Keynote Speakers
9:20 – 9:50
Māia Hetaraka, Ngāti Wai, Ngāi Tahu, Te Puna Wananga The study of PRC students’ perceptions of self-assessment in Integrated Quality Assessment
Ko Huruiki te maunga, Ko Te Upoko o Tahu Matā te maunga
Ko Mokau te awa, Ko Wairewa te roto
Ko Māhūhū ki te Rangi te waka, Ko Uruao te waka
Ko Te Uri o Hikihiki te hapū, Ko Ngāti Irakehu te hapū
Ko Ngāti Wai te iwi, Ko Ngāi Tahu te iwi
Biography:
Māia Hetaraka is uri of Ngāi Tahu in the south, and Ngāti Wai in the north. She has three daughters of primary, secondary and tertiary ages. Māia has a background in primary education and has taught in both Māori and English medium settings in Waikato and Tai Tokerau. She is currently a lecturer at Te Puna Wānaga, The University of Auckland, Te Papa Ako o Tai Tokerau, lecturing on the Bachelor of Education programme.
Māia has a special research interest in Māori and indigenous education, focussing on utilising traditional knowledge bases and strategies to both challenge and inform current education practices and processes. Her Doctoral thesis investigates the alignment between the perspectives of indigenous knowledge keepers who live ‘as Māori’ and the Ministry of Education objectives of fostering Māori cultural competence in education professionals to encourage Māori experiencing education success, as Māori.
Doctorate name:
Te Kauae Tuku Iho; Inheriting the Sacred Jawbone: Re-imagining Māori cultural competence in education by engaging the wisdom of indigenous knowledge keepers.
Abstract:
Western-centric education in New Zealand is a political tool used to actively and aggressively force colonisation, assimilation, and integration on Māori. The attempted elimination of te reo, tikanga, and mātauranga Māori through education has caused considerable, and in some instances irreparable, damage to Māori cultural identities and social structures. According to the Ministry of Education, a pathway to reparation lies in a policy designed to enable indigenous students to experience education success, as Māori. However, the Māori education strategy and related support resources overlay New Zealand’s history and on-going experiences of colonisation with limited space to critically examine the impact of that history. The same education system that sought to remove Māori identities now aspires to develop Māori cultural competence in education professionals, and positions itself as expert enough in te ao Māori to achieve this. A key purpose of this thesis is to challenge this objective by engaging the wisdom of highly esteemed Māori knowledge holders, kaumātua.
Kaumātua are Māori elders with specific knowledge and expertise who seek to solve contemporary issues by engaging ancient knowledges and processes. This thesis is underpinned by kaupapa Māori and decolonising methodologies that take for granted the power of indigenous knowledge systems to challenge and transform injustices. This research approach enables the perspectives, expectations and aspirations of kaumātua to drive analyses of cultural competence as an appropriate response to an unjust education system. This research will analyse the alignment between English-medium education concepts of Māori cultural competence, and the future of education for Māori as envisioned by those who live successfully, as Māori. Centralising the wisdom of indigenous knowledge holders will challenge the very notion of cultural competence within the context of New Zealand’s colonial history, and will explore the complexities and possibilities of achieving shared responsibility for Māori education success.
3:20 – 3:50
Dr. Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni, Su’esu’e Manogi: Finding your nose and groove when doing academic research with communities
Biography:
Talofa. Tamasailau currently teaches in the Criminology Programme. She completed both undergraduate and postgraduate university studies at the University of Auckland. She held teaching fellow, research fellow, lecturing and deputy director positions within the University of Auckland’s Department of Sociology, Department of Maori and Pacific Health, and Centre for Pacific Studies from 1998-2008. She moved to the University of Otago to take up a senior research fellow position with the Centre for International Health based at the National University of Samoa in Apia from Nov 2008-July 2011. After which she took up senior lecturer and programme director positions with Victoria University of Wellington’s (VUW) Va’aomanu Pasifika Unit from 2011 to 2016. Tamasailau returned to the University of Auckland in Oct 2016 as Associate Professor in Sociology/Criminology, School of Social Sciences. As well as working for the university sector, Tamasailau has also held honorary and part-time senior researcher and programme evaluator roles in the state and private sector: mainly with the Waitemata District Health Board’s Clinical Research and Resource Centre (2003-2008), and with (as co-director) Pacific Research and Development Services Ltd (1998-2003). Tamasailau was a member of the Superu and VUW central ethics committees.
Abstract:
Researching with communities takes time and an openness to being flexible. It also requires a large dose of humility and an openness to caring for relationships. It’s a journey that teaches us about ourselves and about others. If we listen well, we will feel the different rhythms at play and know how to pick out the different scents we use to perfume our views and narratives across time and space. For academic researchers working with and across different communities we must find our nose and groove among the different beats and scents – language, cultural, methodological and knowledge wise – and find harmony and meaning in them. This closing address navigates the metaphor of su’esu’e manogi (searching for fragrance) and advocates for its power to inspire an academic research groove that can bring together different worlds and peoples notwithstanding changing times, places and lives.