Maori graduates have celebrated with whanau and friends at a ceremony to honour their achievements.

Fifty-six Maori graduates attended the special ceremony in Palmerston North yesterday, which was also the last in the city for Professor Sir Mason Durie, in his role as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori and Pasifika).

A teacher, trustee and former head girl of Manawatu College were among the Massey University graduates who attended.

As Natasha Simpson (Ngati Tukorehe), Naomi Tracey Robinson (Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Tuwharetoa, Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Kauwhata), and Laura Shingleton (Ngai Tahu), crossed the stage, their whanau, friends and students and staff from the school performed waiata tauotoko (songs of support) and haka.

Mrs Simpson has taught at the school for ten years and on Wednesday graduated with a Master of Education and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. She says the ceremony was very different from graduation. “It was very emotional, that’s the best word to describe it.”

Board trustee Tracey Robinson graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work, and former head girl, Laura Shingleton with a Bachelor of Midwifery. Mrs Shingleton helped deliver 62 babies during her studies and now works as a midwife in her hometown, Foxton.

She says there was “more love in this one”, as whanau and friends celebrated with graduates.

In his final Manawatu graduation address in his role as Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori and Pasifika), Sir Mason said the graduates of today had a challenge to ensure that Maori society realised its potential over the next 25 years.

"The potential is huge and we need to find a way to realise it," Sir Mason said. "Not only to realise a strong economy – because that's important – but also to realise healthy whanau, healthy lives and healthy young people.

"We've spent a lot of time in the past two decades putting out fires. We need to be able to convert our knowledge and education to not only put out fires but to build a strong platform so that fires don't occur. We need strong fences at the top so that we don't have to sit at the bottom with an ambulance. That's what Massey is looking at. Next month we are going to introduce a whanau research programme. It's main aim is to find out what are the ingredients of success for whanau and how to make it happen.

"This year also we are working also to develop a new college in this University and the college will be concerned with looking at what are the determinants of health – not what the causes of sickness are but what are the things that make us well and healthy and wealthy; and that enable us to participate fully in the globe as well as to participate fully in te au Maori."

This year there is a total of 396 Maori graduates across all campuses, 34 more than last year. Of that, 149 graduated at Palmerston North ceremonies, including 30 with postgraduate, 111 with undergraduate and eight sub-degree qualifications.

A ceremony to honour Pasifika graduates was also held yesterday.

Massey University Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Māori and Pasifika) Professor Sir Mason Durie will retire from his current positions next month.

Sir Mason (Rangitāne, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa) joined Massey in 1988, established the School of Maori studies, Te Pūtahi-a-Toi, and was head of school for 14 years before being appointed Massey's first Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Māori) in late 2002, a role that was later expanded to include Pasifika. He has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor since 2009.

Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey says Sir Mason provides superb leadership and has made numerous valuable contributions both internally and externally. He was successful in gaining funding to establish a Centre for Māori Health Research, Te Pūmanawa Hauora, and also negotiated the Māori mental health programme, Te Rau Puawai, which provides up to 100 scholarships a year for students studying health-related subjects. Most recently he has led the work on establishing the planned new College of Health and has agreed to take on a role in the college at a later date.

The process to appoint a replacement for Sir Mason will be conducted over the next two months.

Understanding what it means to be a gifted and talented young Māori learner – an area of research in which Massey specialises – is one focus of the inaugural giftEDnz conference being held in Wellington at the end of the month.

GiftEDnz is the Professional Association for Gifted Education, chaired by Associate Professor Tracy Riley from the College of Education. Massey will be making a significant contribution to the conference, with many of the speakers either staff, students or graduates, Dr Riley says.

The conference, with the theme of Fostering best practice in gifted education will bring together teachers, psychologists and any one involved in educating gifted and talented students from early childhood to tertiary level.

With funding from the Todd Foundation, two special interest groups have been established to conduct research and develop resources into areas that the organisation felt were being ignored by government. The two streams, young gifted learners (up to eight years old), and Maori gifted learners, will be the focus of presentations and panels at the conference.

