title: Toi tu te whenua, toi tu te tangata: A holistic Māori approach to flood management in Pawarenga

authors: Proctor, Elizabeth-Mary

subjects: flood management

abstract: This thesis is a study of how tikanga Māori principles could be used in practice in the management of natural hazards and in particular flooding in a rural area, Pawarenga. The aim was to investigate and document Te Uri O Tai Hapū preferred strategies for reducing flood risk in Pawarenga and to consider opportunities to use tikanga Māori principles and values in emergency response. The identification of key concepts and principles of tikanga Māori customs and their connections to whānau and hapū of Te Uri O Tai is key to this study. I used kaupapa Māori research methodologies as a guiding framework since researching in my own community required me to manage accountability both to its members and to the university. In particular it was important to obtain permission from the community before beginning, to ensure my research processes were acceptable, and to return my findings to the community. Qualitative data was gathered from a series of hui and interviews with local community members. Data was analysed inductively and organised into thematic networks. Two major organising themes were identified: resilience and vulnerability. Participants described a broad range of strengths inherent in the community that enabled them to respond to crises such as flood events. A number of cultural, social, physical, economic and political vulnerabilities were also identified; most of these were fundamental aspects of people‘s daily lives and did not prevent them from responding positively when floods occurred, but may have limited the scope of their responses. Tikanga was not a subject that participants felt comfortable talking about, but from the descriptions of how people actually responded during floods I was able to see examples of how tikanga was used. The resilience of the Pawarenga community is taken for granted by residents. When disasters such as floods occur, their resiliencies and strengths are brought into play to ensure the safety of all in the community. Tikanga Māori is an inherent part of this resiliency, and marae structures and protocols already in place provide a vital framework for flood response. I conclude that tikanga already has enormous value in flood response, and for Māori communities is an obvious choice as a foundation for a flood emergency management strategy. Furthermore, the value of tikanga as a flood emergency management strategy should be more explicitly recognised and supported by all authorities involved in disaster response and management. It was also clear that multiple dimensions of vulnerability (physical, cultural, social, economic and political) affect the Pawarenga community, and to some extent limit their capacity to respond. In particular political processes that exclude them from participating in decision-making and planning around environmental management generally have left people feeling marginalised, since they are unable to fulfil their kaitiaki role. With civil defence emergency management policies explicitly focused around resilience, participation of Te Uri O Tai Hapū in planning for emergency management should allow for their existing resilience, which stems from the upholding of tikanga, to be recognised and strengthened. However, this will only happen if relationships with the various authorities involved in emergency and natural hazard response are fostered, full participation in decision-making and in responding to natural hazard events is facilitated, and resources are available to support the community with their endeavours.

text: Toi tu te whenua, toi tu te tangata: A holistic Māori approach to flood management in Pawarenga This thesis is a study of how tikanga Māori principles could be used in practice in the management of natural hazards and in particular flooding in a rural area, Pawarenga. The aim was to investigate and document Te Uri O Tai Hapū preferred strategies for reducing flood risk in Pawarenga and to consider opportunities to use tikanga Māori principles and values in emergency response. The identification of key concepts and principles of tikanga Māori customs and their connections to whānau and hapū of Te Uri O Tai is key to this study. I used kaupapa Māori research methodologies as a guiding framework since researching in my own community required me to manage accountability both to its members and to the university. In particular it was important to obtain permission from the community before beginning, to ensure my research processes were acceptable, and to return my findings to the community. Qualitative data was gathered from a series of hui and interviews with local community members. Data was analysed inductively and organised into thematic networks. Two major organising themes were identified: resilience and vulnerability. Participants described a broad range of strengths inherent in the community that enabled them to respond to crises such as flood events. A number of cultural, social, physical, economic and political vulnerabilities were also identified; most of these were fundamental aspects of people‘s daily lives and did not prevent them from responding positively when floods occurred, but may have limited the scope of their responses. Tikanga was not a subject that participants felt comfortable talking about, but from the descriptions of how people actually responded during floods I was able to see examples of how tikanga was used. The resilience of the Pawarenga community is taken for granted by residents. When disasters such as floods occur, their resiliencies and strengths are brought into play to ensure the safety of all in the community. Tikanga Māori is an inherent part of this resiliency, and marae structures and protocols already in place provide a vital framework for flood response. I conclude that tikanga already has enormous value in flood response, and for Māori communities is an obvious choice as a foundation for a flood emergency management strategy. Furthermore, the value of tikanga as a flood emergency management strategy should be more explicitly recognised and supported by all authorities involved in disaster response and management. It was also clear that multiple dimensions of vulnerability (physical, cultural, social, economic and political) affect the Pawarenga community, and to some extent limit their capacity to respond. In particular political processes that exclude them from participating in decision-making and planning around environmental management generally have left people feeling marginalised, since they are unable to fulfil their kaitiaki role. With civil defence emergency management policies explicitly focused around resilience, participation of Te Uri O Tai Hapū in planning for emergency management should allow for their existing resilience, which stems from the upholding of tikanga, to be recognised and strengthened. However, this will only happen if relationships with the various authorities involved in emergency and natural hazard response are fostered, full participation in decision-making and in responding to natural hazard events is facilitated, and resources are available to support the community with their endeavours.

