title: Language Contexts: Malua (Malekula Island, Vanuatu)

authors: Barbour, Julie Renee

abstract: The Malua language is one of more than 30 endangered Oceanic languages spoken on Malekula Island in Vanuatu. Malua is locally understood to have two varieties, one spoken in Malua Bay and the other in Espiegles Bay. Little was known about Malua until linguistic research was initiated with the communities in 2012. In this paper, ethnographic observations, linguistic field notes, and language attitude interviews are reported to build up a picture of the Malua language in context. The two Malua communities converted to Seventh Day Adventism some decades ago, and today blend traditional and modern ways of living. While relying on forest resources for shelter and fuel, and growing most of their own food, the Malua people also participate in market gardening and cash-cropping, and make use of modern building materials, textiles, and store-bought foods. Interviewees outlined positive attitudes towards the language, an appreciation of its intrinsic value, and a desire to see the language and associated traditional knowledge included in formal education. However, the language is under threat due to the increasing use of Bislama (Melanesian Pidgin). Bislama is now the dominant language of some homes, and it has recently been introduced as the medium of instruction for the first three years of primary education. The continued vitality of Malua will require ongoing effort from the community, combined with support from government and applied research.

text: Language Contexts: Malua (Malekula Island, Vanuatu) The Malua language is one of more than 30 endangered Oceanic languages spoken on Malekula Island in Vanuatu. Malua is locally understood to have two varieties, one spoken in Malua Bay and the other in Espiegles Bay. Little was known about Malua until linguistic research was initiated with the communities in 2012. In this paper, ethnographic observations, linguistic field notes, and language attitude interviews are reported to build up a picture of the Malua language in context. The two Malua communities converted to Seventh Day Adventism some decades ago, and today blend traditional and modern ways of living. While relying on forest resources for shelter and fuel, and growing most of their own food, the Malua people also participate in market gardening and cash-cropping, and make use of modern building materials, textiles, and store-bought foods. Interviewees outlined positive attitudes towards the language, an appreciation of its intrinsic value, and a desire to see the language and associated traditional knowledge included in formal education. However, the language is under threat due to the increasing use of Bislama (Melanesian Pidgin). Bislama is now the dominant language of some homes, and it has recently been introduced as the medium of instruction for the first three years of primary education. The continued vitality of Malua will require ongoing effort from the community, combined with support from government and applied research.

year: 2018

title: Unpacking the effects of power relations in childhood sexuality: A discursive analysis based on conversations with parents, teachers and counsellors

authors: Flanagan, Paul G.

subjects: Discourse

abstract: This research focusses on language used by adults within Aotearoa New Zealand who are significant in children’s lives, exploring cultural and societal discourses on childhood sexuality. Seventeen individual and three group interviews were conducted involving thirteen parents and nine teachers from two schools, and six therapists from one counselling agency. The participants were consulted on a series of six vignettes which were developed from clinical examples of children’s experiences. These vignettes were presented verbally to the participants. Ethical approval to interview children was granted, but parents did not consent to their involvement. The focus therefore turned to adults and the transcripts from these interviews provided the material for a discursive analysis of text and language based on the interview conversations. 
Utilising poststructuralist and feminist analysis of discourse as language and practices of power/knowledge, strategies were located in which children’s sexual subjectivities are governed through adults’ talk. This speaking produces gendered and sexed child subjects within dominant discourses of compulsory heterosexuality and normative biological and psychological development. Adults’ own sexual subjectivities also appeared to be regulated by these same practices, influencing the ways it was possible to talk about sexuality in childhood. Parents’ talk indicated care and initial intention to teach the child about sex and sexuality, but there was uncertainty about how and when, and fear about losing the initiative when a child accessed information from others, such as peers at school or from the internet. Through this talk, parents were constructed as ‘judges of normality’, guarding innocence and the heteronormative gender binary. Teachers’ talk reflected on changes in children’s awareness of themselves and others, and spoke of diversity in children’s experiences about sexuality and gender. However, regulated through policy as teachers in their relating to children about sex and sexuality, their talk was cautious. The analysis of interviews with counsellors focussed on the silences in society around talking about gendered norms of male sexuality and sexual behaviour. 
I found that there were instances where ideas stood in contrast to dominant positions within discourses. While most parents’ talk expressed a desire to be truthful with children’s inquiry and curiosity about sex and sexuality, few parents responded more openly and fully with that information. Overall, I found that the sites of talk about child sexuality were generally populated by women/mothers, and that men/fathers are frequently absent and/or silent in these discussions. The analysis suggested that, within an environment of uncertainty, information is hidden from children, and adults struggle to find public and professional spaces that are available and safe to engage in discussion with other adults about children and sexuality. Confusion and uncertainty characterised adults’ concerns about their responsibilities for deciding when, what and how much information to share with children about sex and sexuality.