“It’s a very timely conference,” Dr Riley says. “A lot has been achieved in the past few years in the field with support from the Ministry of Education and the Government, but that support is waning as the focus on underachievement focuses on the tail at the expense of our brightest learners.”

The national administrative guidelines for curriculum now include a legal requirement that gifted and talent learners must be identified and provided for. “Having that legal requirement there is very positive, but there is a big variation in the delivery and implementation of gifted and talented provisions.”

And with a budget of $1.2 million to support schools providing for gifted and talented learners, many students fall through the gaps, she says. “There is a lot of focus on underachievers in school but there are gifted children who are not achieving to their full potential because they are not being adequately provided for. Often there is a mismatch between what these students need and what is being offered.”

She says part of the issue is that being gifted means different things to different people and groups. “There is no one way to identify a gifted learner – it is open to interpretation so it is difficult to implement the legal requirement evenly across the country.”

The conference is on March 30 and 31 at the Amora Hotel in Wellington.

An agreement between Massey University and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa aimed at providing more integrated tertiary education opportunities for Māori was signed yesterday at the University's Manawatu campus.

Discussions between the two institutions have been in progress for more than a year. Both have agreed that Māori educational advancement can be accelerated with the creation of pathways that facilitate entry into higher education and lead on to lifelong learning with expanded career options.

The agreement was signed by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Pouhere (chief executive) Bentham Ohia and Massey Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey.

It covers all Massey campuses – Albany, Manawatū, Wellington and its internationally recognised distance learning programme – and the more than 11 campuses and 80 delivery sites run throughout New Zealand by Te Wānanga, which is based in Te Awamutu.

Massey Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Māori and Pasifika) Professor Sir Mason Durie says the agreement represents a major step towards a collaboration that will benefit students, maximise resources, and share expertise.

"By working together and jointly planning for the future, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Massey University intend to transform the tertiary experience so that the best possible educational outcomes are within the reach of more Māori," Sir Mason says.

Mr Ohia says Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is focused on whānau transformation through education. “Māori have diverse educational requirements, from certificate to master's and PhD level. The priority for this partnership is to provide pathways for each institution’s respective students to ensure they are able to reach their fullest educational potential.”

He says the priority for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is to work with a range of quality tertiary providers to help lift the educational performance and opportunity of Māori – an outcome that benefits New Zealand.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is one of the country’s largest tertiary institutions, providing education to more than 35,000 students. It is a tertiary education provider for all New Zealanders, driven by Māori principles and values. The institution provides a comprehensive range of programmes from certificate to degree level in study options that includes teaching, social services, computers, te Reo Māori, trade training and small business. More than half of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa students are Māori. The institution works with a low to no-fee model across a range of delivery methods, including classroom-based, noho marae, distance learning, and full and part-time study options.

Speaking at the powhiri prior to the signing of the agreement, Mr Maharey said it was about "two great houses of learning" sharing aspirations. "Both of us want to change the world we live in. We want to change if fundamentally."

A new four-year Māori immersion teaching degree will help to fill a critical shortage of expert Te Reo teachers and help halt the decline of the language, says Massey University Associate Professor Huia Tomlins Jahnke, who led the development of the course.

On Tuesday at Te Kupenga o te Mātauranga marae at the Manawatu campus Hokowhitu site, the University will welcome 27 new first-year students and their whanau to its intense Māori immersion teaching course, Te Aho Tātairangi, the only course of its kind in New Zealand.

Dr Jahnke, who heads the University's School of Māori Education, says the redesigned and extended course aimed to supply 200 Maori immersion graduates into the teaching profession by 2020. “There is a shortage of teachers nationally, and in the Māori sector that shortage is critical and our graduates will help to build a bigger talent pool. It will also help the long-term rejuvenation of Te Reo Māori, which is currently classified as an endangered language."

Lecturers include experts and current practitioners from leading kura kaupapa Māori known for their strength in Te Aho Matua, including Dr Kathy Dewes, who was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in last year's Queen's Birthday Honours and who is the principal of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ruamata in Rotorua, Rawiri Wright, principal of Hone Waititi in Auckland and chairman of Te Runanga Nui o Nga Kura Kaupapa Maori, and Toni Waho, principal of Mana Tamariki in Palmerston North.

