In Brief:

  • Manukau Institute of Technology nursing graduate Ebony Komene has received a prestigious 2026 Fulbright–Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Graduate Award.
  • The scholarship will support study in the United States focusing on Indigenous nursing and nurse practitioner models.
  • Ebony says the experience will help strengthen her doctoral research on improving Māori health outcomes and growing New Zealand’s Indigenous nurse practitioner workforce.

Manukau Institute of Technology nursing graduate Ebony Komene has received a 2026 Fulbright–Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Graduate Award.

The prestigious scholarship will allow her to study Indigenous nursing at Washington State University and Indigenous nurse practitioner models at University of Hawaiʻi next year.

“I’m really looking forward to it. A little bit nervous. But there are a lot of opportunities to explore,” says Ms Komene (Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa, Tainui).

“There have been nurse practitioners in the U.S much longer than in New Zealand. So there’s a lot for us to learn in terms of professional development, as well as developing a nurse practitioner and Indigenous nurse practitioner workforce plan.”

Mātanga tapuhi or nurse practitioners receive advanced training beyond the level required of a registered nurse.

This allows a nurse practitioner to manage care as a lead provider, interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe medications while integrating a holistic approach to treatment including consideration of whānau and population health factors.

Currently, Ms Komene is completing her doctorate through University of Auckland focusing on ways Māori nurse practitioners can transform primary healthcare through whānau-centred delivery models aimed at addressing systemic inequities.

This includes strategies to develop a nurse practitioner workforce representative of the community it serves. Currently, only 10% of nurse practitioners in New Zealand are Indigenous, despite Māori making up more than seventeen percent of the overall population.

After leaving school, Ebony began studying an arts degree at university, though switched to nursing following a careers counselling session.

“I enrolled at MIT. I quickly realised it was a career for me. The campus was a ten-minute drive down the road. There were a lot more brown faces in the class. I locked in,” she says.

Her ‘light bulb’ moment came in a lecture on Te Tiriti and healthcare.

Ebony says it prompted a re-examination of how her own attitudes were shaped by institutionalisation, colonisation and to see the work she does in nursing with whānau Māori from an access and equity perspective.


Ebony Komene pictured working for Counties Medical in Papakura just before graduating in 2019

Ms Komene graduated Bachelor of Nursing – MIT in 2019, becoming the first in her whānau to receive a tertiary qualification.

“Our school is incredibly proud of Ebony and her achievement in receiving a Fulbright Scholarship. This recognition reflects her hard work, academic excellence, and commitment to the future of healthcare for Māori,” says Nursing School Head, Associate Professor Deb Rowe (Kāi Tahu).

“It also highlights the strength of the nursing education we offer, which is built on high-quality teaching, strong industry connections, and a supportive learning environment where students are known and valued.

“Ebony’s success demonstrates how transformative education can be and that graduates are well prepared to succeed on both the national and international stage,” Dr Rowe says.

After working for four years as a registered nurse in the Counties Manukau area, Ebony moved into research.

“Working in research is a great opportunity to use my lived experience to help redefine what is possible in the profession.”

Her advice to young people, particularly Māori, studying at MIT and Unitec is not to put boundaries on themselves.

“The biggest learning from this is not to limit yourself. When these opportunities come up you need to ask, if it’s not you then who and if it’s not now then when? Be the leader you want to see not just for you, but for your children and your grandkids.”

The Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Graduate Award is awarded to a promising New Zealand graduate student to undertake postgraduate study or research at a US institution in the field of indigenous development.

The award is offered in partnership with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the Māori Centre of Research Excellence funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and hosted by the University of Auckland.