year: 2010

title: Processes of Pakeha change in response to the Treaty of Waitangi

authors: Huygens, Ingrid Louise Maria

subjects: Pakeha change

abstract: The sense of crisis that marks our times may be seen as a crisis for dominant groups whose once-secure hegemony is being challenged by marginalised others. It is in theorising the reply from the dominant group to the voices of the oppressed that existing Western conceptions of social change fall silent. The dominant Pakeha group in Aotearoa New Zealand has used discourses of benign colonisation and harmonious race relations to resist 165 years of communication from indigenous Māori about their oppression and a dishonoured treaty for settlement. My research documents the appearance of the Treaty of Waitangi into the Pakeha consciousness, and the now 30 year-long response by a Pakeha antiracism movement to educate their own cultural group about its agreements. Targeting government, community and social services organisations, activist educators used Freire's (1975) approach of conscientising dialogue to present a more critical view of colonisation, and to encourage participants to consider the complicity of their organisations in ongoing structural and cultural racism.

Based on my membership of local and national networks of activist educators, I was able to organise and facilitate data gathering from three sources to investigate processes of Pakeha change in: (i) unpublished material describing the antiracism and Treaty movement's historical theorising and strategies over 30 years, (ii) a country-wide process of co-theorising among contemporary Treaty educator groups about their work and perceived influence, and (iii) a collection of organisational accounts of Treaty-focused change. The collected records confirmed that a coherent anti-colonial discourse, which I have termed 'Pakeha honouring the Treaty', was in use to construct institutional and constitutional changes in non-government organisations. My interpretation of key elements in a local theory of transforming action included emotional responses to counter-cultural information, collective work for cultural and institutional change and practising a mutually agreed relationship with Māori. I concluded that these emotional, collective and relationship processes in dominant group change were crucial in helping to construct the new conceptual resources of 'affirming Māori authority' and 'striving towards a right relationship with Māori'. These counter-colonial constructions allowed Pakeha a non-resistant and facilitative response to Māori challenge, and enabled a dialogue with Māori about decolonisation. 

By examining in one research programme the genealogy and interdependencies of a new discourse, my research contributes to theorising about the production of new, counter-hegemonic discourses, and confirms the crucial part played by social movements in developing new, liberatory constructions of the social order.

My research calls for further theory-building on (i) emotional and spiritual aspects of transformational learning, (ii) processes involved in consciously-undertaken cultural change by dominant/coloniser groups, and (iii) practising of mutually agreed relationships with indigenous peoples by dominant/coloniser groups. 

My research has implications for theorising how coloniser and dominant groups generally may participate in liberatory social change and decolonisation work, and  the part played by the Western states in the global struggles by indigenous people for recognition of their world-views and aspirations.  

It remains to be seen whether counter-colonial discourses and organisational changes aimed at 'honouring the Treaty' with indigenous peoples will be sufficiently widely adopted to help transform Western dominating cultures and colonial projects. In the meantime, acknowledging and documenting these counter-colonial discourses and their constructions opens up increasing possibilities for constructing, from a history of colonisation, a different future.

text: Processes of Pakeha change in response to the Treaty of Waitangi The sense of crisis that marks our times may be seen as a crisis for dominant groups whose once-secure hegemony is being challenged by marginalised others. It is in theorising the reply from the dominant group to the voices of the oppressed that existing Western conceptions of social change fall silent. The dominant Pakeha group in Aotearoa New Zealand has used discourses of benign colonisation and harmonious race relations to resist 165 years of communication from indigenous Māori about their oppression and a dishonoured treaty for settlement. My research documents the appearance of the Treaty of Waitangi into the Pakeha consciousness, and the now 30 year-long response by a Pakeha antiracism movement to educate their own cultural group about its agreements. Targeting government, community and social services organisations, activist educators used Freire's (1975) approach of conscientising dialogue to present a more critical view of colonisation, and to encourage participants to consider the complicity of their organisations in ongoing structural and cultural racism.

Based on my membership of local and national networks of activist educators, I was able to organise and facilitate data gathering from three sources to investigate processes of Pakeha change in: (i) unpublished material describing the antiracism and Treaty movement's historical theorising and strategies over 30 years, (ii) a country-wide process of co-theorising among contemporary Treaty educator groups about their work and perceived influence, and (iii) a collection of organisational accounts of Treaty-focused change. The collected records confirmed that a coherent anti-colonial discourse, which I have termed 'Pakeha honouring the Treaty', was in use to construct institutional and constitutional changes in non-government organisations. My interpretation of key elements in a local theory of transforming action included emotional responses to counter-cultural information, collective work for cultural and institutional change and practising a mutually agreed relationship with Māori. I concluded that these emotional, collective and relationship processes in dominant group change were crucial in helping to construct the new conceptual resources of 'affirming Māori authority' and 'striving towards a right relationship with Māori'. These counter-colonial constructions allowed Pakeha a non-resistant and facilitative response to Māori challenge, and enabled a dialogue with Māori about decolonisation. 

By examining in one research programme the genealogy and interdependencies of a new discourse, my research contributes to theorising about the production of new, counter-hegemonic discourses, and confirms the crucial part played by social movements in developing new, liberatory constructions of the social order.

My research calls for further theory-building on (i) emotional and spiritual aspects of transformational learning, (ii) processes involved in consciously-undertaken cultural change by dominant/coloniser groups, and (iii) practising of mutually agreed relationships with indigenous peoples by dominant/coloniser groups. 

My research has implications for theorising how coloniser and dominant groups generally may participate in liberatory social change and decolonisation work, and  the part played by the Western states in the global struggles by indigenous people for recognition of their world-views and aspirations.  

It remains to be seen whether counter-colonial discourses and organisational changes aimed at 'honouring the Treaty' with indigenous peoples will be sufficiently widely adopted to help transform Western dominating cultures and colonial projects. In the meantime, acknowledging and documenting these counter-colonial discourses and their constructions opens up increasing possibilities for constructing, from a history of colonisation, a different future.

year: 2007

title: The Professionalization of Nursing: New Zealand as a Case Study

authors: Liu, Yue

subjects: Professionalization

abstract: Nursing has often been regarded by sociologists, the medical profession and even nurses themselves, as an occupational grouping which is semi - rather than fully - professionalised. This study is concerned with recognising the ‘professional project’ that has been undertaken by New Zealand nurses and assesses their progress towards professionalization by addressing two key research questions. Firstly, what are the historical and contemporary mechanisms by which nursing has attempted to secure professional status in New Zealand? Secondly, how do nursing organisations and nurses themselves seek to maintain and enhance their professional status? This study presents a review of historical and sociological literature with regard to nursing to portray its evolution from the colonial settlement of New Zealand until the present. Within the New Zealand context the professional project undertaken by nurses appears to have a proud history, and New Zealand nurses were the first in the world to achieve legislated registration. Despite this early recognition, progress towards achieving full professional status by this female dominated occupation has historically faced challenges from its male dominated counterpart in the form of the medical profession. The strength of nursing organisations and the establishment of formal nursing education have been two of the historical means by which professionalization for New Zealand nurses has been advanced. In order to examine contemporary perceptions about the processes through which nursing has been professionalized and how professional status is maintained, a series of eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of key informants from the state sector, nursing organisations and nursing educators. A qualitative analysis of the data collected showed that both nursing organisations and tertiary level qualifications had contributed to the achievement of professional status. The professional project had also been accelerated through working partnerships between nursing organisations and external stakeholders, as well as the establishment of standards that defined scopes of practice and codes of ethics. A diminishing public health budget and the increased presence of unregulated health workers were considered to be key threats to maintaining the professional status of nursing. This research concludes that despite the impression given by the international sociological literature that nursing is a semi-profession, nurses in New Zealand fulfil the claim to full professional status through their association with an exclusive body of knowledge, their ability to self-regulate and operate with a high degree of professional autonomy, as well as external recognition as a profession. However, professional status is dynamic, rather than fixed, and nurses will continue to strategically maintain and renegotiate their status in the face of future challenges.

text: The Professionalization of Nursing: New Zealand as a Case Study Nursing has often been regarded by sociologists, the medical profession and even nurses themselves, as an occupational grouping which is semi - rather than fully - professionalised. This study is concerned with recognising the ‘professional project’ that has been undertaken by New Zealand nurses and assesses their progress towards professionalization by addressing two key research questions. Firstly, what are the historical and contemporary mechanisms by which nursing has attempted to secure professional status in New Zealand? Secondly, how do nursing organisations and nurses themselves seek to maintain and enhance their professional status? This study presents a review of historical and sociological literature with regard to nursing to portray its evolution from the colonial settlement of New Zealand until the present. Within the New Zealand context the professional project undertaken by nurses appears to have a proud history, and New Zealand nurses were the first in the world to achieve legislated registration. Despite this early recognition, progress towards achieving full professional status by this female dominated occupation has historically faced challenges from its male dominated counterpart in the form of the medical profession. The strength of nursing organisations and the establishment of formal nursing education have been two of the historical means by which professionalization for New Zealand nurses has been advanced. In order to examine contemporary perceptions about the processes through which nursing has been professionalized and how professional status is maintained, a series of eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of key informants from the state sector, nursing organisations and nursing educators. A qualitative analysis of the data collected showed that both nursing organisations and tertiary level qualifications had contributed to the achievement of professional status. The professional project had also been accelerated through working partnerships between nursing organisations and external stakeholders, as well as the establishment of standards that defined scopes of practice and codes of ethics. A diminishing public health budget and the increased presence of unregulated health workers were considered to be key threats to maintaining the professional status of nursing. This research concludes that despite the impression given by the international sociological literature that nursing is a semi-profession, nurses in New Zealand fulfil the claim to full professional status through their association with an exclusive body of knowledge, their ability to self-regulate and operate with a high degree of professional autonomy, as well as external recognition as a profession. However, professional status is dynamic, rather than fixed, and nurses will continue to strategically maintain and renegotiate their status in the face of future challenges.

year: 2011