Rangahau Vol. 4

rangahau research at massey university 2022

He kupu whakataki

Takiri mai te ata

Ko te ata i a Ranginui e tū iho nei

Ko te ata i a Papatūānuku e takoto ake mai nei

Ka pō, ka ao, ka awatea!

Ka pūao te ata i Otehā, i Ōkahukura

Ka huaki mai te rangi i Turitea, i Manawatū

Haeata ana mai i Pukeahu, i Te Upoko o Te Ika

Mārama te ata ki ngā kete kōrero e utaina

mai nei

Mārama ki uta, mārama ki tai

Uhi tai, uhi tai, uhi tai!

Ka whakatakotohia i konei ngā hua o te rangahau i Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa. He huhua ngā take, he whānui hoki te tirohanga atu ki ngā whāinga matua e hāngai ana ki te toitūtanga, ki te whanaketanga, ki te toioranga.

Kei roto kei ēnei kaupapa rangahau katoa, he mātauranga hei ārahi i a tātou ki te rangi āpōpō, ki ngā wā e heke tonu mai nei. Ina tirohia ngā tohu o te wā puta noa i te ao, i reira ka puta mai he māramatanga ki te āhua o ēnei kaupapa, me ngā whāinga tekau mā whitu. Mā te tiaki i te taiao, mā te manaaki i te tangata, e toitū ai te whenua, e toitū ai hoki te tangata.

Huihuia mai i konei te pūkengatanga o te rangahau. Koia hoki rā he pūkenga, koia hoki rā he wānanga, koia hoki rā he māramatanga e tau atu nei.

Deputy Vice Chancellor Māori

PROFESSOR MEIHANA DURIE

Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa

Foreword

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to the fourth issue of Rangahau, a publication produced by Massey University Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa to profile and celebrate the breadth and impact of research currently under way across our university.

In this issue, I am delighted to share a snapshot of the excellent research at Massey that specifically addresses the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This issue profiles more than 30 academics and their teams who are progressing research that advances one or more of the SDGs. Not only do our researchers have wonderful stories to share, they are also making meaningful and positive contributions to our communities in ways that clearly align with and are inspired by the United Nations’ commitments.

A matrix of 17 interlinked global objectives, the SDGs provide a blueprint for us all to work towards achieving a better and more sustainable future. Established in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly, the SDGs are intended to be achieved by 2030.

As part of our new Massey University Strategy 2022–2027, we are maintaining our strong

focus on supporting our world-leading areas of research that align with and support the United Nations’ SDGs, alongside ensuring that we are operating in environmentally sustainable ways that support our ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Massey University Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa values sustainability as one of the key commitments that will guide our future development, grounded in the foundational promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Our commitment to sustainability and climate action sits alongside entrepreneurship, civic leadership and global engagement to bind together our four strategic pou (pillars): te pou rangahau (research), te pou ako (teaching), te pou tangata (people) and te pou hono (connections).

Our university’s commitment to working towards being a Tiriti o Waitangi-led institution infuses and informs everything we do. We are excited and energised by this goal, noting that while research is a key area where we can work to realise this aim, such ambition comes with huge responsibilities.

At Massey, we pride ourselves on the importance we place on research both as a driver

of new knowledge and as a means by which to improve lives, lift social and economic wellbeing and nurture and care for our environments. Our natural resources are finite, and we need to look after them.

We are justifiably proud of Massey’s unrivalled record of research excellence in subject areas vital to this country’s social and economic wellbeing reaching back almost 50 years, and in the creative arts more than 130 years. These areas of research strength include veterinary science, land- and foodbased research, nursing and public health, finance, key areas of the social sciences, and creative arts and design. Our research in these fields sits alongside and supports our capability to deliver a diverse distance- and onlineteaching portfolio. We celebrate this diversity and are inspired by our name, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa; from inception to infinity. Here at Massey we say that we are not simply defined by what we do, but by how we do it.

