title: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools

authors: Milne, Beverley Ann

subjects: Maori education

abstract: If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

text: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

year: 2013

title: The presence of the past: Maori history in contemporary reflection

authors: Mahuika, Nepia

abstract: This is the opening line of a famous saying in my tribe. For our people - Ngāti Porou - these words have become embedded in our tribal identity as important directives that we are encouraged to aspire to. In the “days destined to you”, Ngata reminds us that each generation has its own mana (or authority), our own responsibilities and challenges, our own dreams and destinies to fulfil, and our own histories to tell about Ngāti Porou: who we are, our past, present, and future. If we consider this expectant, and I think hopeful, affirmation as a gift and responsibility, then taking real ownership of the “days destined to us” requires us to know what our forebears have entrusted us with. What are those historical gifts that we might use to “centre” and assert ourselves as Māori, as Ngāti Porou? We might look at this directly, i mua: the past before us because it is our history that is so crucial to us as we walk consciously, and with determination, into the future. Our past before us helps us to know where we are going, it helps us correc our course when we stray, keeps us mindful of the “kaupapa”: whatever that might be in our generation and corner of the Maori universe. We’ve heard already today from both Enoka and Arini how Māori, in our own ways, are engaging with our past, drawing on our korero tuku iho (our oral histories passed down across the generations), on our whakairo (our carving), to illuminate the many ways Māori do, and think about, the past.

text: The presence of the past: Maori history in contemporary reflection This is the opening line of a famous saying in my tribe. For our people - Ngāti Porou - these words have become embedded in our tribal identity as important directives that we are encouraged to aspire to. In the “days destined to you”, Ngata reminds us that each generation has its own mana (or authority), our own responsibilities and challenges, our own dreams and destinies to fulfil, and our own histories to tell about Ngāti Porou: who we are, our past, present, and future. If we consider this expectant, and I think hopeful, affirmation as a gift and responsibility, then taking real ownership of the “days destined to us” requires us to know what our forebears have entrusted us with. What are those historical gifts that we might use to “centre” and assert ourselves as Māori, as Ngāti Porou? We might look at this directly, i mua: the past before us because it is our history that is so crucial to us as we walk consciously, and with determination, into the future. Our past before us helps us to know where we are going, it helps us correc our course when we stray, keeps us mindful of the “kaupapa”: whatever that might be in our generation and corner of the Maori universe. We’ve heard already today from both Enoka and Arini how Māori, in our own ways, are engaging with our past, drawing on our korero tuku iho (our oral histories passed down across the generations), on our whakairo (our carving), to illuminate the many ways Māori do, and think about, the past.

year: 2016

title: Syntheses and molecular structures of some compounds containing many-atom chains end-capped by tricobalt carbonyl clusters

authors: Bruce, Michael I.

subjects: cobalt cluster

abstract: Several complexes containing Co₃ carbonyl clusters end-capping carbon chains of various lengths are described. Pd(0)/Cu(I)-catalysed reactions between {Co₃{μ₃-C(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)₂Au(PPh₃)}(μ-dppm)(CO)₇ and I(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)₂SiMe₃ or FcCtriple bond; length of mdashCI gave {Co₃{μ₃-C(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)xR}(μ-dppm)(CO)₇ [x = 4, R = SiMe₃3; x = 3, R = Fc 8]; treatment of 3 with NaOMe and AuCl(PPh₃) gave 4 [x = 4, R = Au(PPh3)]. Related preparations of Co₃{μ₃-C(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)₂[Ru(PP)Cp′]}(μ-dppm)n(CO)9−2n [PP = (PPh₃)₂, Cp’ = Cp, n = 1, 5; PP = dppe, Cp′ = Cp∗, n = 1, 6; 0, 7] are also described. Syntheses of bis-cluster complexes {Co₃(μ-dppm)(CO)₇}₂(μ-Cx) (x = 14, 12; 16, 9; 18, 11; 26, 10) – the latter being the longest cluster-capped Cx chains so far described – and the mercury-bridged compounds Hg{(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)xC[Co₃(μ-dppm)(CO)₇]}₂ (x = 1, 13; 2, 14) are reported. The molecular structures of 7, 12, 13 and 14, as well as of Co₃(μ₃-CCtriple bond; length of mdashCSiMe₃)(μ-dppm)(CO)₆(PPh₃) (15) and Co₃{μ₃-CC(O)OEt}(μ-dppm)(CO)₇ (16), are reported.

text: Syntheses and molecular structures of some compounds containing many-atom chains end-capped by tricobalt carbonyl clusters Several complexes containing Co₃ carbonyl clusters end-capping carbon chains of various lengths are described. Pd(0)/Cu(I)-catalysed reactions between {Co₃{μ₃-C(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)₂Au(PPh₃)}(μ-dppm)(CO)₇ and I(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)₂SiMe₃ or FcCtriple bond; length of mdashCI gave {Co₃{μ₃-C(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)xR}(μ-dppm)(CO)₇ [x = 4, R = SiMe₃3; x = 3, R = Fc 8]; treatment of 3 with NaOMe and AuCl(PPh₃) gave 4 [x = 4, R = Au(PPh3)]. Related preparations of Co₃{μ₃-C(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)₂[Ru(PP)Cp′]}(μ-dppm)n(CO)9−2n [PP = (PPh₃)₂, Cp’ = Cp, n = 1, 5; PP = dppe, Cp′ = Cp∗, n = 1, 6; 0, 7] are also described. Syntheses of bis-cluster complexes {Co₃(μ-dppm)(CO)₇}₂(μ-Cx) (x = 14, 12; 16, 9; 18, 11; 26, 10) – the latter being the longest cluster-capped Cx chains so far described – and the mercury-bridged compounds Hg{(Ctriple bond; length of mdashC)xC[Co₃(μ-dppm)(CO)₇]}₂ (x = 1, 13; 2, 14) are reported. The molecular structures of 7, 12, 13 and 14, as well as of Co₃(μ₃-CCtriple bond; length of mdashCSiMe₃)(μ-dppm)(CO)₆(PPh₃) (15) and Co₃{μ₃-CC(O)OEt}(μ-dppm)(CO)₇ (16), are reported.

year: 2008