Maori Cultural Research Articles

Desecration of the Body and the Maori Cultural Invasion: A Perspective in Patricia Grace

The subversion of patriarchal literary forms is an important aspect of postcolonial women’s writing. From Patricia Grace’s example, the young Maori writers somewhat present a socially subversive identity for themselves, telling stories of women who challenge social norms and female stereotypes. Their narratives reflect a strong interest in social issues – issues such as the way power is asserted and distributed in society, issues of legitimate authority, and strategies for effective management. The stories presented by Maori women in their stories are often constructed as social or cultural problems rather than as individual, personal problems. Grace also incorporates this important function of the expression, construction and exploration of a distinct identity of Maori/indigenous women in society. By challenging Western feminism’s basis in liberal humanist thinking and its assumptions of a shared marginality of the gendered individual, Grace puts an emphasis on a common experience of oppression. The mutilation of a female body in her fiction projects an unholy and complicitous dynamics of the male, imperialism, power system, sex, education, and erasure of the Indigenous identity.

Implementing the Aboriginal Waterways Assessment tool: collaborations to engage and empower First Nations in waterway management

ABSTRACTAboriginal representative organisations collaborated with the Murray Darling Basin Authority to develop the Aboriginal Waterways Assessment (AWA) tool. We consider the AWA as part of an evolving toolkit of methodologies designed to elevate First Nations’ objectives in water planning, in the context of national water reform and implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. We describe the adaptation of the AWA from an approach developed in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Maori Cultural Health Index for Streams and Waterways. We review the delivery and outcomes of seven AWA projects undertaken in Victoria between 2017 and 2018, demonstrating that the AWA is an effective and culturally safe mechanism for First Nations to document water-related values and influence waterway management. The article identifies improvements in water management resulting from the use of data generated through AWA projects, as well as project outcomes at the individual and broader political scale, including the social benefits of First Nations’ data collection and the importance of data sovereignty. We highlight the value of waterway assessments undertaken by First Nations as a tool to address their widespread exclusion from water planning and management.

The Neoliberal State and the Uses of Indigenous Culture

The strong public support for displays of Maori culture since the mid-1980s in New Zealand under biculturalism appears paradoxical. Cultural values of respect for tradition, community, hierarchy, and attachment to place are promoted abroad and incorporated into public institutions at home at the same time as neoliberal economic policies emphasize individualism, self-reliance, rational behavior, and mobility. This article argues that Maori cultural practices supply the values of communal belonging and solidarity that were previously associated by the public with the New Zealand state. Thus, they support a postmodern conception of national identity and guarantee the legitimacy of the neoliberal state.

Maoritanga in Whale Rider and Once Were Warriors: a problematic rebirth through female leaders

Whale Rider and Once Were Warriors portray families who struggle to reconcile their Maori identity with life in twentieth-century Aotearoa/New Zealand. The two movies mirror one another in so far as the former features a Maori chief struggling to prevent the loss of Maori culture within his rural tribal group while the latter follows a nuclear family struggling to reconcile its urban identity with its rural Maori roots. Both movies pit an image of the city as an urban ghetto associated with ‘social deprivation and lack of traditional culture’ against that of the country as a site of ‘Maori cultural identity and salvation’ (Spooner 2001: 95). The task of reconciling both falls to women who must undergo symbolical and/or actual death before being reborn as leaders. Though both movies conclude on a hopeful note, the path to reconciliation they suggest points ‘to a contradiction which continues unresolved in practical reality’ (Webster 1998: 39) and fails to address issues inherent in the concept of Maoritanga.

