on behalf of MBIE, interview stakeholders from across the Challenges to assess how we are progressing. Each Challenge receives a summary of its own progress alongside an overview of the collective progress of the Challenges. The findings of the 2022 research demonstrate that collectively the Challenges have sustained good relationships with their stakeholders.  

Stakeholders hold leadership and researchers in very high regard for their skills, knowledge, expertise, collaboration, cultural competence, and engagement. They demonstrate open, transparent, and respectful ways of working. These working relationships and networks are valued, and stakeholders hope they will be sustained.

KANTAR report

Across the board, stakeholders value the tailored partnership approach. There was an appreciation for research summaries that were accessible and timely. This sidestepped the slower process of academic publication.

While Māori involvement has become more central to the research process over time, there is still variability in how this is implemented, from no Māori involvement to Kaupapa Māori research that is Māori led and focussed on Māori outcomes and aspirations. Māori co-directors, and Kahui Māori (Māori advisory board) send a powerful signal that Māori partnerships, te ao Māori principles, vision mātauranga, and Māori research outcomes are highly valued and incorporated.

Room for improvement was identified in several areas, including: 

  • The need for increasing collaboration across Challenges.
  • Communicating knowledge in a more accessible way for communities, iwi, hapū, Māori, and individuals.
  • Increasing resourcing for Māori and Pasifika researchers.
  • Deconstructing insititutionalised racism.
  • Ensuring whānau data sovereignty.
  • Ensuring that engagement with Māori is place based and geographically driven (mana whenua).

Stakeholders acknowledged the impact of Covid-19, with the most significant impact the loss of kanohi ki te kanohi face-to-face contact. The shift to online platforms had some advantages but led to a loss of personal connection. 

With the Challenges coming to an end in 2024, stakeholders had questions about how progress will be built on and sustained beyond the end date.

The Deep South Challenge are seen as genuine and helpful

The Deep South Challenge (DSC) specific feedback broadly validated our approach. In particular, our stakeholders identified our approach to engagement as genuine and personable. DSC leadership is seen as extremely helpful and knowledgeable, contributing to a high level of trust and confidence amongst stakeholders. 

Our website was identified as a great place to source information about our work. However, while there is no doubt about the high quality of research produced by the Challenge, stakeholders would like to see outputs become increasingly accessible to the public.

I think they’re setting a really good example for how to ‘meaningfully’ engage with Māori. I’ve never seen so much support towards iwi and hāpu leading their own research, and they don’t want another entity, or another Crown Research Agency engaging with Māori. They want Māori engaging with Māori, which prevents misconceptions of our knowledge when others articulate our mātauranga. So Māori’ communities’ are governing, creating and leading the their own research ideas and inviting others to join where it is appropriate and useful.

Stakeholder feedback

Stakeholders identified DSC as a good example of what it is to put te ao Māori as a central focus. Our update on our Vision Mātuaranga programme shows how we are implementing this. However, there is still room to improve, including by expanding our networks in te ao Māori and increasing resources to support Māori engagement.

Partnership Director: Angela Halliday

In a series of short profiles, we are spotlighting the work of our engagement team with a focus on how they are available to support our researchers.

Angela Halliday is our Partnership Director. Her work focuses on supporting researchers to connect with stakeholders and organising various aspects of our public engagement.

Angela Halliday

Ko wai koe?

Kia ora koutou, ko Angela Halliday taku ingoa.  Ko Murihiku (Southland) te whenua tupu. Nō Horowhenua te kāinga. He Partnerships Director au i Deep South Challenge.

When did you join the DSC and how do you describe what you do in one sentence?

I’ve been with the Deep South Challenge since 2018. I work closely with Engagement team and link in project teams with stakeholders where I can, with a focus on the Implications and Adaptation Programme.  I look after our Representative User Group and assist with events and other initiatives that help to disseminate our research out to those that might use it.  When projects are near completion I facilitate briefings with interested parties to ensure research is understood.

Why might a researcher want to get in touch with you?