One important aspect of the course is that all students are supported by – or assigned to – a kura hāpai (mentoring school), a unique requirement that ensures distance learning undertaken through the programme is married with daily practice.

The programme is being delivered through a new partnership between Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori and Massey and is firmly based on the principles of Te Aho Matua, the foundation document which sets out the ethos behind the formation and running of Māori-language immersion schools. “This approach will ensure the ethos of the kura kaupapa Māori movement is upheld in the preparation of teachers who will teach in the total immersion sector,” Dr Jahnke says.

Ms Waho, who is also a member of Te Rūnanga Nui, says: “We are happy to be working closely with Massey to ensure our teachers are properly prepared. The inclusion of Te Aho Matua in the design, content and delivery of the programme is the key.

Graduates will qualify with a Bachelor of Teaching Māori Medium/Diploma Maori Education.

Seven contemporary stainless steel pou (sculptured poles) were installed at the Albany campus this week. The pou, which will provide a distinctive Maori presence and cultural symbol for students' educational journey, will be blessed along with the new student amenities centre at a dawn ceremony on February 8.

Six pou are five metres high and 300mm in diameter, and the seventh is 6.5m and 400mm wide. Each has a meaning, with wording and designs digitally polished onto the surface, while the remaining area has been bead-blasted to give contrasting textured and matte surfaces. The first has the word Kakano to represent the seeding of a thought, and the student, and the seventh and tallest pou has the words Tiki Tiki o Rangi, or the highest place in the heavens to represent ultimate achievement, in this case academic excellence.

Made by Hamilton firm Stainless Design, they were welcomed to the campus by local kaumatua as well as the man who designed them, Whakatane artist and carver Katz Maihi of Toitu Design. Mr Maihi says his design reflects Massey’s principles of inclusion and achievement embracing all ethnicities and cultures represented in the student population. “Each of the seven pou is a stepping stone of progression, acknowledging the personal and academic achievement of the students.”

Campus kaiwhakaruruhau (regional advisor Māori) Donald Ripia says the pou provide a visible reminder that Albany is a place where Maori students, staff and visitors feel welcome. The innovative design features and materials reflect the University’s focus on innovation in teaching and learning.

They were unloaded by crane and positioned in a circle to embody the core principle of the University’s Maori learning philosophy, Te Kunenga ki Purehuroa – from inception to infinity.

The new $15m centre, dubbed Student Central and due to open in Orientation week starting February 20, will be a hub for the 7000 Albany students, with an outdoor area encircled by the pou, a food hall with an indoor/outdoor social and dining space, cafes, shops, students' association offices, Maori and Pasifika student centres, clubs, and health and counselling services.

Māori writers, editors and publishers converged on Massey University’s School of Māori Studies in Palmerston North last night to recognise the best Māori books published over the past 12 months.

The 2011 Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards celebrated a number of milestones in a moving, bilingual ceremony, where winning authors discussed their inspiration with humour and waiata.

Tina Makereti won the inaugural Fiction award for her very first book - Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa. The book of short stories puts traditional Māori myths and legends into a contemporary context and, due to her time as a student at Massey University, Makereti said the award “felt like it was coming from whānau”.

“I’m really excited to be the inaugural winner of the Ngā Kupu Ora Award for Fiction,” she said. “And I hope I am the first of many fiction winners to come.”

2011 was also the first year that the winner of the Māori Language category was written completely in te reo, reflecting the growing diversity of books published in te reo Māori. Chris Winitana won the award for Tōku reo, Tōku Ohooho (My Language, My Inspiration), a book about the revitalisation of the Māori language that has also been published in English.

“This book was written to give a new generation the chance to feel something about their language,” he explained in his acceptance speech. “And it has to be a feeling thing - not something you just study with your head - if the Māori language is to survive.”

