Te Tumu Research
Research at Otago in Māori, Pacific, and Indigenous Studies

Te Tumu Research Roundup

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Lachlan Paterson

Te Tumu staff have been active with research in the first half of the year.   The highlights (listed below) show the depth and diversity of the research undertaken at the School.

In April Te Tumu hosted a three-day conference, Te Kura Roa: Minority Language & Dialect Conference, that attracted a number of speakers, from within New Zealand, as well as from USA, Tahiti, Australia, Scotland and Israel.  Poia Rewi was the driving force behind this conference, a collaboration between the University of Otago, Victoria University and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.  Suzanne Duncan was the key organiser, ably assisted by a number of students.

In May Te Tumu celebrated its 25th Anniversary, in conjunction with the Māori Centre’s anniversary.  Events were organised by a committee headed by Karyn Paringatai and Suzanne Duncan.  Of particular note was a one-day symposium at which a number of Te Tumu alumni presented on where their university educations had taken them.

In July, the book “The Lives of Colonial Objects” was published by Otago University Press, comprising a number of short essays on particular objects.  Four Te Tumu staff contributed chapters: Megan Pōtiki on a tokotoko held by her whānau; Paerau Warbrick on a Māori Land Court Minute Book; Pāora Tapsell on the Te Haupapa cannon at Maketū; and Lachy Paterson on a press used to print a Māori-language newspaper in the 1860s.  Also in this volume is a chapter by Michael Stevens, a former Te Tumu post-doc, on his whānau’s kahukiwi.

Pāora Tapsell, Poia Rewi and Tangiwai Rewi were on Research and Study Leave in Semester 1, with Matiu Ratima, Jim Williams and Michael Reilly away for Semester 2.  Pāora Tapsell has recently returned from Vienna, having given a keynote address “Waka Wairua: Imagining an Other way of knowing our Pacific” at the New Zealand Studies Association conference.  Matiu Rātima was awarded the Fulbright-Nga Pae O Te Maramatanga Scholar Award; this allows him to spend time at the University of Hawai’i to observe the teaching of Hawaiian languages.

In May, Megan Pōtiki published an article in the New Zealand Journal of History, 49, 1 (2015) on the Māori-language writings of H.K. Taiaroa and Tame Parata, and in June presented at a paper at the 4th International Conference on Language, Literature and Linguistics in Singapore on the use of old manuscripts as a means of revitalizing Kāi Tahu reo.  Megan is writing this up for publication at present.

In February, Lachy Paterson gave a Waitangi Day at the Dunedin Art Gallery on past, present and future perceptions of the Treaty of Waitangi.  As he didn’t have any teaching duties in Semester 1 he was able to travel to Canada in February/March where he gave a number of talks at the University of Alberta and University of Manitoba on ‘Indigenous Literacy and Literacy Practices: Māori in the 19^th Century’ and (with Angela Wanhalla) ‘Indigenous Women, Writing and Colonialism’.  In April he presented at a conference on colonial print media at the University of Cambridge, UK.

In June Jenny Bryant-Tokalau presented a paper entitled ‘New Communities and the State in Suva, Fiji’ to the Urban Melanesia theme at the European Society for Oceanistes Conference (ESFO), in Brussels. The paper will be published in a special edition of the Journal de la Société des Océanistes in 2016.

Tangiwai Rewi has recently published an article in the Journal of the Polynesian Society, 124, 1 (2015) on ‘The Ngāruawāhia Tūrangawaewae Regatta: Today’s Reflections on the Past’.  Click here to access.

In February, Michelle Schaaf presented on ‘The role of family in Pacific migrant participation in physical activity and sport’ at the Inaugural International Conference on Migration Social Disadvantage and Health, in Melbourne.

Merata Kawharu and Karyn Paringatai both spoke at at Hui Poutama 2015: Māori Research Sympoisum in May.  Hui Poutama is the University of Ōtāgo’s biennial symposium of Māori research.  Karyn’s talk was on ‘The value of the dark: The students’ perspective’, and  Merata Kawharu’s on ‘Entrepreneurship: the relevance of a customary context. A Ngāti Whātua narrative’.

Karyn Paringatai‘s research on teaching in the dark is in demand.  She presented at a recent Pecha Kucha event at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and in July gave a keynote presentation at the Tuia Te Ako hui at Lincoln University.

Lyn Carter has two works in press: ‘Climate Change and Aotearoa New Zealand: A review’, a journal article with Wiley Interdisciplinary Review (LSE); and ‘Iwi are where the People are: Rethinking Ahi Kā and Ahi Matao in Contemporary Māori Society’ in the forthcoming Huia Publishers book, Home. Here to Stay!

Finally, Te Tumu is revamping its MAOR 102 textbook.  The old book, Ki te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society was published in 2004, and while it had served its purpose well, staff felt that a new volume was necessary.  As with Ki te Whaiao, Te Tumu staff are doing most of the writing for this new book.

Posted in Indigenous Studies, Māori Studies, Pacific Islands Studies | Tagged Indigenous Development, Māori research, Pacific research, te tumu