text: Unpacking the effects of power relations in childhood sexuality: A discursive analysis based on conversations with parents, teachers and counsellors This research focusses on language used by adults within Aotearoa New Zealand who are significant in children’s lives, exploring cultural and societal discourses on childhood sexuality. Seventeen individual and three group interviews were conducted involving thirteen parents and nine teachers from two schools, and six therapists from one counselling agency. The participants were consulted on a series of six vignettes which were developed from clinical examples of children’s experiences. These vignettes were presented verbally to the participants. Ethical approval to interview children was granted, but parents did not consent to their involvement. The focus therefore turned to adults and the transcripts from these interviews provided the material for a discursive analysis of text and language based on the interview conversations. 
Utilising poststructuralist and feminist analysis of discourse as language and practices of power/knowledge, strategies were located in which children’s sexual subjectivities are governed through adults’ talk. This speaking produces gendered and sexed child subjects within dominant discourses of compulsory heterosexuality and normative biological and psychological development. Adults’ own sexual subjectivities also appeared to be regulated by these same practices, influencing the ways it was possible to talk about sexuality in childhood. Parents’ talk indicated care and initial intention to teach the child about sex and sexuality, but there was uncertainty about how and when, and fear about losing the initiative when a child accessed information from others, such as peers at school or from the internet. Through this talk, parents were constructed as ‘judges of normality’, guarding innocence and the heteronormative gender binary. Teachers’ talk reflected on changes in children’s awareness of themselves and others, and spoke of diversity in children’s experiences about sexuality and gender. However, regulated through policy as teachers in their relating to children about sex and sexuality, their talk was cautious. The analysis of interviews with counsellors focussed on the silences in society around talking about gendered norms of male sexuality and sexual behaviour. 
I found that there were instances where ideas stood in contrast to dominant positions within discourses. While most parents’ talk expressed a desire to be truthful with children’s inquiry and curiosity about sex and sexuality, few parents responded more openly and fully with that information. Overall, I found that the sites of talk about child sexuality were generally populated by women/mothers, and that men/fathers are frequently absent and/or silent in these discussions. The analysis suggested that, within an environment of uncertainty, information is hidden from children, and adults struggle to find public and professional spaces that are available and safe to engage in discussion with other adults about children and sexuality. Confusion and uncertainty characterised adults’ concerns about their responsibilities for deciding when, what and how much information to share with children about sex and sexuality.

year: 2019

title: Te Puea Herangi: an ethno-biographical study

authors: King, Michael

abstract: Early explanations of Maori leadership (for example Buck 1950) tended to emphasize the principle of male primogeniture - the expectation that community leadership would in the normal course of affairs pass to the eldest sons of lines of first-born males. Later studies of Western-educated leaders and those with a non-traditional power base (see Butterworth 1969, Cody 1953, Condliffe 1971, and Henderson 1972) continued to emphasize male primacy. Against the tenor of these studies, however, is the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century the Maori King Movement was dominated and welded together by a woman who preached male primogeniture though her life seemed to contradict the principle; Te Puea Herangi was not of a senior descent line and neither compensated for its absence by a substantial degree of European education nor consolidated her position by marriage. Nor was she simply a forceful leader in Maori terms only: Professor J.G.A. Pocock (in The Maori and New Zealand Politics) called her “possibly the most influential woman in our political history”.

This study examines Te Puea's leadership role: how she came to assume it, how she exercised it, and its consequences. Analytical concepts like Max Weber's distinctions between charismatic, traditional and rational-legal authority, have been avoided. The danger of adopting them is that the themes and emphases of research material can be easily and unintentionally warped to fit the model, in the interests of tidiness and intelligibility. Instead, this study proceeds by way of a detailed and chronological examination of the major events of Te Puea's life, and an evaluation of actions and statements as they occur and in the context in which they occur. It is, in other words, a consideration of Te Puea's life in terms of her own concepts, and in relation to the Maori and wider public affairs of her day. Explanations for her behaviour are sought within the boundaries of her own life and culture rather than from the imposition of alien models.

text: Te Puea Herangi: an ethno-biographical study Early explanations of Maori leadership (for example Buck 1950) tended to emphasize the principle of male primogeniture - the expectation that community leadership would in the normal course of affairs pass to the eldest sons of lines of first-born males. Later studies of Western-educated leaders and those with a non-traditional power base (see Butterworth 1969, Cody 1953, Condliffe 1971, and Henderson 1972) continued to emphasize male primacy. Against the tenor of these studies, however, is the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century the Maori King Movement was dominated and welded together by a woman who preached male primogeniture though her life seemed to contradict the principle; Te Puea Herangi was not of a senior descent line and neither compensated for its absence by a substantial degree of European education nor consolidated her position by marriage. Nor was she simply a forceful leader in Maori terms only: Professor J.G.A. Pocock (in The Maori and New Zealand Politics) called her “possibly the most influential woman in our political history”.

This study examines Te Puea's leadership role: how she came to assume it, how she exercised it, and its consequences. Analytical concepts like Max Weber's distinctions between charismatic, traditional and rational-legal authority, have been avoided. The danger of adopting them is that the themes and emphases of research material can be easily and unintentionally warped to fit the model, in the interests of tidiness and intelligibility. Instead, this study proceeds by way of a detailed and chronological examination of the major events of Te Puea's life, and an evaluation of actions and statements as they occur and in the context in which they occur. It is, in other words, a consideration of Te Puea's life in terms of her own concepts, and in relation to the Maori and wider public affairs of her day. Explanations for her behaviour are sought within the boundaries of her own life and culture rather than from the imposition of alien models.

year: 1977