Joni Angeli-Gordon

Iwi Affiliations

Joni descends from the northern tribes, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua, and Te Roroa. Prior to becoming a researcher, she was a secondary school teacher in both Kura Kaupapa Māori and mainstream.  

Relevant Qualifications

2023: PhD, University of Waikato

2018: Pīnakitanga ki te Reo Kairangi, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa

2014: Master of Arts, Auckland University of Technology

2007: Graduate Diploma of Secondary Teaching, University of Auckland

2005: Bachelor of Arts, University of Auckland

Expertise

Dr Joni Angeli-Gordon (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua, Te Roroa) is a Kairangahau Matua | Senior Research Fellow at Te Manawahoukura Rangahau Centre at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Her research is an invitation to return to aroha as an intellectual discipline, to ancestral intelligence as method, and to gentle insistence as a transformative force. 

Working across Kaupapa Māori, Indigenous child development, Māori mindfulness (mauritau), educational psychology, and placefulness, Joni explores what it means for mokopuna and whānau to thrive — not in theory alone, but in lived, intergenerational, and embodied ways. Her work centres aroha not as sentiment, but as praxis.  

Her writing and research often begin where emotion meets inquiry: in the breath before karanga, in the stillness before a waiata, in the fierce softness of maternal memory. Gently urging whānau and communities to remember, reimagine, and restore. 

Current kaupapa include partnering with Tūpuna Parenting, Developing the Āio Pīpī funded by MAS and the development of a Mauritau Child Development Model grounded in the states of mauri.  

Joni publishes in both English and te reo Māori, and weaves together pūrākau, wānanga, waiata and research in ways that centre love, justice, and joy. Her rangahau honours the intelligences that lives in the body, in the land, and in our shared breath — where fearlessness and aroha co-exist. 

Key Contributions

Postgraduate Supervision

  •  Supervised 18 Masters projects to completion for the Master of Teaching and Educational Leadership at Academy Ex (formerly The Mind Lab). She is currently supervising four Masters projects.

  Publications and Dissemination

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M. (2025) Taku Waipiataata, Taku Hei Tāwhiri Cherishing Tamariki Through Tūpuna Child Rearing. (Tūpuna Parenting, Auckland) 

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M. (2025) Ancestral Parenting: Reclaiming Māori Childrearing Practices in the Wake of Colonial Disruption. Genealogy 9: 36. 

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M. (2024) Whakapapa, Mauritau, and Placefulness to Decolonise Indigenous Minds. Genealogy 8: 124. 

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2022) Hīnātore – a Māori Taxonomy (Contracted by Albany Senior College to develop a taxonomy that draws on mātauranga Māori and could be used in place of Blooms that they were using. They now apply it to the assessment of their learners. Currently working towards publishing the model this year.)  

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2022) Conceptual Framework for NZATE - New Zealand Association of Teachers of English. (Contracted by NZATE to work with their team to develop and write a conceptual framework that supports their work and draws on mātauranga Māori. The framework is now used to underpin their practice.  

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2021) Strategies for wellbeing for Māori doctoral scholars. (Invited to speak at an online MAI forum on using Mauritau / Mindfulness through your doctoral journey for wellbeing.) 

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2021) Mauritau practices in te reo Māori with pūrākau from Muriwhenua. (Worked with Te Mātāwai alongside a community organisation to draw on kōrero from the local iwi to create meditations as a resource for kura tribal members of the five Muriwhenua iwi.)  

  • Stratton, S., & Gordon, J (2021). Algorithmic bias and Māori. He Rourou, 1(1), 93-94.  https://doi.org/10.54474/herourou.1.1.2920219 

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2020) Oho Mauri App (Contributed the mindfulness sections of app which were bi-lingual with project funding by Te Mātāwai.)  

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2020) Hinepūtehue – (Wrote and recorded a collection of meditations in te reo Māori and te reo Pākehā as a wellbeing resource over covid funded by the Mental Health Foundation.)  

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2020) Mauritau Mindfulness Resource for Teachers supported by The Mind Lab (a collection of 4 mindfulness practices for teachers over covid).  

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M (2018) Pause Breathe Smile (Translated and recorded meditations into te reo Māori for a national mindfulness programme in schools that is now funded by Southern Cross Medical Insurance).  

  • Angeli-Gordon, J.M. (2018) Mauritau: Mātauranga Māori and Mindfulness – An autoethnographic and kaupapa Māori exploration. (A literature review written for the Mental Health Foundation as a scoping project for Māori mindfulness which was funded by Trust Waikato).  

  • Gordon, J (2018) Critical Pedagogy in a Māori-Medium Setting. Te Kaharoa, vol 11. 

Meet the Team