Dr Charmaine 'Ilaiū Talei

Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei is a Tongan architect (NZRAB, BOAQ), and Senior Lecturer at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning. Charmaine has a wide appreciation of early and contemporary Indigenous architectural research and practice. Relevant FCRH interests include: culturally responsive design methodologies and built outcomes; therapeutic institutional environments; Pacific Wellbeing, Pacific Livelihoods and Pacific housing. Charmaine works as a consultant and senior architect on government, community, educational, institutional, and commercial projects with/and for Pacific, Māori and Aboriginal Indigenous communities in Aotearoa New Zealand, the South and Western Pacific Islands, and Australia. Enabling a symbiotic relationship between architectural research and architectural practice is a motivation of Charmaine’s work, with a focus on what uplifts and empowers Indigenous communities.