Finally, we believe that research not only defines what a university does, but that it is also critical to helping us all to understand the world in which we live. While universities are designed to prepare graduates for the world of work, they are also sites of critique in the context of public policy and social and economic debates. Universities are large and influential institutions in our society and they produce graduates who will go on to create more cohesive, productive and tolerant communities.

The critical role of university-based research and expert advice has been highlighted

during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, university researchers have been invaluable in providing advice to government and the public alike on how to navigate and understand the uncertainty of our present world. University-based academics, in their dual role as researchers and teachers, play an active role in the process of making our democracy (and our environment) stronger through education, the application of research and new knowledge creation. In an era where evidence-based research and rational thinking are frequently dismissed as ‘fake news’ or ‘alternative facts’, we need our experts now more than ever.

I want to thank all those researchers who agreed for their work to be shared in this volume and especially for their time and their commitment to making a difference in the world.

I invite you to read on, explore and enjoy.

Tihei mauri ora!

PROFESSOR GISELLE BYRNES Provost

Discovering and protecting our public art

Dr Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and Sue Elliott

Empowering communities to face climate change Professor Bruce Glavovic

Making work healthy and decent Associate Professor David Tappin, Dr Natalia D’Souza and Dr Zoe Port

Using art and science to help with dementia Emma Febvre-Richards

Amplify Aotearoa

Dr Catherine Hoad and Associate Professor Oli Wilson

Using microorganisms to improve sustainability

Professor Yusuf Chisti

Working towards ending plastic pollution

Associate Professor Trisia Farrelly

Tackling marginalisation through community voice

Professor Mohan Dutta

Human impacts on marine mammal biology

Professor Karen Stockin

Improving pharmaceutical fridges

Associate Professor Rodney Adank

The effect of climate disasters on financial markets

Professor Ben Marshall

Life cycle assessment

Professor Sarah McLaren

Alcohol use during Covid-19 restrictions

Dr Taisia Huckle

Improving the health of our waterways Professor Russell Death

Mana Moana

Mike Bridgman and Associate Professor Rachael Rakena

Productive farming with reduced nutrient loss

Associate Professor David Horne and Associate Professor Ranvir Singh

Restoration of te taiao by the Ōhau River Professor Huhana Smith

Understanding leptospirosis Professor Jackie Benschop

Equity at work Professor Jane Parker

Pasifika ways of knowing in teaching mathematics

Associate Professor Jodie Hunter and Professor Roberta Hunter

Reducing waste in the construction industry

Dr Niluka Domingo

The origins of infectious diseases

Professor David Hayman

Covid-19 and Pacific tourism

Dr Apisalome Movono and Professor Regina Scheyvens

UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Livelihoods Professor Stuart C. Carr

Increasing resilience and sustainability in the building industry Professor Suzanne Wilkinson

Honouring excellence

DR BRONWYN HOLLOWAY-SMITH AND SUE ELLIOTT

Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts

we’re hoping significant works can be saved

Discovering and protecting our public art

Many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most talented twentieth-century artists created works to enrich public space, often in partnership with leading architects, meaning some of the largest and most ambitious artworks in the country were placed in publicly accessible places such as civic buildings, hospitals, universities, shopping malls and building foyers. Many of these works have now been destroyed, covered over or lost, but many also remain, undocumented and at risk due to a lack of public knowledge of their significance and cultural value.

Dr Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and Sue Elliott from Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts have developed a research initiative, Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand, which involves building a register of twentieth-century public artworks around the country, listing both those that are still in public space and those that have been lost or destroyed. With funding from Manatū Taonga the Ministry for Culture and Heritage they are expanding their website (publicart.nz) to provide access to the register, including images and information about the artworks and artists. They are also working to

establish an industry body that connects people working in the public art sector — a first for New Zealand.

