Ko Ngāti Porou, ko Ngāti Raukawa, ko Ngāti Kahungunu ngā iwi. I am a public/Māori health researcher and senior lecturer based at University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha. I was born to a Pākehā mother and Māori father in the late 1970s and subsequently adopted to a Pākehā family. I completed a PhD thesis on the experiences of Māori adoptees and the implications for identity in 2020, and have recently put my experience and research to use in the adoption law reform currently underway. I'm particularly passionate about seeing Māori people thrive, and my broad-ranging research fits in this frame.