Design and Usability of Digital Libraries: Case Studies in the Asia Pacific

Yin-Leng Theng and Schubert Foo, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore . Section I. Digital Library Development History and Landscape Chapter 1. Survey and History of Digital Library Development in the Asia Pacific Hsinchun Chen and Yilu Zhou, University of Arizona, United States . Section II. Design Architecture and Systems Chapter 2. Design Architecture: An Introduction and Overview Edward Fox, Virginia Tech, United States Hussein Suleman, University of Cape Town, South Africa Ramesh Gaur, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India Devika Madalli, Indian Statistical Institute, India Chapter 3. Development of Indonesia's National Digital Library Network Ismail Fahmi, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia Chapter 4. Dynamic Metadata Management System for Digital Archives : Design and Construction Shien-Chiang Yu, Shih-Hsin University, Taiwan Hsueh-Hua Chen, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Chao-Chen Chen, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan Chapter 5. Information Filtering and Personalisation Service Chunxiao Xing, Chun Zeng, Zhiqiang Zhang and Lizhu Zhou, Tsinghua University, China . Section III. Implementation Issues and Challenges Chapter 6. Implementation of Next Generation Digital Libraries Ee-Peng Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore San-Yih Hwang, National Sun Yat Sen University, Taiwan Chapter 7. Using Multi-Document Summarisation to Facilitate Semi-Structured Literature Retrieval : A Case Study in Consumer Healthcare Min-Yen Kan, National University of Singapore, Singapore Chapter 8. KEA : Practical Automatic Keyphrase Extraction Ian Witten, Gordon Paynter and Eibe Frank, University of Waikato, New Zealand Carl Gutwin, University of Saskatchewan, Canada Craig Nevill-Manning, Google Inc., United States Chapter 9. Cross-lingual Information Retrieval: The Challenge in Multilingual Digital Libraries Christopher Yang and Kar Wing Li, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chapter 10. Evolving Tool Support for Digital Librarians David Nichols, David Bainbridge, Sally Jo Cunningham, John Thompson, Stefan Boddie, Ian Witten, University of Waikato, New Zealand Gary Marsden, Dynal Patel,University of Cape Town, Africa . Section IV. Use and Impact Chapter 11. Digital Libraries and Society: New Perspectives on Information Dissemination Ian Witten, University of Waikato, New Zealand Chapter 12. Sharing Digital Knowledge with End-Users : A Case Study of the International Rice Research Institute Library and Documentation Service in Philippines Mila Ramos, International Rice Research Institute, Philippines Chapter 13. Multimedia Digital Library as Intellectual Property Hideyasu Sasaki and Yasushi Kiyoki, Keio University, Japan Chapter 14. Digital Libraries as Learning Environments For Youths Natalie Lee-San Pang, Monash University, Malaysia . Section V. Users and Usability Chapter 15. Usability of Digital Libraries in a Multicultural Environment Christine Borgman, University of California, United States Edie Rasmussen, University of British Columbia, Canada Chapter 16. Cross-Cultural Design and Usability of a Digital Library Supporting Access to Maori Cultural Heritage Resources Chern Li Liew, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Chapter 17. From GeogDL to PAPER : The Evolution of an Educational Digital Library Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Yin-Leng Theng and Ee-Peng Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Chapter 18. Designing a Music Digital Library: Discovering What People Really Want David Bainbridge, Sally Jo Cunningham, John McPherson, University of Waikato, New Zealand Stephen Downie, University of Illinois, United States Nina Reeves, University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom Chapter 19. Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluations of the Singapore National Library's Digital Library Yin-Leng Theng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Mei-Yee Chan and Ai-Ling Khoo, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore Raju Buddharaju, National Library Board, Singapore . Section VI . Future Trends of Digital Libraries Chapter 20. A Snapshot of Digital Library Development : The Way Forward in the Asia Pacific Schubert Foo and Yin-Leng Theng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Appendix : Sources of Further Information About Authors Index.

Maori Sport and Cultural Identity in Australia

Sport is an important aspect of cultural identity for New Zealand Maori migrants living in Australia. Maori sporting endeavours, especially at festivals such as the Taki Toa Tournament in New South Wales, often reveal distinctive Maori features of cultural performance, in the rituals prior to a game, in the spirited manner with which a game is played, and in the whânau (large/extended family) spirit of belonging and celebration that is encouraged after a game.However, notwithstanding the occasional Maori tournament or festival, Maori sporting participation in Australia is not restricted to an ‘ethnic ghetto’. Widespread Maori involvement in sport has provided an important avenue for Maori migrants to mix socially with Aboriginal and other Australians in their local communities, and to gain acceptance, respect and, in some cases, economic advancement.Many first‐generation Maori migrants display a keen sense of a New Zealand rather than an Australian identity when it comes to trans‐Tasman international sport. Transnational links are also important for Australian Maori who visit New Zealand with sporting teams and stay on various marae (tribal meeting places). The experience of ‘Maori culture’ and hospitality offered by their New Zealand kinsfolk may have a significant influence upon the sporting visitors' subsequent development of Maori cultural identity.

Communicating Culture: An Exploratory Study of the Key Concepts in Maori Culture on Maori Web Sites

Introduction The explosive growth of the Internet creates an opportunity for different ethnic to communicate their cultural values to a worldwide audience. Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, use the Internet in different ways: to promote their cultural values, to teach young Maori language, spiritual and ethical values and social rules of conduct and to present relevant facts and databases to support their claim for land and natural resources. Internet tools are also used to promote Maori enterprises in the global economy (Maori e-commerce sites) and for communication between members of tribes and others interested in Maori issues. However, the Internet poses some threats to the cultural values of Maori people, as discussed by Smith (1997). Modern technology allows to anyone to easily reproduce and disseminate digital images and documents on the Internet and that raises concern with Maori that their heritage for example, the digital images of their ancestors or face tattoos (Moko), will be exploited and sold. could be viewed as culturally offensive since Maori place great importance on the concept of cultural property (the rights of cultural and ethnic to control of the knowledge and information created over generations by the group). The question we are interested in is how well Maori web sites actually reflect Maori culture in this new environment, i.e. in the virtual world of the Internet? Is there a correspondence between the oral (very important in Maori tradition), written and virtual worlds? If a correspondence exists then we can say that the Maori community has been re-constructed in the virtual world. Another set of questions is related to Maori web sites design. Although some authors, such as Benton (1996) takes marae--one of the key Maori cultural concepts--as a metaphor and relates it to a certain Internet tool--discussion forum, so far there have been few attempts to recognise Maori cultural concepts and relate them to the elements or tools in the virtual world (see Kovacic, 2001). (Benton (1996, p. 136) says that the message section is the marae of Te Wahapu (communications system launched in 1990 in New Zealand).) However, it is not just a matter of using Maori themes or how the site displays Maori art forms, but more importantly how the whole concept of the site design (that is particularly important for an educational site) is embodied in 'te ira tangata' (the life principle of people), which is the essence of Maori knowledge. (Tangaere (1997) made an attempt toward establishing Maori human development learning theory. According to him, to be able to socialise in a particular manner within a Maori context a person has to use the appropriate language and the entire interaction should be based on the customs, value and tradition. This is known in Te Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Maori as 'Te Aho Matua', the philosopical body of knowledge which bonds us to our ancestors, the land, the universe, and Io Matua Kore (God).) Also, how have the Internet technologies been used to build a Maori web site which follows the tradition of tribe rituals and communications, or which incorporates the specific approach Maori have taken in transferring knowledge to the younger generation? (Cormack (1996, p. 163) uses the axiom of Maori social dynamics groups compete, individuals co-operate to build appropriate and effective learning environment for Maori students.) In this paper we made an attempt to provide some answers to these questions. Analysis at this stage is exploratory in nature and we consider it as the first step toward deep linguistic and semantic analysis of Maori web sites when a contextual analysis of each site would be applied. The Multidimensional Scaling method has been used to analyse a data set and create a perceptual map. The relevance of our results are threefold. Firstly, using this map we provide a picture of how the web sites are associated with key cultural concepts. …