Three further books were also recognised at the 2011 Ngā Kupu Ora Awards. The head of Massey University’s Te Pūtahi-ā-Toi (School of Māori Studies), Professor Robert Jahnke, won the Arts category with Tirohanga o Mua: Looking Back, a book which began life as a catalogue for his retrospective exhibition at Te Manawa Art Gallery in 2010.

The Biography award was won by Joseph Pere for Wiremu Pere, a book about the life of his great-grandfather, a politician and advocate for Māori land rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Due to illness, the award was accepted by Joseph Pere’s sister Trudy Meredith, who described her pride in her tipuna and the many challenges he overcame.

Te Taiao: Māori and the Natural World, the content of which originally appeared online as a part of the Ministry of Culture & Heritage’s Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand project, won the Non-Fiction award. Senior editor Jock Phillips said the Te Ara team was extremely proud of the book and, while they had previously won awards for their website, the Ngā Kupu Ora award “probably means the most to us”.

This year’s ceremony also included a special award for Mana Magazine, which published its 100th issue in May 2011. The award was to acknowledge Mana’s important role as a positive Māori voice, and to celebrate a milestone in Māori publishing.

Mana editor Derek Fox said that he was “very moved, but quite shocked” that Massey had decided to honour his magazine. He described the financial challenges of publishing a privately-owned and funded Māori magazine, but said he would continue to do so, at least for the foreseeable future.

The Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards were established in 2009 by Massey University to mark Māori Language Week and to celebrate and encourage excellence in Māori literature and publishing. At that time, it was felt that Māori books were being overlooked by mainstream competitions.

The awards are named after the library collection of Māori resources established by Massey University in 2005. Ngā Kupu Ora translates as ‘the living words’.

At more than 70 years of age, Massey University’s latest Maori PhD recipient is a role model for aspiring, young students – not only as a successful scholar but also as someone who is still seeking to understand his place in a bicultural country.

The Venerable Te Waaka Melbourne, Archdeacon of Waiwhakaari and an Enabler in the Hui Amorangi (Diocese) of Manawa-o-te-wheke, will add Dr to his title following the conferment of his Doctorate of Philosophy on Friday.

Mr Melbourne, of Tuhoe, looked at the role of Maori spirituality and the marae and its relationship with western religion, specifically the Anglican church, drawing on his whakapapa and his role in the Anglican ministry, which he joined as a young man in the 1950s. Specifically, the thesis examines Māori spirituality reflected in the simplicity, cultural and intellectual rights of the words Te Wairua Kōmingomingo o te Maori. It argues that while Christianity has taken a strong hold on Māori spirituality, “primal belief is very much alive in the ordinary life of the Māori”.

Mr Melbourne says he chose his thesis topic because he was trying to understand his personal state of ambivalence about his own culture, which combines Maori with an English upbringing – a confusion being reflected and amplified across the country amongst young people who do not have a connection to a marae. “What is happening on the marae is not what is happening in the suburbs and the modern world. A lot of people can move between the two but there are a lot of young people who have not had the opportunity to understand what it is to be ‘Maori’. Those who have lost access to their marae are suffering a loss of whakapapa and loss of culture,” he says.

“Not enough is being done to help people access the marae. There is a fear and lack of understanding (about what happens on the marae) and that creates uncertainty amongst people. They will say no to anything that is strange to them and because they are not exposed to Maoritanga, they may go against it – further losing their connection to where they have come from.”

His supervisor, Taiarahia Black, Professor of Maori Studies at Massey says Dr Melbourne is a role model for Tūhoe, for Māori, for young and not so young. “He stands out for me because of his commitment. He’s in his 70s but he really is courageous and did not give up,” he says.

“He faced many challenges while writing his thesis – but he vowed that he would complete his doctorate. He has fulfilled the potential that was identified by his kaumatua many years before. That is the sort of commitment that we would like to see in our young people – if he can do it, then so can those much younger, ” says Professor Black.

Mr Melbourne says his message to young people is not to give up. “You must pursue what you believe but be ready to change your mind. Believe in what you believe to be right for you and the people around you.

“And I wanted to be a model for my mokos – one or two are already heading in that direction.”