If researchers are looking for a platform or opportunity to speak to stakeholders in a particular industry, central or local government, we can help facilitate this. Or even if they want to discuss where their research might help clarify thinking for policymakers or communities, we can make suggestions and linkages to help with these connections. In some cases, it can be helpful to use stakeholders as a sounding board during the research itself, and we can help with this.
My background is in the Primary Sector, so I have contacts in this area. We also have a lot of contacts as a Challenge and across other National Science Challenges as well. We might also approach you to speak about your research at relevant conferences, forums or webinars.

When you’re not working at DSC, where are you most likely to be?

I have two little boys so likely to be wrangling them or dealing with toddler meltdowns! I also do some work for a small Agricultural Research Trust.

How can people find you, and what’s your availability like?

I work most days apart from Friday.

You can email or phone: [email protected] or 0279473344.

Climate Change Knowledge Broker: Kate Turner

In a series of short profiles we are spotlighting the work of our engagement team with a focus on how they are available to support our researchers.

Kate Turner is our Climate Change Knowledge Broker. She supports researchers and stakeholders to access and understand Challenge datasets, and to translate the bigger picture of climate data.

Kate Turner

Ko wai koe?

I tipu ake au i runga i te haumaru o Kapukataumaka, i Ōtepoti, e kaukau ana i te wai pūangi o Te Tai-o-Araiteuru. I grew up in Ōtepoti, where the change of the seasons is clear, from the still, cold winters to the blossoming of kōwhai and daffodils reminding us that the days will warm. Which I miss, now living in blustery, (almost evergreen) Te Whanganui-a-Tara!

I am a sea ice scientist by training, and I am always looking for the interface of the science with what it means for people.

When did you join the DSC and how do you describe what you do in one sentence?

I’ve been with the DSC as Climate Change Knowledge Broker for two years now, and my role varies depending on who I am working with. I support access to data and information, both from projects out to users, and into projects where needed. I am an advocate for data and information to be open and accessible (where appropriate), and am working on ways to facilitate this.

I also work on external engagement, including events with central and local government and sector stakeholders to create space for researchers to reach into different user groups that their research can support and inform, directly championing DSC research at different hui, and developing larger synthesis style events.

Why might a researcher want to get in touch with you?

I am based at NIWA, so where there are links into some of the climate science research or researchers, whether that’s NIWA work or otherwise, I’ll facilitate connections where I can! Or if you have data from your project you want to make available to stakeholders, please get in touch.

We also create communications resources such as info and data sheets, and are open to suggestions for what would be useful. We work as a team a lot, especially to connect people up and with different audiences, so feel free to reach out and we will do our best to help.

When you’re not working at DSC, where are you most likely to be?

I play capoeira and dance with Wellington Batucada which bring me a lot of joy, as well as simple things like reading, gardening, creating beautiful things, and hanging out by the ocean.

How can people find you, and what’s your availability like?

Email is best in the first instance. Like everyone, we work a lot over Zoom/Teams, but I am up for face to face hui where possible. I work full time at the moment, though try to block my time so I am not constantly on email.

Contact me on: [email protected], 027 2338023

Webinar: E tika te rere o te kuaka

The kuaka flies direct: Indigenous observations of a changing environment

We are honoured to bring you this online kōrero with Rikki Solomon (Aotearoa) and Bobby Schaeffer (Alaska). We are also extremely lucky that our Kāhui member and Pou Tikanga (he tūranga hou) Ruia Aperahama will facilitate the kōrero.

This webinar takes its name from the whakatauki about the kuaka (godwit), who connects the two lands of Aotearoa and Alaska. In Māori understandings, the cries of the kuaka are loud as they migrate between Alaska and Aotearoa, a flight of 12,000km. Ancestors navigating the moana observed their course during the day and listened to their cries at night to guide them.

In this webinar, we bring together Indigenous experts Rikki Solomon (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Rangitāne-o-Tamaki-nui-a-rua) and Bobby Schaeffer (Iñupiaq), to guide a different kind of climate change conversation. Our speakers bring vital, place-based knowledge, and experiences of change that spring from and are centred around the environment. Research, conversation and action around climate change has much to learn from this relational and experiential approach, steeped in ancestral wisdom and practice.

