A new podcast, TIAKI, which shares the findings of an Otago research project on the health and wellbeing of Māori who leave prisons, is launched today by Associate Professor Paula Toko King from the Faculty of Medicine – Wellington.
The TIAKI podcast launches today: a six-episode series on the health and wellbeing of Māori who leave prisons, and on what an Aotearoa New Zealand without the harms of prisons could look like.
The podcast is hosted by Associate Professor Paula Toko King from the Faculty of Medicine – Wellington and Māori health expert Gabrielle Baker, with the first episode released on 7 September.
TIAKI, which means 'to care', is a Kaupapa Māori rangahau (research) project funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. It was carried out by the TIAKI Rōpū Rangahau, a collective of kairangahau (researchers) that includes kairangahau with lived experience of imprisonment. The project was co-led by Associate Professor King with Cheryl Davies, the manager of Tū Kotahi Māori Asthma and Research Trust and Associate Professor Ruth Cunningham from the Faculty of Medicine – Wellington.
The TIAKI research project focused on community re-entry from the time of release from prison and the days, weeks, months and years after.
Associate Professor King says Māori leaders, activists, advocates, practitioners and scholars have long documented the harms prisons cause, but what happens to health and wellbeing on re-entry has had almost no attention.
"Māori have been imprisoned on a mass scale. This mass imprisonment by the state is inevitably followed by mass re-entry of people who have been imprisoned back into communities. And there is very little known about how this re-entry process goes for Māori, how returning to the community impacts health and wellbeing for them and for their whānau, and what can be done to provide better support so that all whānau in Aotearoa New Zealand can be well.”
The series features kōrero with members of the research group and with national and international experts. Episodes cover the Kaupapa Māori approach behind the project, findings from data held by government, close to 40 interviews with individuals and whānau with lived experience of prison, and the arts projects created to return the research findings to communities. The final episode sets out what should change, with recommendations for the Government.
"The aims of TIAKI include identifying the most successful strategies for supporting Māori leaving prisons, increasing our overall knowledge and awareness as a society, and improving government accountability when it comes to the criminalising legal system," Associate Professor King says.
Each episode comes with a companion booklet or zine to download, with each zine taking a different approach, ranging from detailed booklets, to poems, to art zines.
TIAKI findings have also reached communities through 'Out the Gate', a Theatre Marae production presented by Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu, which performed more than 30 sold-out shows across the lower North Island in late 2025. A TIAKI policy paper with recommendations for Government is expected alongside the final episode of the podcast.
The TIAKI podcast is available on Apple Podcasts (search TIAKI podcast) and the TIAKI website at https://www.orangamokopuna.co.nz/orangamokopuna/tiaki-podcast.
Follow the series on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tiaki_pod/
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