The project began when Dr Holloway-Smith was researching the landing sites of the Southern Cross Cable Network, which at the time carried almost all of New Zealand’s internet traffic. At the Auckland cable terminal, she discovered that the building had once housed a ceramic tile mural depicting Māui fishing up the North Island, created by Wellington artist E. Mervyn Taylor in 1962, but the tiles had since been taken down and stored in boxes.

This led to a project with public art commissioning group Letting Space to clean the tiles, digitise them, and eventually have the full mural put back in a public space, this time in Takapuna Library. Dr Holloway-Smith then researched the fate of Taylor’s other murals, resulting in a book, Wanted: The Search for the Modernist Murals of E. Mervyn Taylor (Massey University Press, 2018).

Suggestions of other twentieth-century public artworks that might be important soon followed, and Dr Holloway-Smith and Sue Elliott began recording these in a spreadsheet that grew to

over 200 works. At that point, they partnered with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage to approach councils around Aotearoa to gather their lists of public art. With funding from Massey’s Strategic Research Excellence Fund, they travelled around the country to visit and document works and meet with people — both those who use the spaces they are displayed in, and those who work in the field of public art. Currently the register lists over 1200 works.

A panel of experts has been assembled to assess these works for national significance. ‘The focus is on protecting and highlighting significant works and recording others to build a picture of the scope of public art practice in Aotearoa,’ says Dr Holloway-Smith.

An interesting finding is that many of the surviving works have had a strong community voice advocating for keeping them accessible. Where that voice has not been present, works can be more vulnerable. ‘Fashion trends in building and interior décor can also put works at risk, and some have been knocked down because they’ve been behind walls and forgotten about,’ says Dr Holloway-Smith. ‘Trying to keep those memories alive is part of what we’re doing. Works have also slipped through gaps because there has never been a body looking out for them.’

The research has also shown that material type is a key factor in whether works survive. There are currently large numbers of painted murals being commissioned, and these tend to have a much shorter lifespan than artworks in more durable media. Elliott says, ‘It will be interesting to see how these and digital works

survive . . . and where the balance between temporary and permanent works sits in public spaces. We recognise cities and towns need to be organic; situations change, and works are taken down and put in storage; but we’re hoping significant works can be saved through knowledge and greater understanding of their value, and that by building a forum and sharing best practice we can help save works, and/or find them a new home where they can still be viewed.’

‘It feels rewarding to be working on something constructive and giving back to the community,’ adds Dr Holloway-Smith, ‘but I know there is a tragic aspect to it because so much work has been lost or is vulnerable. We’ve seen some incredible works throughout the country and seen many that are at risk. As an artist myself, I feel that looking after our public art is something we could do better as a nation. We are hoping to use this process to save, protect and highlight our shared treasure of the public artworks around the country.’

SDG 11 SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES

Empowering communities to face climate change

Born in South Africa under the apartheid regime, Professor Bruce Glavovic from the School of People, Environment and Planning has focused his career on environmental justice, sustainability and human rights, and on peaceful, constructive ways of solving problems. ‘I have worked with communities all my life; I learn from them and provide support where I can,’ he says. ‘An important question is, how do we make public choices in ways that are enabling and empowering?’

For most of his career, Professor Glavovic has focused on coastal management, leading the team that produced South Africa’s postapartheid coastal management policy, which was described as a world first. He has also worked in natural hazards planning and in adapting to climate change, both of which are interwoven with other crises, including biodiversity loss, inequity and injustice, and efforts to ensure that public decision-making is inclusive and enabling. ‘Recently, my underlying critical scholarship has centred on what drives people into positions of vulnerability and marginalisation, and what can be done through empowering processes in a world of climate change and risk,’ he says.

Currently, he is finishing a significant piece of work for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) focused on community-based coastal hazard risk reduction. ‘Essentially, it is a workbook for communities around the world to use to make enduring decisions about how to deal with this risk.’