The thesis begins by looking at the culture and the theology of the small, predominately Māori-speaking community of Ruātoki, from the viewpoint of farmer George Melbourne (Te Waaka’s grandfather) alongside the prophet Rua Kēnana - who together, with their understanding of Te Wairua Kōmingomingo developed the City of God in Maungapōhatu in the early 1900s. From this basis, it moves to the modern day to query whether there is an evolutionary or revolutionary quality in the 1992 Constitution of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia. It finds that while “there is no doubt the 1992 Constitution is revolutionary as it provides three separate tikanga - Maori, Pakeha and Polynesian – to carry out its mission statement through their own distinctive cultural practices, it is also evolutionary in that it continues to evolve to meet the changes of Te Wairua Komingomingo”.

He says the thinking on the marae has always evolved, mingling with Christian thinking and now trying to make itself meaningful to those who have grown up in the Christian tradition. “In the beginning Christianity incorporated the Maori culture in a balanced way. But the influx of European settlers squashed that and the Church became quite monocultural. I am hoping that it will swing back.”

Dr Melbourne says there will be those who accept and embrace Maori spirituality and there will be some who will reject and ignore Te Wairua Komingomingo. “Whatever choice people will make, I am made up of two worlds and that I cannot change but my heart is not divided. I am both, but the land I am on belongs to Te Wairua Komingomingo.”

International Examiner, Dr Tina Ngaroimata Fraser, of Tuhoe descent and now Assistant Professor/School of Education/School of Nursing & First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia, said she found the thesis captivating.

“This dissertation is inspirational, illuminating and evocative.

“It is the first doctoral thesis that I have ever been immersed in that captured me spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically to the point where I was drawn not only to the mist, but into the thesis for over sixteen hours straight. I had a difficult time coming out of a world that touched my every sense of knowing and being Tūhoe/Māori.

“Although I do not know the candidate having lived in Canada for over thirty-six years, I felt compelled to re-engage into the tribal trails of trials, tribulations and transformation.”

Professor Black was Mr Melbourne’s supervisor for his Masters Study and now doctorate thesis. “I think the key to our enduring supervisory partnership was the openness to building the transition discussion base, the structure, methodological framework and direction with the ability and scope by Te Waaka to apply the Māori spirituality essence.

“Supervision of doctorate students is special because their work is culmination of narratives that introduces and creates new world views from their qualitative data supported by integrated published and unpublished sources, and their ability to articulate those endorsing themes. At the end of the day the ‘story’ belongs to the doctorate candidate. Te Waaka took charge of his doctorate and in the content of his thesis he identified the stars that can point the way to keep him motivated.”

Te Waaka Melbourne, Tūhoe, hails from Te Urewera-Ruātoki. As a young man, Te Waaka was identified by the kaumātua of Tūhoe to enter the ministry of the Anglican Church, rising through the church to achieve the role of Archdeacon of Waiwhakaari (Mataatua) and has the distinction of holding the title Kai Whakamana (Enabler) for the Mataatua, Te Arawa and Waikato Tribes which is the training of all Maori Anglican Priests in Te Hui Amorangi (Diocese) of Te Manawa-o-te-wheke area.

Professor Black says Dr Melbourne comes from a very talented whānau and his extended whānau are well known in teaching, Māori academia, nursing, the Māori film industry and supporting protocols and etiquette on marae in Tūhoe.  His son Taiarahia is a teacher who graduated from Massey with his Masters degree in Education, while his children are in the Armed Forces, teaching, supporting Māori politicians  - all in some form supporting Māori development on education fronts.
His younger brother Hirini Melbourne a prolific, brilliant traditional and contemporary song composer was also at the fore font of the renaissance to restate and reinvigorate the art of tradition Māori instruments, receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Waikato University in 2003.

The University has won another Māori Language Award for its initiatives to celebrate Māori Language Week.

The annual awards are organised by the Māori Language Commission with the support of Te Puni Kōkiri and the Human Rights Commission. They were presented on Friday night in Rotorua.

Last year Massey won the Māori Language Week award and shared the supreme award. This year it won the tertiary education sector category.

