title: We are not struggling, we are thriving!

authors: Barbour, Karen

subjects: dance

abstract: Dance in the Waikato region is thriving, particularly in Whaingaroa (Raglan). Soul Speed, as they introduce themselves are "a dance and theatre troupe from Whaingaroa, Waikato. " We are mothers, fathers, children, friends and family brought together" initially to raise awareness through performance about the critically endangered Maui Dolphin, the Popoto.

text: We are not struggling, we are thriving! Dance in the Waikato region is thriving, particularly in Whaingaroa (Raglan). Soul Speed, as they introduce themselves are "a dance and theatre troupe from Whaingaroa, Waikato. " We are mothers, fathers, children, friends and family brought together" initially to raise awareness through performance about the critically endangered Maui Dolphin, the Popoto.

year: 2005

title: Joy lands

authors: Agrawal, Shivani

subjects: Poetry

abstract: For as long as I can remember, I have been sad. When I moved from India to Aotearoa alone at eighteen, I hoped something would sand down the grief – the Pacific, green air, sidewalk lichen. I created my own displacement and I did not know how to initiate my return. This is what precedes joy.

I had not yet learned that you have to look for joy. You have to recognise it when it arrives. Before I could see that it was joy that ate wonton soup with me and found me by the lake in fur slides – it ended. I was on a one-way plane to India and my body would never be these joys again. This is what follows the end of joy.

When joy ends, it is impossible not to notice the ways in which the world demands suffering from us. We lean on no one, cry in bathrooms and eat alone. The world spins sadder. This is why you must pursue joy.

JOY LANDS is a poetry collection about finding joy across lands and inside bodies through language, girlhood, queerness, and long-haul flights. While these poems are forever in motion across time and space, they are rooted in the presence of other people and in small, indelible moments of tenderness – an almost-wishbone neck, yolk-yellow tulips, taking turns to piss.

The collection is split into three sections, each querying the conditions for joy: something unjoyful, if not terrible, must precede it; some form of hurt must always follow the end of it, and you must continue to pursue joy.

JOY LANDS is a pursuit – I enter joy. I witness joy. I make joy.  These poems are lonely and dream-like, funereal and moon-shaped, and bright hot orange. Joy is a build-up and I am just getting started.

text: Joy lands For as long as I can remember, I have been sad. When I moved from India to Aotearoa alone at eighteen, I hoped something would sand down the grief – the Pacific, green air, sidewalk lichen. I created my own displacement and I did not know how to initiate my return. This is what precedes joy.

I had not yet learned that you have to look for joy. You have to recognise it when it arrives. Before I could see that it was joy that ate wonton soup with me and found me by the lake in fur slides – it ended. I was on a one-way plane to India and my body would never be these joys again. This is what follows the end of joy.

When joy ends, it is impossible not to notice the ways in which the world demands suffering from us. We lean on no one, cry in bathrooms and eat alone. The world spins sadder. This is why you must pursue joy.

JOY LANDS is a poetry collection about finding joy across lands and inside bodies through language, girlhood, queerness, and long-haul flights. While these poems are forever in motion across time and space, they are rooted in the presence of other people and in small, indelible moments of tenderness – an almost-wishbone neck, yolk-yellow tulips, taking turns to piss.

The collection is split into three sections, each querying the conditions for joy: something unjoyful, if not terrible, must precede it; some form of hurt must always follow the end of it, and you must continue to pursue joy.

JOY LANDS is a pursuit – I enter joy. I witness joy. I make joy.  These poems are lonely and dream-like, funereal and moon-shaped, and bright hot orange. Joy is a build-up and I am just getting started.

year: 2024

title: Te whakahaumanu i ngā taonga takatāpui: Belonging and thrivance for takatāpui

authors: Ngātai-Tautuku, Te Aorere

subjects: takatāpui

abstract: This thesis celebrates takatāpui belonging and thrivance; created by, with and for takatāpui. It is carefully crafted with an abundance of love for this community to which I belong. Informed by the overarching conceptual framework of Te Pū o te Rākau (pūrākau) methodology (Lee-Morgan, 2019), this thesis follows pūrākau of how takatāpui and queer Māori identify and express belonging and thrivance. The intention of this study is to privilege the voices and lived experiences of people who have been consistently subject to the systematic dehumanisation of Western research conventions.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, anti-Māori racism, homophobia and transphobia have risen exponentially in Aotearoa, spurring an increase in aggressive violent attacks on marginalised communities. It is progressively evident that the fundamental right to tino rangatiratanga affirmed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi to express self-determination has failed to be honoured (Came et al., 2024; Mutu, 2011a). Therefore, it is paramount within this rangahau to give power to and centralise the voices of takatāpui as they express their experiences of belonging. 

Drawing upon the springs of mātauranga takatāpui  (re)generated by takatāpui academics, this rangahau is firmly grounded within a takatāpui worldview. Adapted elements from Te Pū o te Rākau methodological framework are implemented in this rangahau to (re)affirm the importance of takatāpui voices and interdependent relationships. Experienced through the ritualistic ceremony of wānanga, informed by Kaupapa Māori tenet - titiro, whakarongo… kōrero – I facilitated a wānanga for a group of kaipūrākau to share their pūrākau at Te Kohinga Mārama marae. Throughout the wānanga the kaipūrākau shared hilarious, heartwarming and painful pūrākau about their lived experiences as Indigenous queer people navigating a settler-colonial Western society and their encounters with belonging. These precious pūrākau are then translated into key themes that communicate the findings of this rangahau, that are described as Whanaungatanga, Tuakiritanga, Mana Motuhake and Te Hari Te Koa.

text: Te whakahaumanu i ngā taonga takatāpui: Belonging and thrivance for takatāpui This thesis celebrates takatāpui belonging and thrivance; created by, with and for takatāpui. It is carefully crafted with an abundance of love for this community to which I belong. Informed by the overarching conceptual framework of Te Pū o te Rākau (pūrākau) methodology (Lee-Morgan, 2019), this thesis follows pūrākau of how takatāpui and queer Māori identify and express belonging and thrivance. The intention of this study is to privilege the voices and lived experiences of people who have been consistently subject to the systematic dehumanisation of Western research conventions.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, anti-Māori racism, homophobia and transphobia have risen exponentially in Aotearoa, spurring an increase in aggressive violent attacks on marginalised communities. It is progressively evident that the fundamental right to tino rangatiratanga affirmed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi to express self-determination has failed to be honoured (Came et al., 2024; Mutu, 2011a). Therefore, it is paramount within this rangahau to give power to and centralise the voices of takatāpui as they express their experiences of belonging. 

Drawing upon the springs of mātauranga takatāpui  (re)generated by takatāpui academics, this rangahau is firmly grounded within a takatāpui worldview. Adapted elements from Te Pū o te Rākau methodological framework are implemented in this rangahau to (re)affirm the importance of takatāpui voices and interdependent relationships. Experienced through the ritualistic ceremony of wānanga, informed by Kaupapa Māori tenet - titiro, whakarongo… kōrero – I facilitated a wānanga for a group of kaipūrākau to share their pūrākau at Te Kohinga Mārama marae. Throughout the wānanga the kaipūrākau shared hilarious, heartwarming and painful pūrākau about their lived experiences as Indigenous queer people navigating a settler-colonial Western society and their encounters with belonging. These precious pūrākau are then translated into key themes that communicate the findings of this rangahau, that are described as Whanaungatanga, Tuakiritanga, Mana Motuhake and Te Hari Te Koa.

year: 2025-06-19