Professor Glavovic also works with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body whose main brief is to prepare reports assessing the science related to climate change. ‘Our recent Working Group II report has strong statements about enabling governance, the importance of overcoming inequity and injustice, human rights, the voice of indigenous people, and non-human species,’ he says. The report concludes that decisions made in the coming 10 years will determine mediumto long-term climate change risk, and hence the imperative for urgent local/global action.

Professor Glavovic is concerned that the pace of climate change action is too slow. He has recently published a paper, ‘The Tragedy of Climate Change Science’, which draws a sobering conclusion. ‘If we continue on the present

path, we condemn the world to a dangerous climate future,’ he says. ‘Temperatures will reach well above pre-industrial levels, there will be species loss, and we will experience dramatic increases in intense and more frequent extreme events. Do we have another six to seven years to prepare another IPCC assessment report while governments make incremental moves that see global warming levels continuously rise? If we are going to take the IPCC evidence seriously, we need to decide: do we do science as usual, or do we need to do something more radical?’

Given the urgency and criticality of climate change, Professor Glavovic argues the time has come for scientists to agree to pause climate change research as a means to first expose, then renegotiate, the broken science–society contract. ‘We’re suggesting a moratorium on the science that merely documents the decline of human wellbeing and planetary health. That science is not contributing to solutions. We need to continue working with our local communities whilst at the same time mobilising global action in this closing window of opportunity to avert dangerous climate change.’

This research is crucial for local communities. ‘I’m involved in case studies within Manawatū–Whanganui and Taranaki working with mana whenua and communities that are exposed and vulnerable,’ says Professor Glavovic. ‘It’s around how to empower people. Unless you address the drivers and root causes of climate vulnerability — for example, if you don’t understand the colonial context in relation to Māori and its ongoing effect on relationships

with local government — it makes it very difficult to address the realities tangata whenua face. Science can provide technical risk-analysis tools that give detailed, quantifiable information about what the problem is and how to deal with it, but it doesn’t address the structural drivers. My critical action-oriented research helps to reveal those problems and find ways to try to overcome them.’

As part of this endeavour, Professor Glavovic is working with a group of trustees who are mana whenua to a piece of land on the Waitara River in New Plymouth. The land is facing flood risk, coastal erosion and intensified storms. ‘People are having to move out, and they have urupā and rare important taonga that are at risk, as well as people’s wellbeing and livelihoods. They have developed a partnership with local government and there is real commitment to supporting them. We are working together to develop an adaptation plan.’ In a similar way, he is working with a community at Tangimoana, where there is a grave flood risk. ‘Manawatū District Council is committed to doing something about it, and we’re going to help shape the plan. Rangitāne and other iwi and hapū have an important voice there. It’s exciting and humbling work because it can make a difference.’

SDG 13 CLIMATE ACTION

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

PROFESSOR BRUCE GLAVOVIC School of People, Environment and Planning

do we do science as usual, or do we need to do something more radical?

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID TAPPIN, DR NATALIA D’SOUZA AND DR ZOE PORT

Healthy Work Group

Making work healthy and decent

Healthy work is rewarding, meaningful, interesting, ethical, of value and sustainable. Associate Professor David Tappin, Dr Natalia

D’Souza and Dr Zoe Port from the School of Management are part of the Healthy Work Group, which was formed around the concept of better understanding the conditions that contribute to poor workplace health and wellbeing, from which the design and undertaking of work can be improved. The group includes academic staff and postgraduate students from Management and Psychology. ‘We look at interventions for the avoidance of harm and the improvement of work, to create decent productive work, conducted with equity and dignity,’ says Associate Professor Tappin.

Although workplace wellbeing has become more prevalent in recent years, Dr Port points out that the more popular interventions do not usually go far enough. ‘We’re mindful that while the workplace wellness movement is important, we want to create a healthier system and not focus just on the individual. Let’s change the work in the first place so that we’re not all expected to be super resilient.’ Associate Professor Tappin agrees. ‘Initiatives that focus on what an individual can do are helpful, but they aren’t getting to the root of the problem and mostly provide symptomatic relief from stressors, whereas looking at the work system — things like recruitment, job design and management competencies — is likely to be more helpful.’