The entry included extending celebrations for the month of July and the introduction of a Massey waiata and an internal competition to perform the waiata, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa.

Senior Māori Adviser Jacob Tapiata says it was an honour to be able to come away with a win again, and share the stage with Kaiti School and other winners, in particular veteran language advocate Huirangi Waikerepuru who received the Taku Toa Takimano award that recognises an individual’s contribution to the language.

“This is the fourth year that we have entered the awards,” Mr Tapiata says. "Each year we have built on the one before and enlisted wider university support. Winning is a testimony to the effort of many staff and students.”

Since 2004 the awards have celebrated efforts to promote te reo Māori during Māori Language Week. This has grown to recognise and celebrate Māori language excellence throughout the year.

The theme of Māori Language Week this year was Manaakitanga and was aligned to Rugby World Cup celebrations.

Kaiti School of Gisborne won both the Māori Language Week and supreme awards this year.


Other category winners include:
Private Sector – Tokoroa New World; Community – Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Te Rangi Charitable Trust, Tauranga and Te Reo o Taranaki Charitable Trust; Local Government – Wellington City Council; Government – Department of Corrections; Broadcasting: Mainstream – Television New Zealand; Broadcasting: Māori Media – Tūmanako Productions of Auckland; Print – The Gisborne Herald; Education: Mainstream – Tokoroa High School; Education: Māori Medium – Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai of Rotorua; Tertiary Education: Massey University; Māori Language Week – Kaiti School, Gisborne; Māori Language Week, Inaugural – Insoll Avenue School, Hamilton.

It is a milestone year for Ngā Kupu Ora 2011, the third Māori Book Awards. For the first time the awards will celebrate a winner for fiction, and a book written completely in te reo has taken out the Te Reo Māori category.

Tina Makereti has won the first-ever Fiction award for Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa, a book of short stories that puts traditional Māori myths and legends into a contemporary context. Makereti is thrilled to be recognised for her first book.

“I’m really excited because, in New Zealand, there are very limited ways for fiction to get recognised,” she says. “And you can’t underestimate the value an award can bring in the world of publishing.”

Awards judge and Massey University senior lecturer Spencer Lilley says it was particularly satisfying to have a Fiction category because, in previous years, there had been a shortage of Māori fiction published for sophisticated readers.

“Previously prolific authors like Patricia Grace have not published adult fiction in recent years,” says Lilley. “So it was especially pleasing to not only have a Fiction category for the first time, but to also find there were young, first-time writers producing work of a high quality.”

The calibre of this year’s te reo Māori finalists also impressed the judges. 2011 is the first year that the winning book has been written completely in te reo, reflecting the growing diversity of books published in the Māori language. The Te Reo Māori category also produced the competition’s first e-book finalist.

Chris Winitana won the Te Reo Māori award for Tōku reo, Tōku Ohooho (My Language, My Inspiration), a book about the revitalisation of the Māori language that has also been published in English.

“Many Ngā Kupu Ora award winners are established Māori literary academics,” says Winitana. “I don’t have any sort of degree so I’m tickled pink to be in such esteemed company. It’s a great honour and I hope it opens up the possibility in the minds of other writers who have a passion for their particular subject.”

Three further books were also recognised by the judging panel. The head of Massey University’s School of Māori Studies, Robert Jahnke, won the Arts category with Tirohanga o Mua: Looking Back; the Biography award was won by Joseph Pere for Wiremu Pere; and Te Taiao: Māori and the Natural World, published by Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, won the Non-Fiction award.

The judges congratulated the 2011 winners on the quality of their work, and for their contribution to Māori knowledge. “In addition to excellent content and production, each of the winning books advanced our knowledge and understanding in new and different ways,” they said in their judge’s statement.

This year’s ceremony will also include a special award for Mana Magazine, which published its 100th issue in May 2011. The award is to acknowledge Mana’s role in encouraging Māori literature, and to celebrate a milestone in Māori publishing.

Mana editor Derek Fox says he was very surprised, but proud, that Massey had decided to honour his magazine. He also sees parallels between the objectives of the Ngā Kupu Ora Awards and his own publication.

