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Christina McKercharSenior Lecturer in Māori Health

BCApSc, MSc with distinction, PhD

Email christina.mckerchar@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 364 3638

Department of Population Health
University of Otago, Christchurch
PO Box 4345
Christchurch 8140

Background

Christina is of Ngāti Kahungunu, Tūhoe, and Ngāti Porou descent. She trained as a nutritionist and worked for a number of years for Te Hotu Manawa Māori, a national Māori Health provider, before her academic career. Her research has focused broadly on the right to healthy food. She has researched the food environment, especially food availability and marketing, food security and food sovereignty, and other aspects of public health that impact hauora Māori, including alcohol, transport, and housing.

Christina is a member of Climate Health Aotearoa, and is on the Food Expert panel for Health Coalition Aotearoa. She also chairs the Māori Research Advisory Rōpū, to support Māori Health Advancement at the University of Otago, Christchurch.

Teaching

Research interests

  • Public Health Nutrition
  • Food security
  • Māori Health

Current projects

Completed projects

Current supervision

  • Nicki Williams, PhD
  • Cara Meredith, PhD
  • Els Russell, Master of Public Health (Thesis)
  • Tom Worters, Master of Public Health (Thesis)

Completed supervision

Publications

Harris, C., Bidwell, S., Hudson, B., Patu, M., McKerchar, C., & Al-Busaidi, I. S. (2024). He mana tō te mātauranga - Knowledge is power: A qualitative study of sexual and reproductive healthcare experiences of wāhine Māori. Journal of Primary Health Care. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1071/HC24103 Journal - Research Article

Meredith, C., Haitana, T., McKerchar, C., & Pitama, S. (2024). “Thank you for listening” Kaupapa Māori methodology as a facilitator of culturally safe research with Māori mothers experiencing perinatal mental illness. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. doi: 10.1177/16094069241307584 Journal - Research Article

Lim, N., Steien, D., McKerchar, C., Mirosa, M., Tan-Smith, C., & Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2024, November). Child nutrition. Panel discussion at the Paediatric Society of New Zealand Te Kāhui Mātai Arotamariki o Aotearoa (PSNZ) 75th Annual Meeting, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

McKerchar, C. (2024, November). Not like when we were young: Food environments for tamariki today. Verbal presentation at the Paediatric Society of New Zealand Te Kāhui Mātai Arotamariki o Aotearoa (PSNZ) 75th Annual Meeting, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Signal, L., Worters, T., & McKerchar, C. (2024). Marketing harm to children: Children’s exposure to unhealthy commodity marketing using body cameras. European Journal of Public Health, 34(Suppl. 3), (pp. ckae144.163). doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckae144.163 Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

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