The team is carrying out a project, funded by the Health Research Council and WorkSafe

New Zealand, to reduce psychosocial risk and thereby improve conditions for health and wellbeing in small and medium businesses in New Zealand. Twenty-four organisations were recruited across three sectors, and half of these participatively developed an action plan aimed at improving health and wellbeing in their organisations, with the others receiving no intervention to enable comparison.

‘We’re a bit over halfway through the intervention period,’ says Associate Professor Tappin. ‘There have been a few delays with lockdowns and the impact of the pandemic. But there are lots of interesting insights that are becoming apparent. It’s highlighting the complexity of dealing with psychosocial factors in a work context, because every situation is slightly different and it’s heavily nuanced by the style of management. But some of the factors that we see as important are around the level of control people have in their work, as well as workloads.’

One organisation, for example, is working on improving its processes for recruitment and induction of new staff, which will have an impact on how quickly, and with the least stress, people are able to undertake their work when newly employed. ‘It’s an example of a primarylevel intervention that is aiming to make work more enjoyable and fulfilling,’ says Associate Professor Tappin. ‘There are other benefits at an organisational level in having a process that’s streamlined, but from a new employee’s perspective they are going into that work knowing what they are required to do, so they

don’t get stressed about being in a situation they’re unfamiliar with. It will enable them to also have some sense of where they might want to go and creates a scaffolded learning process. It’s a way of making improvements organisationally as well as for individuals undertaking that work, both currently and in the future.’

‘Another area for improvement that we are seeing is in access to information,’ says Dr Port. ‘We’ve often come into an organisation and employees will say that they don’t know something or wish management would communicate with them, and management will say that the information is there, or they didn’t think employees would be interested. So access to information and open lines of communication are key because not having these will make your job harder and more stressful.’

Associate Professor Tappin agrees. ‘Worker voice and social dialogue are also important components of work that are sometimes missing. In principle, being able to have your say should be available to all, but this may not always be the case, dependent on the nature of the organisation and the awareness of people that these things exist.’

Dr D’Souza points out that those in control have a significant role to play. ‘If they’re really committed to making that change then that’s going to happen fairly quickly. It hinges on the attitudes and behaviours of people in positions of power. They have to really want to make work decent, and it has to be a conscious effort.’

To complement their research, the team

has co-designed a third-year Decent Work course, which is an exploration of the principles, practices and issues surrounding decent work in contemporary work organisations. ‘It’s been a really nice link to some of the research that the Healthy Work Group does,’ says Dr D’Souza, ‘and it’s also great from a teaching perspective being able to share some of those insights as well.’

SDG 8 DECENT WORK & ECONOMIC GROWTH

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

EMMA FEBVRE-RICHARDS

Whiti o Rehua School of Art

drawing is a wonderful way of communicating differently

Using art and science to help with dementia

Dementia refers to a group of conditions that cause a decline in cognitive abilities severe enough to impair daily life and independent function. They also affect behaviour, feelings and relationships. Many conditions that cause dementia are progressive, but treatments, including behavioural ones, can help alleviate some symptoms and preserve function for longer. One example is art therapy, a group of techniques that can be used to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals living with dementia. Many people with the condition lose communication skills, and art allows expression in a different way.

Developed as a partnership between Emma Febvre-Richards from Whiti o Rehua the School of Art and the Institut Claude Pompidou in France, MinDArT is a project that involves the development and testing of an eight-week material and digital drawing programme for people with dementia and their supporters. The primary aims of the programme are wellbeing, mindfulness and relaxation, as well as maintaining fine motor skills and communication.