“I've long felt that Māori need to celebrate our efforts and successes,” he explains, “and, to a large degree, Mana does that by telling Māori success stories that may not appear elsewhere.”

The Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards were established in 2009 by Massey University to mark Māori Language Week and to celebrate and encourage excellence in Māori publishing. At that time, it was felt that Māori books were being overlooked by mainstream competitions.

Internationally-recognised author Patricia Grace, who won the Biography category for her first work of non-fiction at last year’s Ngā Kupu Ora Awards, says: “This wonderful initiative by Massey University in creating book awards for Māori writers gives an opportunity for recognition not always available in general awards.”

The awards are named after the library collection of Māori resources established by Massey University in 2005. Ngā Kupu Ora translates as ‘the living words’.

The awards for this year’s winners will be presented on November 29, 2011 at a ceremony at Te Pūtahi-a-toi, Massey University’s School of Māori Studies in Palmerston North.

?

A provocative public artwork by a Massey University Māori visual arts lecturer is sparking public discussion as the country is in the grips of Rugby World Cup fever.

Haka Peep Show is the work of internationally-recognised Ngāi Tahu artist and lecturer Rachael Rakena, and is presented in partnership by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and the Dunedin City Council.

On display in Dunedin’s Octagon, the artwork takes the form of a towering black pou (pillar) reminiscent of the Rexona black deodorant spray can – a product endorsed by the All Blacks. Visitors can insert coins into the pou to view digital video clips of haka performed by three leading exponents Selwyn Parata, Tame Iti and Wetini Mitai-Ngatai and two young Ngāi Tahu leaders Waiariki Parata-Taiapa and Taikawa Tamati-Elliffe.

Ms Rakena says the artwork considers the sexualisation and commodification of Māori and indigenous sportsmen through the use and exploitation of their masculinity and their culture, in the media.

“Haka in mainstream New Zealand, and internationally, has thrived in large part due to the haka branding of the All Blacks and the huge uptake of sponsorship and advertising in the media that exploits and promotes Māori culture.

“Haka Peep Show addresses these issues of use and exploitation of Māori intellectual and cultural property and attempts to re-contextualise the ‘rugby haka’ within a broader cultural context by showcasing other haka exponents. The coins that activate the work will go back to the kaitiaki or guardians of each haka.”

Ngāi Tahu and Dunedin City Council received support from Otago Polytechnic’s Schools of Art and Design, which have collaborated to design and build the pou. Christchurch-based Dimension Data has supplied the 3D televisions and DVD players.

Ms Rakena has also produced a second public artwork for the Rugby World Cup, called Ka Uhia Mai, which opened on September 8 in Invercargill as part of the Taste of Southland Festival.

Ka Uhia Mai is a video work that celebrates the success of New Zealand women’s rugby team through a large-scale projection on to one side of the CUE building.

“The Black Ferns have won four consecutive Women’s Rugby World Cup titles – something unparalleled in rugby history,” Ms Rakena says. “I want to acknowledge that and for the viewer to see them as strong, elite athletes and role-models; and ask themselves why they do not feature in television endorsements, sponsorship and advertising despite their remarkable international success.

“I want to offer the public a range of haka performed by Māori leaders who use haka in their everyday lives. In the context of the world cup, Haka Peep Show and Ka Uhia Mai use art to tell lesser known stories, connecting Māori, rugby and haka.”

For more information visit: http://hakapeepshow.co.nz

A poster exhibition of designs by 16 Maori students from the College of Creative Arts, featuring work ranging from designs of a fly-fishing boat to Japanese-inspired Manga art, opens to the public on Wednesday.

Iwi Creativity, is the annual celebration of Maori students in the fields of design, visual and material culture and fine arts, and this time will be complemented by a public lecture by architectural designer and artist Jacob Scott.

This year’s exhibition marks the fifth anniversary of its first showing which was devised by Kaiwhakaahua, Director of Maori Development at the College, Associate Professor Ross Hemera, with the purpose of recognising and encouraging the  connection students have with their iwi.

