title: ‘Hospitality’, boundary crossing and thresholds applied in education: Embodying manaakitanga and whanaungatanga

authors: Wright, Noeline

abstract: In everyday understanding, ‘hospitality’ refers to paid work contexts; commodities and transactional tasks. Hospitality can, however, have much broader significance. It can be understood in cultural and social terms within and beyond transactional contexts. In Māori cultural knowledge and practices for example, hospitality has reciprocal, relational nuances. Perhaps both views imply that ‘hospitality’ is an act of ‘crossing boundaries […] or thresholds’ as Still (2013: 4) suggested. Relational, reciprocal, boundary-crossing practices may also infer ritual understandings of respect, kindness, generosity and harmony. Crossing thresholds is a central concept in Māori knowledge and practices and is central to this article exploring concepts and practices of hospitality in a new primary school focused on building its practices on relational and reciprocal values. In Aotearoa New Zealand educational contexts, hospitality is a cultural, social reciprocal and relational practice. Thus, through examining ‘hospitality’, ‘borders’ and ‘thresholds’ across the boundaries of education and commerce, we hope to illuminate both connections and differences. We do so through reviewing both literature about ‘hospitality’, ‘borders’ and ‘thresholds’ and interview data from a new school intentionally valuing whanaungatanga.

text: ‘Hospitality’, boundary crossing and thresholds applied in education: Embodying manaakitanga and whanaungatanga In everyday understanding, ‘hospitality’ refers to paid work contexts; commodities and transactional tasks. Hospitality can, however, have much broader significance. It can be understood in cultural and social terms within and beyond transactional contexts. In Māori cultural knowledge and practices for example, hospitality has reciprocal, relational nuances. Perhaps both views imply that ‘hospitality’ is an act of ‘crossing boundaries […] or thresholds’ as Still (2013: 4) suggested. Relational, reciprocal, boundary-crossing practices may also infer ritual understandings of respect, kindness, generosity and harmony. Crossing thresholds is a central concept in Māori knowledge and practices and is central to this article exploring concepts and practices of hospitality in a new primary school focused on building its practices on relational and reciprocal values. In Aotearoa New Zealand educational contexts, hospitality is a cultural, social reciprocal and relational practice. Thus, through examining ‘hospitality’, ‘borders’ and ‘thresholds’ across the boundaries of education and commerce, we hope to illuminate both connections and differences. We do so through reviewing both literature about ‘hospitality’, ‘borders’ and ‘thresholds’ and interview data from a new school intentionally valuing whanaungatanga.

year: 2021-03-01

title: Kua Hiri Mai Te Rā - A journey of self identification for the descendants of Ngāti Rāhiri ki Taranaki

authors: Marsh, Melissa Sue-ann

subjects: Ngāti Rāhiri

abstract: Prior to the arrival of Pakehā to the shores of Aotearoa, Māori retained and transmitted their histories, genealogies and protocols orally through such mediums as song and chant. The intracacies of the information held was such that every aspect of the Māori culture had its assigned expert whose job was to both retain and pass on their area of expertise. The settlement of Pakehā saw a change in how information was stored and disseminated, with a number of ethnographers, surveyors and historians recording accounts given to them from various Māori sources in written form. The main motivation for this at the time was to secure the information and cultural practises of a people who were deemed to be a dying race.

The implication that Māori were close to extinction was in vain, as many resisted against the gradual assimilation of Aotearoa (New Zealand) by the new foreign immigrants. The subsequent annexation of Aotearoa under British colonial rule eventually led to war against Māori, as Māori attempted to protect and retain both their lands and their identity. The result of the war led to a great loss of Māori lands, lives, and most importantly – identity.

Within Taranaki the Ngāti Rāhiri Hapū fought many generations for the right to stand unified as a people. Although they can be regarded as a small coastal hapū entity, they are at the forefront of maintaining and asserting their rangatiratanga status within today’s society. At the centre of the proclamation of rights and entitlement within their ancestral lands, questions have been raised that, for a number of generations, had baffled the likes of Elsdon Best and S. Percy Smith, as many sought to find answers regarding the true origins of Ngāti Rāhiri.

The impetus in undertaking this research is to ascertain who this prominent ancestor Rāhiri is from both a Ngā Puhi and Taranaki perspective, and investigate how these combined histories assist in the assertion of self by the Ngāti Rāhiri ki Taranaki people. By undertaking a critical review and analysis of literature, court minute records, hapū documents, proverbs, histories and knowledge from tribal elders pertaining to Rāhiri, this researcher will endeavour to provide and present relevant information and evidence, in a cohesive format, to show the close ancestral ties and affiliations between the two peoples. Furthermore, it is hoped that the research findings presented within this body of work may provide a significant contribution to the descendants of the Ngāti Rāhiri ki Taranaki Hapū, as they continue to assert their mana and rangatiratanga through the knowledge and understanding of self, when posed with the question - Ko wai a Ngāti Rāhiri?

text: Kua Hiri Mai Te Rā - A journey of self identification for the descendants of Ngāti Rāhiri ki Taranaki Prior to the arrival of Pakehā to the shores of Aotearoa, Māori retained and transmitted their histories, genealogies and protocols orally through such mediums as song and chant. The intracacies of the information held was such that every aspect of the Māori culture had its assigned expert whose job was to both retain and pass on their area of expertise. The settlement of Pakehā saw a change in how information was stored and disseminated, with a number of ethnographers, surveyors and historians recording accounts given to them from various Māori sources in written form. The main motivation for this at the time was to secure the information and cultural practises of a people who were deemed to be a dying race.