The project explores the idea that in dementia, fine motor capabilities are retained

longer than verbal abilities, and that drawing gives an opportunity for those with dementia to express themselves in a medium that isn’t oral.

‘As an artist, I was really aware that drawing is a different way of thinking for me,’ says FebvreRichards. ‘If your communication is starting to diminish, then drawing is a wonderful way of communicating differently.’

MinDArT sessions begin with relaxing exercises, then move into drawing exercises and finally a digital app. ‘The programme is inspired from nature, because it makes us feel good,’ says Febvre-Richards. ‘If you think about the elements of nature, whether that be sunshine or wind, it engages all the senses.’ The programme includes the use of sound, with the team working with sound artists to take inspiration from the seasons, like leaves or wind. The drawing itself uses repetitive gestures, which Febvre-Richards explains is intrinsically relaxing. ‘If you think about sewing, knitting or gardening, they are also repetitive movements.’

The digital applications of MinDArT are designed to continue what has been explored in the sessions. ‘They purposefully consider the challenges of people living with dementia, such

as hand–eye coordination and spatial awareness, and are designed to result in versatile outcomes — there is no fixed answer,’ Febvre-Richards says. ‘They are designed to be easy to use and culturally inclusive, as patterns are made by placing marks spatially. I am conscious of us giving choice in what is available, so that anyone who participates in our programme can find their own way and reference their own cultural background.’

The open-ended nature of MinDArT sessions is one of their major drawcards for people with dementia. ‘What’s really good with drawing is that there isn’t a right or wrong. Art has this ability to give many results, which is fabulous for a person with dementia because they’ve had so much difficulty in their lives with not achieving like they used to with things that are difficult, and that takes that stress away.’

Febvre-Richards is now working with Dementia Wellington, Canterbury District Health Board’s Dr Susan Gee and Tracey Hawkes, and Auckland University’s Dr Gary Cheung to evaluate the effectiveness of MinDArT in areas such as participants’ wellbeing, communication and fine motor skills. The tablets from the programme are also being used by occupational therapists at Burwood Hospital’s dementia ward, and the New Zealand Spinal Trust is also interested in the programme as a possibility for pain management. ‘I think that MinDArT has a bigger life than people with dementia but our main focus is people with dementia and their supporters,’ says Febvre-Richards.

MinDArT is part of a group of three projects Febvre-Richards is involved in, which together

are known as MeDArT. Like MinDArT, the two other projects also use science, drawing and technology to advance dementia research. Draw Me an Odour, for instance, is a transdisciplinary project with Université CÔte d’Azur to develop a deeper understanding of the links between smell, colour and gesture. Participants are asked to identify a colour that corresponds to the odour they are smelling; they will also complete a questionnaire that explores familiarity, intensity, relaxing effects, context and memory. ‘We’ve been testing that around the world with people who aren’t cognitively impaired to see how we can use it for those with cognitive impairments,’ says Febvre-Richards. The idea is that olfactory stimulations could be applied to promote better performance, concentration, recall, autonomy and flexibility in daily tasks. She currently has an exhibition on this topic at the Musée International de la Parfumerie in Grasse, France.

Finally, Febvre-Richards is involved in Graphe, a study of digital drawing to help identify early markers of Alzheimer’s disease and certain other dementias. ‘One of the hardest things with dementia is getting an early diagnosis,’ she says, ‘but it’s really important to be diagnosed early because then you can start to get a plan in place and think about activities that can maintain capabilities for as long as possible.’

SDG 3 GOOD HEALTH & WELLBEING

Ensure

Amplify Aotearoa

What are the experiences of people in the music industry in New Zealand? To answer this question, Dr Catherine Hoad and Associate Professor Oli Wilson from Te Rewa o Puanga School of Music and Creative Media Production in the College of Creative Arts have conducted a survey, in partnership with music industry body APRA AMCOS (the member organisation representing songwriters and composers in Australasia). Known as Amplify Aotearoa, the survey collected quantitative and qualitative data with two key aims: to collect detailed demographic information about the music community and to learn about the challenges it is facing.