“The idea is to show our support for our students by recognising their iwi connections and celebrating what they are studying in creative arts.”

The exhibition has attracted students studying across a range of disciplines from communication design, textile design, industrial design as well as fine arts.

A poster by final year industrial design student Gordon Robinson, who identifies with Nga Puhi and Ngati Whakaue iwi, depicts images of a model of a watercraft for fly-fishing. It addresses the performance problems of size, assembly and portability of current craft available in the market, he says.

“Conceptually it plays upon the notions of escapism, the challenge of fly-fishing and the spirituality found in the fishing environment,” he says.

Mr Robinson, who is of one-eighth Maori descent, says his interest in this side of his heritage was motivated more from finding out more about himself than any particular aspect of his design work.

Part Maori and part Tahitian Visual communication design student Taupuru Brightwell, from Ngati Porou, whose artworks include a vibrant poster promoting Wellington Zoo, is deeply inspired by Japanese Manga art, design and narrative.

Associate Professor Hemera points out that all the exhibiting students share not only a passion for their work but also their iwi affiliation – regardless of how strong or tenuous that may be.

“We recognise that people are at different stages of understanding their whakapapa. The important thing is that people are making the connection with their iwi.”

“This iwi creativity initiative reaffirms our goal to enhance Maori achievement in the College.”

Jacob Scott’s lecture ‘Looking Forward Looking Back’ is on at the Museum Building theatrette, Buckle St, Wellington at 6pm on Wednesday September 21. The exhibition opens at 7pm upstairs in the Tea Gardens. It is then runs daily from 10am-5pm daily from September 22-29.

A Massey University Māori rugby historian says the flash mob haka that are proving an internet sensation this week are a great example of traditional Māori culture meeting modern technology.

Over 325,000 YouTube viewers have watched videos of the haka, in which participants seemingly come from nowhere to perform in public spaces such as Sylvia Park and Auckland’s viaduct.

Malcolm Mulholland says it is a great idea. “They are organised by Māori, exhibit Māori culture, are being done in a modern way and get crowds to stop what they’re doing and appreciate an aspect of Māori culture,” he says.

The haka will again take centre stage at Friday night’s first Rugby World Cup match between New Zealand and Tonga. Mr Mulholland says it will be a fitting start to the tournament, as it was at the first tournament in 1987, also in New Zealand, where the haka first became a home tradition for the All Blacks.

“A haka was first performed by a New Zealand rugby team in 1884 when a team including Joe Warbrick from Ngati Rangitihi toured New South Wales,” he says. “They began the matches there with ‘Ake ake kia kaha’, or ‘Forever be strong and bold’. This also done on the Native team’s tour of the United Kingdom four years later.”

The 1905 Originals team was reputed to be the first to perform ka mate. “That team included Billy Stead of Ngai Tahu and Billy Cunningham from Auckland and it was them who introduced that haka to the rugby field.”

From then on the haka was performed when the All Blacks toured but not at home. “But it wasn’t done correctly,” Mr Mulholland says. “They often mispronounced the words or got the actions wrong. It wasn’t until 1985, when the All Blacks toured Argentina that Buck Shelford had a meeting with fellow Māori player Hika Reid to talk about doing the haka correctly.”

They taught the team on that tour and it has been performed ever since. “Of course two years later was the first Rugby World Cup, and that was where New Zealand public was really first introduced to ka mate as a regular All Blacks ritual before every test match.”

Mr Mulholland is one of New Zealand’s leading Māori rugby historians and will be speaking tomorrow at the opening of Ka Mate – The Exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa: Museum of New Zealand in Wellington. He says ka mate, a haka that was composed by the Māori chief from Ngati Toa, Te Rauparaha, emerged as the national haka as early as 1901. “It was performed during a royal visit by the Duke and Duchess of York in Rotorua and since then it spread like wildfire and was performed at almost every national event.”

Mr Mulholland is the author of the definitive history of Maori rugby Beneath the Maori Moon, which is being presented to the coach and captain of every Rugby World Cup team on behalf of the Minister of Māori Affairs Pita Sharples.