About this research
“We want our children to go out from school confident of who they are, where they come from and who they represent.” “It’s important the stories people tell about themselves,” Hāromi Williams says. At her office at Tāneatua near the Urewera, where she is Executive Manager of the Tūhoe Education Authority (TEA), she explains it’s a lesson she first learned forcibly when teaching adult migrant students in Sydney’s western suburbs learning English as a second language. People from Cambodia or El Salvador found common ground in talking about family and the daily things of life. But what mattered most were the stories they told of a shared cultural heritage. And when she returned home to where she had grown up in Ruātoki she found that was a legacy at risk of being lost. Tūhoe kaumātua were declining rapidly in number. Indeed, the 2001 Census confirmed just two percent of all Tūhoe were aged over 65. TEA was established in 1998 as a community driven initiative. Hāromi and her team with the Ministry of Education are working on lifting the capability of 13 local Tūhoe schools. It’s been one of many initiatives she’s led in a 32-year teaching career. And now in a research project, Te Ahikāroa, supported by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, she is recording kaumātua stories of ten hapū that will become a teaching resource and go on the Tūhoe web portal. “We want our children to go out from a Tūhoe school confident of who they are, where they come from and who they represent. And that makes them accountable,” she says.
Ētahi atu · Other projects
Kapua O’Connor (Ngāti Kurī), The University of Auckland Ahikā was a well-established tikanga that described the occupation of lands by hapū, conveyed through them being present on their land to stoke their fires. In conjunction with whakapapa connection to the land, the tikanga of ahikā conferred mana on hapū, as the following whakataukī demonstrates: Ka…
View projectHe ahikā, he kāinga tōnui: A burning fire, a flourishing society
Kapua O’Connor (Ngāti Kurī), The University of Auckland
Ahikā was a well-established tikanga that described the occupation of lands by hapū, conveyed through them being present on their land to stoke their fires. In conjunction with whakapapa connection to the land, the tikanga of ahikā conferred mana on hapū, as the following whakataukī demonstrates:
Ka wera hoki i te ahi, e mana ana anō
While the fire burns, the mana is effective
Ahikā provided the principle that in order to maintain mana, hapū needed to continuously occupy their lands. Ahiteretere described the flickering fires of hapū who had been away for any time longer than normal seasonal absence. Ahimātaotao described the rapidly cooling, or extinguished fires of hapū who had been way for a long time, measured in generations.
Kate Souness (Ngāi Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Waitaha, Ngā Puhi, Te Arawa), University of Canterbury Utilising pūrākau as a method and methodology alongside Kaupapa Māori Theory and Mana Wahine theory, this work aims to examine traditional pūrākau inherent in waka hourua deep sea voyaging oral histories throughout the Pacific. The depth of knowledge will journey…
View projectA Comparative study of Waka Hourua Voyaging Oral Traditions and Contemporary Voices Throughout The Pacific
Kate Souness (Ngāi Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Waitaha, Ngā Puhi, Te Arawa), University of Canterbury
Utilising pūrākau as a method and methodology alongside Kaupapa Māori Theory and Mana Wahine theory, this work aims to examine traditional pūrākau inherent in waka hourua deep sea voyaging oral histories throughout the Pacific. The depth of knowledge will journey into the night sky and stories of stars, ancestors and meaning. Navigational knowledge from waiata, pūrākau, whakatau, karakia and kīwaha will inform part of the research.
Waratah, Taogaga (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi), The University of Auckland How can we - indigenous peoples, navigate spaces where cultural awareness is not normalised? There is an abundance of literature that recognizes the connected nature of indigeneity and social psychology (Johnathan Friedman, 1994; Geertz, Clifford, 1973; Maaka, Roger C.A. (1994) Walker…
View projectHe pēhea te tū taketake ki te ao – Mā te aronga atu ki ngā tāiao e toru. How to be indigenous in a space where indigeneity is not recognised.
Waratah, Taogaga (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi), The University of Auckland
How can we - indigenous peoples, navigate spaces where cultural awareness is not normalised? There is an abundance of literature that recognizes the connected nature of indigeneity and social psychology (Johnathan Friedman, 1994; Geertz, Clifford, 1973; Maaka, Roger C.A. (1994) Walker, Ranginui (1989a) , how people are able to define an indigenous identity (Alan Chadwick 2021; Hilary Weaver 2001, Taylor, D. M., & Kachanoff, F. J, A Wilson 1996) and the influence indigeneity has on identity (Paradies 2006, Jackson, S. J., & Hokowhitu, B. (2002) Forte, M. C. (Ed.). (2013).