Contact Details
University Links
- Position
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Iwi affiliations
- Cook Islands Māori
- Qualifications
- BA(Hons) in History and Māori Studies, MA in History, PhD in Pacific Studies
- Research summary
- I am a Cook Islands historian who specialises in Māori and Pacific history
- Memberships
- PacNet (Pacific Thought Network)
Research
Kia orana, toku ingoa ko Inano Taripo-Walter, no Akatokamanava e Tumu-te-varovaro mai au.
I am a Cook Islands Māori postdoctoral research fellow and am honoured to be based within Va'a o Tautau, Centre for Pacific Health. As a humanities scholar, my work brings Indigenous histories, knowledge systems, and lived experiences into conversations about Pacific health and wellbeing, offering perspectives that are often overlooked in conventional health research. Through my research, I aim to highlight the vital connections between land, ocean, culture, and community as foundations for the wellbeing and resilience of Pacific peoples.
My PhD, completed in 2025, examined Cook Islands women’s wellbeing in the Taripo family and their enduring connections to ancestral land; my wider work as a historian investigates Māori customary law, land legislation, and the historical impacts of marriage and divorce on Māori women, and my current postdoctoral research with Coastal People: Southern Skies (commenced 2026) explores how coastal communities in the Cook Islands and Tahiti confront climate change by drawing on Moana narratives, stories, and traditional ocean knowledge to sustain resilience and wellbeing.
Additional details
My teaching experience has primarily been in Pacific History, including courses such as Pacific World 206 and Te Pū o te Ora 206, in Māori Physical Education and Health, where I bring Indigenous historical perspectives and cultural knowledge into teaching about wellbeing, society, and community.
Publications
Kokaua-Balfour, S., Taripo-Walter, I., & Moeroa, K. (2025). Community inquiry, wellbeing and the Tīvaevae method: Findings from Dunedin's Ora'anga Meitaki 'Iri'irikāpua. Pacific Dynamics, 9(1), 1199-1216. doi: 10.26021/15923 Journal - Research Article
Richards, R., Walter, I., Finigan, A., Ruhe, T., Avia, L., Schaaf, M., & Fehoko, E. (Eds.). (2023). Proceedings of the Pacific Postgraduate Symposium: Pacific Voices XX. Dunedin, New Zealand: Pacific Islands Centre, University of Otago. 44p. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/16433 Conference Contribution - Edited volume of conference proceedings
Taripo-Walter, I. (2023). Tracing the intersections of wāhine Māori, whakapapa and mana in the Native Land Court, 19th century Aotearoa. MAI Journal, 12(1), 25-35. doi: 10.20507/MAIJournal.2023.12.1.3 Journal - Research Article
Taripo-Walter, I. (2023, July). Va‘ine Māori o te ‘enua: A gendered reading of Are Renga Block File 60C. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E., Walter, I., & Kokaua, S. (2023, July). Kite pakari ē te ‘uki ‘ou: Cook Islands Māori knowledge making and the next generation. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs