title: Dama Wallabies: Their history of colonization and control at Okataina/Tarawera

authors: Williams, Dale

abstract: Dama wallabies (Macropus eugenii) were liberated near the southern end of Lake Okareka in 1912. By the 1970s their numbers had built to high levels in the forests surrounding Okareka, Okataina and Tarawera and the damage they were causing to the forest understorey was marked.
In 1984 the New Zealand Forest Service established a pair of ‘exclosure plots’ at Okataina designed to isolate the impacts of wallabies from those caused by deer. A decade later when the vegetation plots were remeasured, species diversity had increased by 142% where both deer and wallabies were excluded. Diversity had increased by 57% where wallabies were excluded and continued to decline by 7% where browsing was unrestricted.
Between 1988 and 1999 three aerial poisoning operations and some ground based pest control, targeting wallabies and possums, were carried out around Okataina and the Makatiti Dome.
Though these operations were highly successful at reducing wallaby numbers (93-95% reductions based on cleared-plot faecal pellet counts) remeasurement of permanent 20x20 metre vegetation plots showed no response in the forest understorey. To some
extent this is not surprising as the control operations were effectively ‘one-offs’ in separate areas and only limited follow-up control took place.

text: Dama Wallabies: Their history of colonization and control at Okataina/Tarawera Dama wallabies (Macropus eugenii) were liberated near the southern end of Lake Okareka in 1912. By the 1970s their numbers had built to high levels in the forests surrounding Okareka, Okataina and Tarawera and the damage they were causing to the forest understorey was marked.
In 1984 the New Zealand Forest Service established a pair of ‘exclosure plots’ at Okataina designed to isolate the impacts of wallabies from those caused by deer. A decade later when the vegetation plots were remeasured, species diversity had increased by 142% where both deer and wallabies were excluded. Diversity had increased by 57% where wallabies were excluded and continued to decline by 7% where browsing was unrestricted.
Between 1988 and 1999 three aerial poisoning operations and some ground based pest control, targeting wallabies and possums, were carried out around Okataina and the Makatiti Dome.
Though these operations were highly successful at reducing wallaby numbers (93-95% reductions based on cleared-plot faecal pellet counts) remeasurement of permanent 20x20 metre vegetation plots showed no response in the forest understorey. To some
extent this is not surprising as the control operations were effectively ‘one-offs’ in separate areas and only limited follow-up control took place.

year: 2015

title: Dancing national Identity: The evolution of meta-narratives in Colombian and Filipino Folk Dance

authors: Diaz Rodriguez, José M.

subjects: Bambuco

abstract: The Philippines and Colombia share a history of colonial conquest from the same country, Spain. This shared history has influenced the ways in which folk dance has developed. Both countries have a wide folk repertoire, some of which reflects the different ways in which Spanish source material has been processed, adapted, and fused with local material to represent ways in which the past is remembered. Despite the apparent disparity, two dances in particular, the Cariñosa in the Philippines, and the Bambuco in Colombia, share similar features in terms of their choreographic material and narratives. This article explores several meta-narratives in both sets of dances, and the politics of memory behind them, through an interdisciplinary approach, intertwining cultural representation and choreographic politics. Included in this comparative exploration are the choices towards reflecting local identities through folk dance and some of the implications of these representations in both physical and political terms.

text: Dancing national Identity: The evolution of meta-narratives in Colombian and Filipino Folk Dance The Philippines and Colombia share a history of colonial conquest from the same country, Spain. This shared history has influenced the ways in which folk dance has developed. Both countries have a wide folk repertoire, some of which reflects the different ways in which Spanish source material has been processed, adapted, and fused with local material to represent ways in which the past is remembered. Despite the apparent disparity, two dances in particular, the Cariñosa in the Philippines, and the Bambuco in Colombia, share similar features in terms of their choreographic material and narratives. This article explores several meta-narratives in both sets of dances, and the politics of memory behind them, through an interdisciplinary approach, intertwining cultural representation and choreographic politics. Included in this comparative exploration are the choices towards reflecting local identities through folk dance and some of the implications of these representations in both physical and political terms.

year: 2023-04-04

title: Conscientisation and Resistance: Experiences from implementing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations

authors: Lawrence, Dawn Cherie

subjects: culturally responsive pedagogy of relations

abstract: Consciousness of being part of a particular hegemonic force (that is to say,political consciousness) is the first stage towards a further progressive self –conscious in which theory and practice will finally be one. (Hoare & Smith,1971, p. 333)

Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai and Richardson, (2003) state that effective teachers of Māori students “positively and vehemently reject deficit theorizing as a means of explaining Māori students’ educational achievement” (p.95). This fundamental tenet of the Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile (ETP) moves beyond simply refraining from publicly articulating discourses that pathologise Māori students and their whānau (Bishop et al., 2003; Bishop & Berryman, 2006; Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh, & Teddy. 2007). For many teachers it is a challenging, ongoing transformative process of critical self-reflection, which touches the very core of their own culture and identity.

This thesis contends that by working to discursively position themselves within a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations, teachers develop classroom practices that have been shown to positively affect outcomes for Māori students. It goes on to suggest that such discursive repositioning might be seen as praxis, with the potential to transform the inequities experienced by Māori within mainstream educational settings. With this understanding, the culture and leadership approach of the school context becomes a greater influence on teachers’ capacity to realize their agency within this pedagogy than any characteristic of the individual.

text: Conscientisation and Resistance: Experiences from implementing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations Consciousness of being part of a particular hegemonic force (that is to say,political consciousness) is the first stage towards a further progressive self –conscious in which theory and practice will finally be one. (Hoare & Smith,1971, p. 333)

Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai and Richardson, (2003) state that effective teachers of Māori students “positively and vehemently reject deficit theorizing as a means of explaining Māori students’ educational achievement” (p.95). This fundamental tenet of the Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile (ETP) moves beyond simply refraining from publicly articulating discourses that pathologise Māori students and their whānau (Bishop et al., 2003; Bishop & Berryman, 2006; Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh, & Teddy. 2007). For many teachers it is a challenging, ongoing transformative process of critical self-reflection, which touches the very core of their own culture and identity.

This thesis contends that by working to discursively position themselves within a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations, teachers develop classroom practices that have been shown to positively affect outcomes for Māori students. It goes on to suggest that such discursive repositioning might be seen as praxis, with the potential to transform the inequities experienced by Māori within mainstream educational settings. With this understanding, the culture and leadership approach of the school context becomes a greater influence on teachers’ capacity to realize their agency within this pedagogy than any characteristic of the individual.

year: 2014