Ethnic Research Aotearoa is a new organisation with formal legal status as a New Zealand Trust from September 2022. It is also a registered charitable organisation and service (CC60853).

The establishment of ERA is based on research completed in May 2022 that gathered community perspectives and responses to establishing an independent ethnic community-led research and evaluation centre in Aotearoa. This research found support for setting up an ethnic communities-facing centre and that it would have substantive value for ethnic community groups, government, NGOs, and policymakers. Benefits included providing a safe space for ethnic researchers and evaluators, enabling innovative methodologies that foster cultural knowledge and expertise, and providing capability building opportunities for ethnic researchers and evaluators.

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ERA is run by trustees from diverse ethnic communities. The trustees represent a depth of experience working with diverse ethnic community groups, governance and government, research and evaluation in Aotearoa.

The ERA kaupapa is to empower ethnic communities in Aotearoa New Zealand through a research space dedicated to matters of concern to ethnic communities.

As a new organisation, ERA will evolve through actively connecting and working with and for ethnic community groups, researchers, and evaluators to better understand how and what we can do to best be of value. ERA represents part of a generational change that is reclaiming ethnic community research and evaluation in Aotearoa.

ERA aims to:

1. be a nationally respected and visible organisation with a core board with strong credibility and networks linked to diverse communities in Aotearoa

2. create and promote tools, networks and resources including to establish and grow the following:

   • COLLABORATORS: A dedicated ethnic research and evaluation practice community for ethnic community researchers and evaluators

   • SUPPORTERS: a relationships network - Community organisations (research partners and consumers )

3. build research and evaluation capabilities and opportunities, and facilitate, conduct and share research and evaluation, working with ethnic communities and of value to ethnic communities

4. have a self-sustaining business model.

Our primary focus is to work collectively with and for ethnic researchers, evaluators and community groups relating to self-identified ethnicities within the following groupings: African, Asian, Continental European, Latin-American, and Middle-Eastern

ERA takes a partnership collaborative research approach to its work which may involve working with government agencies, academics, and/or private sector groups alongside ethnic community groups. The research expertise and depth of experience represented by ERA allows for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods to be adopted including a focus on innovative research and reporting of results that reflect the lived experiences and voices of ethnic communities. The primary consideration for any initiative is its value to ethnic communities.