{"id":188,"date":"2018-11-21T10:55:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T22:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/?p=188"},"modified":"2018-11-22T08:36:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T20:36:31","slug":"a-quest-for-change-one-students-journey-to-otago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/a-quest-for-change-one-students-journey-to-otago\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quest for Change – One Student’s Journey to Otago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kia whakat\u014dmuri te haere whakamua<\/em><\/strong>
\nMy past is my present is my future<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Miranda Livers with outgoing Otago student Barlow Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy name is Miranda Livers, but my name is Saw Saw.\u00a0 I am Cherokee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miranda Livers knew very little of her heritage.\u00a0 She was never taught her native tongue, or the ways of her ancestors, she was never passed down the knowledge of the stories of her people.\u00a0 All Miranda Livers knew growing up as a young girl was that being native was censored, judged, stereotyped and policed.\u00a0 But Miranda was not prepared to accept this, and set her sights on change.<\/p>\n

\u201cA quest is defined as a long and arduous search for something, and my quest began \u2013 I was going to learn as much as I could about who I am.\u00a0 I learned that Native peoples are the largest group in the U.S. that has the highest poverty rates.\u00a0 Our drug and alcohol addiction rates are also highest in the nation. I learned that so many people believe Native Americans are all dead. \u00a0When my high school graduation finally arrived, I graduated with a 4.0 grade point average in my last year and the knowledge I had beat the odds.\u00a0 Native students have one of the lowest graduation rates.\u00a0 I had ‘made it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(L-R) Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne, outgoing student Barlow Anderson, inbound student Miranda Livers and Office of M\u0101ori Development Director Tuari Potiki.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miranda Livers is the very first inbound student of the unique exchange programme Turangawaewae Pokai Whenua<\/a> which translates to \u201ca place to stand, a world to explore.\u201d\u00a0 This exchange is built on kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face-to-face) relationships established between mana whenua and indigenous representatives of universities throughout the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis programme is designed to integrate a native\/indigenous student from another country into the Maori culture, while that student simultaneously teaches those involved about their own culture. \u00a0It is a fantastic programme in its first year, but in the years to come it may help in keeping other cultures alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why did Miranda choose Otago over other universities in New Zealand and the rest of the world?\u00a0 \u201cIt was the only one that offered me an indigenous experience while abroad and I couldn\u2019t be happier with Otago.\u00a0 Otago has exceeded my expectations.\u00a0 I knew that if I wanted to fully reconnect with my culture, then I needed this programme to give me that support and motivation.\u00a0 In other words, it was the push I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u016brangawaewae, P\u014dkai Whenua<\/a>
\nA place to stand, A world to explore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kia whakat\u014dmuri te haere whakamua My past is my present is my future \u201cMy name is Miranda Livers, but my name is Saw Saw.\u00a0 I am Cherokee.\u201d Miranda Livers knew very little of her heritage.\u00a0 She was never taught her native tongue, or the ways of her ancestors, she was never passed down the knowledge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28111,8967,45800,70378,62,19279,383,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-dunedin","category-exchange","category-exploring","category-new-zealand","category-students","category-travel","category-university-of-otago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}