The results pointed clearly to significant issues in the industry, indicating that gender is a key factor in creating barriers to opportunities. A concerning 70 per cent of women in the music community reported experiencing bias, disadvantage or discrimination based on their gender — seven times the rate of men. The qualitative responses included reports from women of being undervalued, overlooked, and patronised by their peers.

‘Nearly half of women said that they didn’t

feel safe in places where music was made or performed,’ says Dr Hoad. ‘This is the first time that a survey like this was done for the New Zealand music industry, but we have heard stories about these experiences for quite some time.’ Associate Professor Wilson agrees, adding that the survey provides ‘resounding evidence for what was already well articulated online and in the media’.

The results of the study gained wide publicity and supported the formation of SoundCheck Aotearoa, an action group comprising leading figures in the music industry in New Zealand who are dedicated to making it a safer and more inclusive space.

For the past year, SoundCheck Aotearoa has been running professional development workshops around the country; known as Professional Respect Training days, these are free of charge for members of the music community. The content includes definitions of sexual harassment and harm within New Zealand legislation; options and pathways for reporting sexual harm, along with support services and available strategies for preventing. it; fostering a respectful work environment; and

WorkSafe obligations and legal requirements for workplaces.

‘Oli and I have been lucky to play a part in developing those workshops,’ says Dr Hoad, who goes on to explain how they adapt them for different environments. ‘This year, we ran a workshop for music educators about how to create safer environments for teaching and learning.’ The project, she adds, has provided ‘the opportunity to acknowledge and amplify those experiences that people had in the industry’, and enabled her to see ‘a pragmatic change’. ‘I agree that the most satisfying and important part of the research has been how it has influenced change in our industry,’ says Associate Professor Wilson.

On the back of this work, Associate Professor Wilson and Dr Hoad have broadened their research team to include other colleagues at Massey, notably Dr Dave Carter, Dr Jani Wilson and Associate Professor Warren Maxwell, and with further research in the pipeline they have received funding from the New Zealand music industry and government organisations, with grants totalling over $2 million. The upcoming research will provide agencies with robust data on education opportunities, and work closely with the live music industry.

Dr Hoad and Associate Professor Wilson continue to advocate for education as an enabler of positive change. ‘Our approach to research has always been teaching-inspired, and our teaching is always research-led,’ says Associate Professor Wilson. ‘Our work tries to link the classroom to the industry and vice

versa.’ Dr Hoad agrees, noting the value of hosting the SoundCheck workshops at their Wellington campus. ‘It has been important for our students to see that we’re at the forefront of those changes.’ Their interest as researchers, she adds, extends to music education for primary- and secondary-aged students — ‘their access and resources, and the demographics in those classrooms. We want to know, how does that translate to university, and then into experiences in the industry?’

Associate Professor Wilson is encouraged by the response to Amplify Aotearoa, especially given the amount of public funding the music industry receives. ‘Our work has provided another opportunity to consider how this industry works for everyone.’

SDG 5 GENDER EQUALITY

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

DR CATHERINE HOAD AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OLI WILSON

Te Rewa o Puanga School of Music and Creative Media Production

gender is a key factor in creating barriers to opportunities

PROFESSOR YUSUF CHISTI

the aim is to use microbial action to produce products that are sustainable

Te Kura Rangahau Kai School of Food and Advanced Technology

Using microorganisms to improve sustainability

Although the disease-causing capabilities of microorganisms are often in focus, there are numerous positive functions that microbes perform, and the scope for their use in creating a more sustainable world is vast.

Professor Yusuf Chisti from Te Kura Rangahau Kai School of Food and Advanced Technology is using microorganisms in a plethora of ways, from producing foods and nutrients, to improving the sustainability of aquaculture and agriculture and generating renewable energy.

