<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12px"><em>Ena Ying-tzu Chang (centre) with members of the Whakauae team. From left: Sonja Loveridge, Lynley Cvitanovic,<br />
Dr Heather Gifford, Gill Potaka-Osborne, Dr Amohia Boulton, Dr Aria Graham and Mel Potaka-Osborne.</em></span></p>

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<p>Ena Ying-tzu Chang, a Taiwanese PhD student who is researching Indigenous health issues in Taiwan recently met with the Whakauae team in Whanganui. Born and raised in Taiwan, Ena was awarded her BSc in Maths and Philosophy from the University of Oregon, USA and her MA in Philosophy from the University of Memphis, USA. She has more recently spent time living and working in an Indigenous community on the East coast of Taiwan which inspired her current research. Ena is concerned with how disconnectedness to land, language and identity have a profound impact on the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples and is interested in how these same cultures are strengthening connections as resilient and adaptive communities.</p>

<p>Ena&rsquo;s doctoral research is focussed on health promotion practice models grounded in Indigenous world views and values as well as on the interface between government sectors, biomedical discourses and Indigenous cultural sovereignty. She is working mainly with two Indigenous communities in Taiwan, the Jiqi and the Kanahcian. However, she is also pursuing a field-informed literature review based on M&#257;ori health experiences with a focus on Wh&#257;nau Ora as a space where health, cultures, and politics interacts. She plans to report her doctoral findings to the communities she works with in Taiwan to contribute to the development of more culturally-informed health practices. Ena&rsquo;s doctoral study is being jointly supervised by National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.</p>

<p>Early in 2018, Ena contacted Whakauae after discovering Dr Amohia Boulton and Dr Heather Gifford&rsquo;s Wh&#257;nau Ora-related publications. As Ena explained at the time, those publications had been &ldquo;exceptionally useful in addressing some of the issues I am concerned with&rdquo;. Later in the year, Ena presented her work at the Ng&#257; Pae o Te M&#257;ramatanga International Indigenous Research Conference in Auckland where she met with the Whakauae team and interviewed both Amohia and Heather for her doctoral research.</p>

<p>While in Whanganui during July 2019, Ena talked with the team about the progress with her research and presented early findings.</p>
