title: Māori men, relationships, and everyday practices: towards broadening domestic violence research

authors: King, Pita

subjects: Māori

abstract: Relationships are central to the health and wellbeing of Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand). Through processes of colonisation, cultural ways of relatedness embedded within Māori social structures experienced disruption and were reshaped over decades of assimilation. Māori knowledge and everyday practices that assisted in protecting Māori from societal problems, such as domestic violence, began to dwindle. In contemporary New Zealand, Māori are over-represented in domestic violence statistics. Utilising an auto-ethnographic approach and case studies, our research focuses on five Māori men’s experiences within intimate relationships and whānau (extended family) life. A significant feature of this research is that it provides insights into the ways Māori men draw on their cultural ways-of-being to enhance intimate relationships and maintain bonds within whānau and community life to forge new ways-of-being. Such insights have the potential to inform preventative measures against domestic violence within Māori communities.

text: Māori men, relationships, and everyday practices: towards broadening domestic violence research Relationships are central to the health and wellbeing of Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand). Through processes of colonisation, cultural ways of relatedness embedded within Māori social structures experienced disruption and were reshaped over decades of assimilation. Māori knowledge and everyday practices that assisted in protecting Māori from societal problems, such as domestic violence, began to dwindle. In contemporary New Zealand, Māori are over-represented in domestic violence statistics. Utilising an auto-ethnographic approach and case studies, our research focuses on five Māori men’s experiences within intimate relationships and whānau (extended family) life. A significant feature of this research is that it provides insights into the ways Māori men draw on their cultural ways-of-being to enhance intimate relationships and maintain bonds within whānau and community life to forge new ways-of-being. Such insights have the potential to inform preventative measures against domestic violence within Māori communities.

year: 2017

title: Overcoming ‘Being’ in Favour of Knowledge: The fixing effect of ‘mātauranga’

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

subjects: knowledge

abstract: It is common to hear Māori discuss primordial states of Being, yet in colonisation those very central beliefs are forced into weaker utterances. In this process those utterances merely conform to a colonised agenda. ‘Mātauranga’, a tidy term that overwhelmingly refers to an epistemological knowing of the world, colludes nicely with its English equivalent, ‘knowledge’, to further colonise those core contemplations of Being. Its plausibility relies on an orderly regard of things in the world. In education, historical and current practices of schooling pave the way for things in the world so that they amount to mātauranga for Māori, and even the term ‘ako’ will conspire in its own way. Both Novalis and Heidegger have the ability to identify subtly colonising philosophies, and may even propose some theoretical solutions for Māori.

text: Overcoming ‘Being’ in Favour of Knowledge: The fixing effect of ‘mātauranga’ It is common to hear Māori discuss primordial states of Being, yet in colonisation those very central beliefs are forced into weaker utterances. In this process those utterances merely conform to a colonised agenda. ‘Mātauranga’, a tidy term that overwhelmingly refers to an epistemological knowing of the world, colludes nicely with its English equivalent, ‘knowledge’, to further colonise those core contemplations of Being. Its plausibility relies on an orderly regard of things in the world. In education, historical and current practices of schooling pave the way for things in the world so that they amount to mātauranga for Māori, and even the term ‘ako’ will conspire in its own way. Both Novalis and Heidegger have the ability to identify subtly colonising philosophies, and may even propose some theoretical solutions for Māori.

year: 2012

title: A Grammar Sketch of Kwaraqae

authors: Macdonald, Daryl Eveline

subjects: Grammar

abstract: A Grammar Sketch of Kwaraqae is a synchronic linguistic analysis of the Kwaraqae language, one of sixty-three languages which are part of the North Malaita dialect chain in the Solomon Islands. The data was collected at the University of Waikato from urban dwelling Kwaraqae speakers. Although some work has already been done with this language (Deck, 1934, Walter, 1931), the frameworks of analysis and interpretation from these projects are now out-dated, and consequently not as useful for Linguistic Typologists working with Oceanic languages, or those linguists investigating specific language features such as metathesis (Sohn, 1980; Pawley, 1982; Blevins & Garrett, 1998; Baird, 2002; Heinz, 2004). This thesis has addressed both of these issues by firstly recording fresh data, and secondly, by the application of contemporary linguistic descriptive and typological theory and practices to the data. The description sketches the phonological system which has bilabial and palatal glides, labio-velar stops, a basic syllable shape of (C)V(V)(C), and complex syllable transformations such as metathesis and segment deletion which are often combined. Kwaraqae tends towards an isolating agglutinative typology. When constituents are marked, this occurs on the phrasal head. The basic order of the language is SVO. The nominal system displays the alienable /inalienable semantic distinction frequently found in Oceanic languages, a small closed sub-class being locative in function. The verbal system includes inherently transitive and intransitive verbs, where valence is increased by affixation, and decreased by reduplication, although not all verbs fit this pattern. There are intransitive verbs for which a transitive counterpart could not be elicited, and transitive verbs where the valence changing affixes appear to have become fossilised on the verb. Transitive verbs are often, though not always, indexed for their direct objects. Aspect is prominent in Kwaraqae, and is expressed in the verb phrase by an imperfective, a completive and/or a terminal marker. There is a marker of temporal immediacy, and a large group of free form verbal modifiers, all of which occur in the verb phrase. Fronting of subjects and direct objects is a frequent structure in clauses.

text: A Grammar Sketch of Kwaraqae A Grammar Sketch of Kwaraqae is a synchronic linguistic analysis of the Kwaraqae language, one of sixty-three languages which are part of the North Malaita dialect chain in the Solomon Islands. The data was collected at the University of Waikato from urban dwelling Kwaraqae speakers. Although some work has already been done with this language (Deck, 1934, Walter, 1931), the frameworks of analysis and interpretation from these projects are now out-dated, and consequently not as useful for Linguistic Typologists working with Oceanic languages, or those linguists investigating specific language features such as metathesis (Sohn, 1980; Pawley, 1982; Blevins & Garrett, 1998; Baird, 2002; Heinz, 2004). This thesis has addressed both of these issues by firstly recording fresh data, and secondly, by the application of contemporary linguistic descriptive and typological theory and practices to the data. The description sketches the phonological system which has bilabial and palatal glides, labio-velar stops, a basic syllable shape of (C)V(V)(C), and complex syllable transformations such as metathesis and segment deletion which are often combined. Kwaraqae tends towards an isolating agglutinative typology. When constituents are marked, this occurs on the phrasal head. The basic order of the language is SVO. The nominal system displays the alienable /inalienable semantic distinction frequently found in Oceanic languages, a small closed sub-class being locative in function. The verbal system includes inherently transitive and intransitive verbs, where valence is increased by affixation, and decreased by reduplication, although not all verbs fit this pattern. There are intransitive verbs for which a transitive counterpart could not be elicited, and transitive verbs where the valence changing affixes appear to have become fossilised on the verb. Transitive verbs are often, though not always, indexed for their direct objects. Aspect is prominent in Kwaraqae, and is expressed in the verb phrase by an imperfective, a completive and/or a terminal marker. There is a marker of temporal immediacy, and a large group of free form verbal modifiers, all of which occur in the verb phrase. Fronting of subjects and direct objects is a frequent structure in clauses.

year: 2010