Kaumātua have key leadership responsibilities within their communities and are crucial in curbing the spread of COVID-19. Yet kaumātua are also among the most vulnerable to the disease, given compromised health, living situations and reliance on whānau and others for care. Our study explored kaumātua concerns and reactions to COVID-19. We aimed to understand how kaumātua understand the tapu of the body and tikanga relevant to the spread of COVID-19. We are interested in how kaumātua navigate the challenges presented by COVID-19 in light of evolving advice and regulations regarding personal distancing, self-isolation and gatherings. We used digital technologies and cellphones to communicate with Ngātiwai and Waikato kaumātua on a regular basis over a six-week period. Drawing on rich kōrero from our first round of interviews we will share findings from the study to assist Māori communities, policy makers and health providers.

This feasibility study examined innovations in kaupapa Māori (a Māori approach) research methods to explore kaumātua (older Māori men and women) understandings of ageing well. We designed a research pathway that brought together kaupapa Māori methods in the form of noho wānanga (a method of knowledge sharing) with kaumātua and researchers in Tutukaka in 2018. Kaumātua participants were invited as guests in a comfortable and congenial setting to share their experiences of growing older. Our engagement with kaumātua, and our data-gathering and analysis methods provided an effective method for understanding kaumātua well-being. We found that focusing directly on health did not resonate with participants. There was diffidence when kaumātua talked about their own personal health, when compared with their enthusiasm for other parts of their lives. They understood well-being as a holistic process connecting hinengaro (mental health), wairua (the spirit and spiritual health), tinana (physical health) and te taiao (natural environments).

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Cicero's level of success within the senate fluctuated throughout the period of his Philippic orations. These fluctuations reflect the very divisive nature of the conflict with Marcus Antonius, and the ever-changing circumstances that Cicero confronted. The orations themselves record Cicero's improvisational responses to these developments and allow us to study Cicero's range of persuasive techniques over a period of eight months, from September 44, when Cicero delivered his first Philippic, through to April 43, when he delivered his last. There has been a growing body of scholarship dealing with the Philippics, but there remains work to be done on the ad hoc nature of senatorial debate. Manuwald's recent study of praise and blame within the Philippics has provided a starting point, since she identifies strategic elements within the collection as a whole and how these elements functioned in terms of persuasion. She notes the short term use of praise and blame for the purpose of urging the senate to a particular course of action, but her avowed aims were not to isolate strategies within the speeches. And while Frisch provides full coverage of the historical context, he is less concerned with persuasive strategies within and between the speeches themselves. In this regard Philippics 10 and 11 provide an insight into the malleable and ad hoc nature of Roman oratory in the context of senatorial debate. We are able to follow Cicero's shifts in rhetorical strategies as he attempts to meet the exigencies of each situation. Philippics 10 and 11 have ostensibly similar rhetorical aims: to persuade the senate to appoint Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius to powerful military commands in the eastern provinces, and yet the rhetorical strategies that Cicero employs differ in various ways. My aim is to examine what factors influenced his choice of strategy in the delivery of the two speeches.

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