Like the direct flight of the kuaka, we hope that this webinar will inspire us to clear a pathway into the future, based on learnings and patterns that are ancient in origin. 

Ka ngau ki te turikakao te paringa o te tai, e tika te rere o te kuaka.
The spinifex wanders along the beach like the incoming tide, the kuaka flies direct.

This critical conversation is part of our Te Kawa o Te Ora webinar series. A recording of this webinar will be available on our YouTube channel soon after. Please subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date.

Research programmes

We have put together a snap shot of research programmes and agencies that might be relevant to our researchers.

Where there are specific research themes dedicated to Kaupapa Māori research, these have been identified.

Five-year research programmes

The Moana project (Oct 2018 – Sep 2023) aims to improve understanding of coastal ocean circulation, connectivity and marine heatwaves to produce information that supports sustainable growth of the seafood industry, iwi initiatives and how we manage our marine environments. Summary information here.

  • He Papa Moana brings ocean modelling, kaimoana connectivity and iwi aspirations to help further iwi interests and marine management within a cross-cultural ocean knowledge platform. This research explores traditional waka voyaging and mātauranga relating to changes in ocean temperatures as well as the effects of a changing climate on Māori fisheries.

Whakahura: Extreme events and the emergence of climate change (Oct 2019 – Sep 2024) aims to improve understanding of how and why extreme weather has affected New Zealand in the 20th century, and to develop new tools to improve the forecasting of extreme weather events in the next four decades.

  • Vision Mātauranga in Whakahura aims to improve understanding of damage through a hauora/oranga (wellbeing/livelihood) lens, so that policies can be developed that consider the interests of iwi and hapū.

Future Coasts Aotearoa (2021 – Sep 2026) will develop the evidence-base for sea-level rise risks (focussed on wetlands, estuaries, and coastal farms), develop tools to evaluate well-being in the context of coastal risks, and integrate this into a decision-making framework that brings together social, cultural, economic and natural systems.

Mā te haumaru ō nga puna wai ō Rākaihautū ka ora mo ake tonu: Increasing flood resilience across Aotearoa (Oct 2020  – Sep 2025) is developing a system to consistently map flood hazards across Aotearoa, and look at how flood risk may change over the next 100 years. The programme will also investigate flood risk to the built environment, and how floods impact our communities and social systems.

Tangata Whenua Tangata Ora (2019 – 2024) will investigate whenua initiatives that aim to produce health gains, by exploring health models and initiatives informed by Kaupapa Māori understandings of interrelated health determinants and guiding local, co-created projects developing deeper understandings of reconnecting people to whenua and place as a conceptual and practical way of producing Māori health gains.

National Science Challenges (ending June 2024)


Of the 11 National Science Challenges, we have listed those that may be relevant to your climate change research. You can find a full list of the National Science Challenges here.

Resilience to Nature’s Challenges focusses on resilience to natural hazards, such as volcanic eruption, tsunami, sea-level rise and coastal erosion, and extreme weather and fire.

  • Whanake te Kura i Tawhiti Nui aims to increase the visibility, understanding and transformational potential of mātauranga Māori in natural hazard research and resilience.

Sustainable Seas focusses on improving marine resource decision-making and the health of our seas through holistic, ecosystem-based management, and transforming New Zealand’s ability to enhance our marine economy into a blue economy.

  • Tangaroa research theme centres and is led by Māori, and explores ecosystem-based management that is founded on and informed by mātauranga and tikanga Māori.

Our Land and Water aims to enhance the production and productivity of New Zealand’s primary sector, while maintaining and improving the quality of the country’s land and water for future generations. (An improved Our Land and Water website is currently in development, to enable easier access to research projects and outputs.)

Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities’s objective is to improve the quality and supply of housing and create smart and attractive urban environments.

  • Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua this research area will deliver solutions for how we collaboratively finance, design, and build developments, with buy-in from multiple stakeholders, to overcome discriminatory policy and legislative barriers, to actively support Māori aspirations for long-term, affordable, and healthy housing that meets the needs of their communities. We also focus on Māori wellbeing and housing for those whānau who are homeless.