One example involves vitamin B12, which is essential for red blood cell production, brain function and general health. Deficiencies lead to a range of health issues such as anaemia, low energy, poor memory and nerve damage. Vitamin B12 is not usually found in plant-based foods and is primarily gained through eating meat, fish, eggs and milk products. ‘A lot of people don’t eat meat, and production of it is less sustainable compared to the production of vegetables,’ says Professor Chisti. ‘We are working to produce vegetable-based foods that are enriched with vitamin B12 produced naturally by microbial action.’ As an example of this, he names the fermentation of fruit as a source of the vitamin.

Dr Chisti is also working to enrich foods with other nutrients, such as the fatty acids DHA, necessary for the development of the human brain, and EPA, essential for cardiovascular health. ‘We produce these metabolites using microalgae, and the metabolites can then be extracted and added to food, or the algae can be directly incorporated in foods to provide these metabolites,’ he explains.

In another area of research, Professor Chisti is working to enhance the sustainability of aquaculture. Fish and other seafood are generally considered a healthier option than other meat products, as they are a leaner source of protein and other nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids. Demand for seafood has increased to the point where consumption is now higher than that of beef. However, according to the United Nations, a third of fish populations are overfished and 60 per cent are fished to the limit of their sustainability.

A potential solution to this lies in aquaculture, which has become so widespread that the world now produces more seafood from aquaculture than from the wild. And yet seafood farming is not without its own sustainability issues. ‘The

fish and shrimp that we grow with aquaculture are themselves fed on cheap, low-value fish like sardines that are caught in the sea,’ says Professor Chisti. ‘They are converted to fishmeal and fish oil, and then this is fed to the aquaculture species that are grown. This practice is not sustainable.’ As an alternative, he says, ‘We are growing microorganisms that are able to produce the same kinds of oils that you could normally find in wild-caught fish and the proteins you’d find in fishmeal, and then we use these microorganisms to produce aquaculture feed that no longer depends on catching fish or other seafood from the wild.’

Professor Chisti is also addressing agricultural fertilisers. ‘The main fertiliser that we use is nitrogen-based and produced by chemical processes. Production is extremely energyintensive, with around 2 per cent of the global consumption of energy going into nitrogen fertilisers, ureas and ammonias.’ His solution lies in using microbes to make a bacterial biomass: ‘We are using nitrogen-fixing bacteria to take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it to a form that can be used as an alternative source of nitrogen for crops.’

Another of his targets is the pollution of waterways by farm wastewater. ‘We use nitrogen fertilisers for fertilising crops, and rain washes nitrogen and phosphorus from these into rivers, lakes and seas,’ says Professor Chisti, whose solution is to use ‘microalgae to absorb nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. We intercept the water before it goes into the lake or the river and we inoculate it with algae. The algae absorbs

the nutrients from the water, and then we filter out the algae.’ As a side benefit, the algae can potentially be added to animal feed.

Finally, Professor Chisti is also working on the production of biofuels using microorganisms. One way is to use photosynthetic algae to capture the sun’s energy and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. ‘We grow the algae and they accumulate oils within them. These are then extracted and converted to either biodiesel or some other fuel.’

Another form of clean energy is bioethanol, which is usually obtained from sugarcane. Although more sustainable than fossil fuels, its method of production still involves taking a material that would otherwise be used to feed humans or animals and diverting it to supplying fuel. Instead, Professor Chisti is growing microorganisms that produce bioethanol from atmospheric nitrogen and glucose from agricultural by-products, such as the straw residue from rice or wheat harvests. ‘This material contains cellulose that we extract in a chemical and enzymatic process. We break down the cellulose to get glucose. We feed this glucose to microorganisms to generate bioethanol.’ He is also exploring ways of using glucose to produce biodegradable plastic.

‘Overall,’ says Professor Chisti, ‘the aim is to use microbial action to produce products sustainably.’

SDG 2 ZERO HUNGER

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.