The implication that Māori were close to extinction was in vain, as many resisted against the gradual assimilation of Aotearoa (New Zealand) by the new foreign immigrants. The subsequent annexation of Aotearoa under British colonial rule eventually led to war against Māori, as Māori attempted to protect and retain both their lands and their identity. The result of the war led to a great loss of Māori lands, lives, and most importantly – identity.

Within Taranaki the Ngāti Rāhiri Hapū fought many generations for the right to stand unified as a people. Although they can be regarded as a small coastal hapū entity, they are at the forefront of maintaining and asserting their rangatiratanga status within today’s society. At the centre of the proclamation of rights and entitlement within their ancestral lands, questions have been raised that, for a number of generations, had baffled the likes of Elsdon Best and S. Percy Smith, as many sought to find answers regarding the true origins of Ngāti Rāhiri.

The impetus in undertaking this research is to ascertain who this prominent ancestor Rāhiri is from both a Ngā Puhi and Taranaki perspective, and investigate how these combined histories assist in the assertion of self by the Ngāti Rāhiri ki Taranaki people. By undertaking a critical review and analysis of literature, court minute records, hapū documents, proverbs, histories and knowledge from tribal elders pertaining to Rāhiri, this researcher will endeavour to provide and present relevant information and evidence, in a cohesive format, to show the close ancestral ties and affiliations between the two peoples. Furthermore, it is hoped that the research findings presented within this body of work may provide a significant contribution to the descendants of the Ngāti Rāhiri ki Taranaki Hapū, as they continue to assert their mana and rangatiratanga through the knowledge and understanding of self, when posed with the question - Ko wai a Ngāti Rāhiri?

year: 2011

title: Submarine channelforms and fans in the Miocene Moki and Mount Messenger formations, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand

authors: Kamaruzaman, Erman

abstract: Taranaki Basin (New Zealand) contains a Late Cretaceous – Cenozoic sedimentary succession up to 9 kilometres thick. Neogene strata are volumetrically a significant part of the basin fill. During the late-Middle Miocene a new sediment source, arising from the onset of uplift and erosion of the Southern Alps mountain belt, supplied the basin with copious sediment, continuing to the Recent. This resulted in the development of a northwestward prograding shelf-slope wedge within the basin. The Moki and Mount Messenger formations accumulated as sandstone strata within mudstone (Manganui Formation) and display obvious sediment conduits (i.e. canyons, channels and gullies) in seismic reflection profiles. Past studies considered that these conduits pass through submarine fans, while in reality fans occur basinward of the mouths of the sediment conduits. This thesis study leverages seismic reflection data and applies seismic stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology, integrated with analysis of wireline logs, core, and outcrops, to better understand the occurrence of sediment conduits and fans within the Moki and Mount Messenger formations. Results show that in southern Taranaki Basin, increased sediment influx resulted in steepening of the continental slope, changing the morphometrics of sediment conduits. Critical analysis of data generated here forced the dismissal of all published fans associated with these sandstone formations. Rather, two new Late Miocene submarine fans have been mapped in deep-water western Taranaki Basin towards the head of the New Caledonia Basin. New paleogeographic maps for the Middle and Late Miocene have been drawn that display the sediment conduits and new fans.

text: Submarine channelforms and fans in the Miocene Moki and Mount Messenger formations, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand Taranaki Basin (New Zealand) contains a Late Cretaceous – Cenozoic sedimentary succession up to 9 kilometres thick. Neogene strata are volumetrically a significant part of the basin fill. During the late-Middle Miocene a new sediment source, arising from the onset of uplift and erosion of the Southern Alps mountain belt, supplied the basin with copious sediment, continuing to the Recent. This resulted in the development of a northwestward prograding shelf-slope wedge within the basin. The Moki and Mount Messenger formations accumulated as sandstone strata within mudstone (Manganui Formation) and display obvious sediment conduits (i.e. canyons, channels and gullies) in seismic reflection profiles. Past studies considered that these conduits pass through submarine fans, while in reality fans occur basinward of the mouths of the sediment conduits. This thesis study leverages seismic reflection data and applies seismic stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology, integrated with analysis of wireline logs, core, and outcrops, to better understand the occurrence of sediment conduits and fans within the Moki and Mount Messenger formations. Results show that in southern Taranaki Basin, increased sediment influx resulted in steepening of the continental slope, changing the morphometrics of sediment conduits. Critical analysis of data generated here forced the dismissal of all published fans associated with these sandstone formations. Rather, two new Late Miocene submarine fans have been mapped in deep-water western Taranaki Basin towards the head of the New Caledonia Basin. New paleogeographic maps for the Middle and Late Miocene have been drawn that display the sediment conduits and new fans.

year: 2024-05-31