Maori Cultural Performances and Tourism

Cultural transformation of the visited societies is a frequently mentioned effect of tourism, especially from the so-called developed into the developing countries. The present study examined the extent to which Maori cultural performances have been changed over time by drawing on existing literature and interviews with a number of different. Maori groups. The results indicates that indeed the cultural performances have evolved over time although many of these changes came with the early exposures to tourists and different culture. The marae-based (village) performances tend to be more traditional in nature as compared to those performed in tourist venues par excellence, the hotels

Maori Cultural Identity and Its Implications for Mental Health Services

(1997). Maori Cultural Identity and Its Implications for Mental Health Services. International Journal of Mental Health: Vol. 26, Mental Health Problems and Care of People in the South Pacific Area, pp. 23-25.

Restructuring Minority Schooling

This article looks at organisational and curricular responses to cultural diversity which are presently operating alongside one another in New Zealand schooling. It begins with a critique of the minimal curricular response now recommended for government schools: the incorporation of programs in taha Maori (things Maori) within the mainstream curriculum of schools. It then looks at two recent responses which are structural and curricular: the modification of existing schools to take account of Maori student presence within them; and the development of Nga Kura Kaupapa Maori (Maori culture and language immersion primary schools) which are founded upon organisational and pedagogical features which are consistent with Maori cultural values. Conclusions are drawn relevant to the education of ‘involuntary minority’ cultures in Australia whose structural values and mores are very different from the dominant culture. A comparison of the values of Koori and Maori lends support to the view that Australian education could borrow with profit from the New Zealand example.

Three curriculum and organisational responses to cultural pluralism in New Zealand schooling

Abstract This article looks at three educational responses to cultural diversity that are now operating alongside one another in New Zealand schooling. The first response is the minimum now recommended for government schools: the incorporation of programmes in taha Maori ('things Maori') within the mainstream curriculum of schools; the second response is the organisational and curricular modification of existing schools to take account of Maori student presence within them; and the third response is the development of Nga Kura Kaupapa Maori ('Maori culture and language immersion primary schools') which incorporate organisational and pedagogical features that are in sympathy with Maori cultural values. Conclusions are drawn for the education of minority cultures in other countries where those cultures are very different in their values and mores from the dominant culture.

Mana, tapu, noa: Maori cultural constructs with medical and psycho-social relevance.

This paper discusses three concepts, mana, tapu and noa, that lie at the heart of Maori culture. These concepts are inter-related and concern power and influence, with political (or secular) authority implicit in mana and ritual (or religious) authority determined by tapu and noa. The paper explores their importance for the understanding of the ethnic views on aetiology and management of illness, the mechanisms of social organization and control, and the behaviour of individuals. Although the belief in these concepts exists in only an attenuated form in modern Maori society, their importance becomes obvious to any psychiatrist or physician working with Maori patients.

Bilingual/bicultural education for Maori cultural preservation in New Zealand

Abstract As the Maori heritage is being recognised as a central part of New Zealand history as well as a cultural treasure whose value can only serve to strengthen the country's mainstream culture, a policy of cultural preservation, if not also cultural integration, has been formulated. In the course of a survey showing the historic relationship in New Zealand of the Maori and European settlers to the land and to each other, the assimilation, despite discrimination, and concurrent decline of Maori language use are delineated. Today, although Maoris constitute only one‐eighth of New Zealand's population, Maori nationalism is on the rise. Basic values in Maori culture, such as respect for the land and love as demonstrated in sharing with and caring for others, are presented. The article goes on to describe bilingual/bicultural programmes being introduced, namely the ‘language nests’ for pre‐school children and their parents and the immersion programme in the first years of primary school. Social studies gui...