New Zealand’s Biological Heritage aims to help New Zealanders protect our precious environment, contribute to world-class biosecurity, and create a resilient, thriving environment. Mātauranga Māori and Te Ao Māori is embedded throughout the Challenge.

Centres of Research Excellence

Coastal People Southern Skies focusses on the changes resulting from ocean warming and acidification, sea-level rise, and climate change. Research responds to the decline in culture, local economy, and well-being of coastal people in New Zealand and across the Pacific.

Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga is New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence and supports research under the themes of Whai Rawa (The Māori Economy), Te Tai Ao (The Natural Environment), Mauri Ora (Human Flourishing) and Te Reo me Ngā Tikanga Māori.

Farewell to Mike Harvey

Me mihi poroporoaki ki a koe, e te pāpā, e te hoa pūmau o Lorna, e te hoa, haere, haere. Tangi ana te ngākau moū kua riro nei. Ko te utu o te aroha, ko te mamae,  e moe, e moe, e moe.

We must farewell Mike – a father, Lorna’s loved and loving partner, our dear colleague. Our hearts weep for you and for what has been taken. What is the consequence of love? It’s pain. Sleep peacefully, friend, sleep.

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the death of our colleague and friend, Mike Harvey. Mike, a climate champion and NIWA scientist for 29 years, has for some years been the lead of our Processes & Observations programme. 

Olaf Morgenstern, long-term friend and colleague of Mike, and lead of our Earth Systems Modelling and Projections programme, says, “I have lost an esteemed colleague, a pillar of our science, and a friend. He was among the first Wellington NIWA people I got to know because he was leading the Lauder team [where Olaf first landed in Aotearoa]. I remember the funny conversations we had in the bike shed, where he would park his converted e-bike which he used regularly. He was such a balanced character, always calm, in good humour, and pleasant to be with.” 

Mike joined our Challenge Leadership Team in 2019, after contributing as a researcher to our major Clouds and Aerosols project. He had a long-term interest in improving our understanding of processes that drive the climate system, and climate change, to better understand the efficacy of climate mitigation actions. Our previous Challenge Director Mike Williams says, “Mike had two roles in the Deep South Challenge. As a researcher, Mike was a leader in the measurement of clouds and aerosols in the Southern Ocean. He developed a strong collaboration with the University of Canterbury, which saw observational campaigns on several Tangaroa and NZ Navy voyages in the Southern Ocean. This work is highly regarded and has underpinned significant changes in how clouds and aerosols are modelled and hence how they impact climate projections. Mike was a quietly spoken but effective leader for the Processes and Observations programme. He coordinated funding to establish fundamental observation programmes for the Challenge and oversaw these with enthusiasm. Mike’s leadership in this space ensured that Challenge research was highly effective.”

Mike Harvey was one of those wonderful scientists who lived in alignment with the findings of his research. He was an innovator of tech to reduce his and his family’s carbon footprint, and was involved in many NIWA initiatives to count and track greenhouse gas emissions. In an interview in 2019, Mike said, “If I jump on to the wheels of emotion, I mainly feel optimistic. Trying out new things is always interesting and in finding things that work, I see there are practical actions I can take that make a tiny difference, but that can scale to something useful with collective action.”

There is still time to get it right.

Mike Harvey

More recently, Mike contributed to our submission on the draft National Adaptation Plan in May. After a long discussion on the shortcomings of the plan, Mike chimed in, reminding us that, “There is still time to get it right.” This message of hope we will continue to reflect on.

Change is the only constant!

“Kei ōu ringaringa te ao”

At the end of August, we will be sadly farewelling Anne-Marie Rowe, our Challenge Manager. Anne-Marie has skillfully kept the Deep South Challenge on course over the past three years, through many navigational challenges, Covid-19 being only one of them! 

Anne-Marie started with the Deep South Challenge in 2019, coming to us from our sister National Science Challenge, Resilience to Nature’s Challenges. Phil Wiles, Challenge Director, notes that “I wouldn’t have made it through my first six months in the role without Anne-Marie to show me the ropes. I’m so grateful to her. The next organisation Anne-Marie works with will be very lucky to have her.”

