title: Who owns native nature? Discourses of rights to land, culture, and knowledge in New Zealand

authors: Goldsmith, Michael

subjects: indigenous cultures

abstract: Michael Brown famously asked ‘Who owns native culture?’ This paper revisits that question by analyzing what happens to culture when the culturally defined boundary between it and nature becomes salient in the context of disputes between indigenous and settler populations. My case study is the dispute between the New Zealand government and Maori tribal groupings concerning ownership of the foreshore and seabed. Having been granted the right to test their claims in court in 2003, Maori groups were enraged when the government legislated the right out of existence in 2004. Though the reasons for doing so were clearly political, contrasting cultural assumptions appeared to set Maori and Pakeha (New Zealanders of European origin) at odds. While couching ownership of part of nature as an IPR issue may seem counter-intuitive, I argue that as soon as a property claim destabilizes the nature/culture boundary, IPR discourse becomes pertinent.

text: Who owns native nature? Discourses of rights to land, culture, and knowledge in New Zealand Michael Brown famously asked ‘Who owns native culture?’ This paper revisits that question by analyzing what happens to culture when the culturally defined boundary between it and nature becomes salient in the context of disputes between indigenous and settler populations. My case study is the dispute between the New Zealand government and Maori tribal groupings concerning ownership of the foreshore and seabed. Having been granted the right to test their claims in court in 2003, Maori groups were enraged when the government legislated the right out of existence in 2004. Though the reasons for doing so were clearly political, contrasting cultural assumptions appeared to set Maori and Pakeha (New Zealanders of European origin) at odds. While couching ownership of part of nature as an IPR issue may seem counter-intuitive, I argue that as soon as a property claim destabilizes the nature/culture boundary, IPR discourse becomes pertinent.

year: 2009

title: Riperata kahutia: a woman of mana

authors: Nikora, Shelley Aroha

subjects: Riperata Kahutia

abstract: Riperata Kahutia is widely remembered as a leader in the history of Tūranganuiā-
Kiwa, who fought to retain and repossess land during the difficult times of the
1860's. During this period of rapid social change and political upheavals resulting
in injustices, the exercise of rangatiratanga took many forms. Responses to
change covered a wide spectrum and there was no 'right' way of doing things,
simply leaders making decisions on the basis of what they and their people
thought at the time were best. Riperata utilised the law as a means of retaining
the land and the mana of her people. While her status as a rangatira was never in
doubt, innuendo surfaced suggesting she may have received more land entitlement
than she was qualified for.
The activities by Riperata may have been different from other leaders but the
purpose was the same: to preserve the people and the land. Her strategies for
doing so, based on her inherited mana and upbringing, her knowledge of local iwi
traditions, her acquisition of new skills introduced by Pākehā and her innovative
approaches to exercising her rangatiratanga, make her a worthwhile study.
This thesis will support the viewpoint that Riperata Kahutia acted on behalf of her
people and for the good of her people. It will be argued Riperata was a visionary
who embraced the changes imposed upon a society enduring the consequences of
colonisation. A major objective is to dispel suggestions she embellished her
rights.

text: Riperata kahutia: a woman of mana Riperata Kahutia is widely remembered as a leader in the history of Tūranganuiā-
Kiwa, who fought to retain and repossess land during the difficult times of the
1860's. During this period of rapid social change and political upheavals resulting
in injustices, the exercise of rangatiratanga took many forms. Responses to
change covered a wide spectrum and there was no 'right' way of doing things,
simply leaders making decisions on the basis of what they and their people
thought at the time were best. Riperata utilised the law as a means of retaining
the land and the mana of her people. While her status as a rangatira was never in
doubt, innuendo surfaced suggesting she may have received more land entitlement
than she was qualified for.
The activities by Riperata may have been different from other leaders but the
purpose was the same: to preserve the people and the land. Her strategies for
doing so, based on her inherited mana and upbringing, her knowledge of local iwi
traditions, her acquisition of new skills introduced by Pākehā and her innovative
approaches to exercising her rangatiratanga, make her a worthwhile study.
This thesis will support the viewpoint that Riperata Kahutia acted on behalf of her
people and for the good of her people. It will be argued Riperata was a visionary
who embraced the changes imposed upon a society enduring the consequences of
colonisation. A major objective is to dispel suggestions she embellished her
rights.

year: 2009

title: Do we expect too much? Reflection on chemistry content in higher education

authors: Coll, Richard K.

subjects: chemistry

abstract: Education research in the 1970s, like other related areas, was dominated by quantitative work¹ during an era for which social sciences sought to draw upon the successful scientific approach typically used in the physical sciences (in particular) to investigate teaching and learning.¹’² So if we felt a cohort of students did not understand some con¬cept, we tried to find out whether or not a different teach¬ing approach could fix their misconceptions.³ But how to do this? Well, drawing on a scientific approach, we would divide the class or classes up, teach one cohort the same way we always had, and the other cohort in our new way, and evaluate any differences in conceptual understanding using, e.g. a standardized topic test. Differences would be examined for statistical significance of evidence that our new approach to teaching had worked. And this is the way much research was done at the time. Control of variables, randomized sampling, and so on, were all embedded in such an approach to educational research.

text: Do we expect too much? Reflection on chemistry content in higher education Education research in the 1970s, like other related areas, was dominated by quantitative work¹ during an era for which social sciences sought to draw upon the successful scientific approach typically used in the physical sciences (in particular) to investigate teaching and learning.¹’² So if we felt a cohort of students did not understand some con¬cept, we tried to find out whether or not a different teach¬ing approach could fix their misconceptions.³ But how to do this? Well, drawing on a scientific approach, we would divide the class or classes up, teach one cohort the same way we always had, and the other cohort in our new way, and evaluate any differences in conceptual understanding using, e.g. a standardized topic test. Differences would be examined for statistical significance of evidence that our new approach to teaching had worked. And this is the way much research was done at the time. Control of variables, randomized sampling, and so on, were all embedded in such an approach to educational research.

year: 2008