Anne-Marie is returning south to her home town of Ōtautahi, where she’ll be starting at Antarctica NZ in mid-October. We wish Anne-Marie all the best for her move – she will be missed. Anne-Marie’s departure creates an exciting opportunity for someone wanting to be involved in a critical and fast-growing area of research and community – climate adaptation.

Kia hiwa rā, kia hiwa rā

We’re now on the lookout for a management superstar to guide us and grow with us over our final two years. The National Science Challenges conclude in June 2024, giving us a short time to ensure our research creates the impact we need in Aotearoa: to change in time for our changing climate.

 We’re looking for a manager who can work across strategic and operational levels to help us deliver impact from our research. We have an exciting work programme, which includes engaging with communities and hāpori Māori in more equitable and more innovative ways. 

You’ll have highly developed and nuanced interpersonal skills and an understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in theory and in practice. You’ll be proactive, a problem solver, and able to strategically coordinate the many arms of the Challenge, while also leading essential administration and reporting, including financial reporting.     

Tono mai, apply here at: Manager, Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate – NIWA

Closes on 4 September

Community engagement infosheet launched

Two adults and several children play in a backyard

There’s increasing amounts of research about climate adaptation, including about methods of community engagement. But practical guidance around how to engage communities for climate adaptation is less well-covered. Engaging with a community on climate adaptation is as much an art as it is a science. 

We are pleased to share our new infosheet on community engagement for climate adaptation. Based on several of our previous research projects the infosheet presents a concise starting point for council staff undertaking community engagement. 

We don’t need to tell people what they think or need to do. Councils can lead this by empowering communities to make their own choices and supporting them through access to good information.

Jacqui Hastie

To some degree, climate adaptation is the ability to use what we do know to make the best decisions about what we don’t know. It is widely accepted that communities should have a role in adaptation decisions that will affect them, and many governing regulations include requirements on councils to provide opportunities for public participation.

Furthermore, iwi, hapū and whānau, through Te Tiriti o Waitangi, have a right to partner on these decisions. While there’s no adaptation rule book, some valuable insights from Deep South Challenge researchers, councils and communities with adaptation experiences are worth sharing. This infosheet is a free and frank distillation of the key questions and answers we, as well as experienced council staff, are often asked.

Thank you to all those who gave feedback to help us craft this infosheet, in particular to adaptation champion Jacqui Hastie. 

We can adapt, we’ve done it before and we can do it again. 

Cancelled! Matariki kōrero: Ka rongo te pō, ka rongo te ao

This event has been cancelled for now, as our key speaker is unwell. Please reach out with any questions: [email protected]

Image showing the details of the matariki webinar

Matariki and our understandings of climate and environmental change

Join us this Matariki for a very special conversation between Rikki Solomon and Naomi Simmonds on Matariki, the maramataka and understanding climatic and environmental change.

Tuia ki te rangi, Tuia ki te whenua, Tuia ki te moana.
E rongo te pō, E rongo te ao.
It is written in the heavens, upon the land, and the ocean.
And balanced between night and day.

This whakatauākī is used to navigate the environment, aligning what is happening in the movements of the celestial bodies (the sun, moon and stars) with what is happening here on land and at sea. We can read ‘what is happening’ in the wind and tides, and in the behaviour of trees, plants, birds and fish, among other tohu. For Rikki Solomon, our guest speaker, this whakatauākī speaks to our ability to respond to climate change through our relationship with the taiao.

Rikki was raised under the korowai of his grandparents in a little place called Te Hauke. He grew up gardening and farming under the watchful eye of his grandfather Rutene (Charlie) Solomon. He learned the practical application of He Maramatanga Māori, or insight through the Māori calendar. Rikki notes, “The maramataka was a way of life for our tūpuna. It helped govern activities and actions that allowed them to stand firm within their environment as kaitiaki of ‘te taiao’ (the environment).”

We invite you to join us for this, the longest night of the year. Help us mark the winter solstice, Te Ihu o Hinetakurua, and enjoy this opportunity to consider our collective relationship with te taiao in times of rapid change.