title: Social consequences of Tūhoe migration: Voices from home in Te Urewera

authors: Nikora, Linda Waimarie

subjects: age effects

abstract: A previous study by Nikora, Guerin, Rua & Te Awekotuku (2004) of the social consequences of Tūhoe moving to the Waikato region found employment and a tertiary education to be the primary motivators. Tūhoe ‘movers’ remained in contact with those who remain in Te Urewera and retained a wish to return to their tribal homelands if presented with work opportunities or upon retirement. Through 29 intensive conversational interviews conducted by Tūhoe community researchers with Tūhoe people we explored the social consequences of migration upon those who had remained ‘at home’. Most participants recognised and strongly supported ‘movers’ to better themselves and find successful futures but hoped that they would one day return. An emerging theme was an apparent age-distribution gap of people between about 20 and 50 years of age in the Tuhoe homelands. This is concerning for a number of reasons.  The ‘age gap’ may potentially bring about a) a lack of good role-models for younger children; b) a lack of people to help out with heavy work; c) a gap in people to sustain traditional teaching models for children, and d) a lack of qualified people in trades and professions. The age gap also means that a whole middle-aged group that in other communities might be contributing funds for capital expenditures are not present in the community.

text: Social consequences of Tūhoe migration: Voices from home in Te Urewera A previous study by Nikora, Guerin, Rua & Te Awekotuku (2004) of the social consequences of Tūhoe moving to the Waikato region found employment and a tertiary education to be the primary motivators. Tūhoe ‘movers’ remained in contact with those who remain in Te Urewera and retained a wish to return to their tribal homelands if presented with work opportunities or upon retirement. Through 29 intensive conversational interviews conducted by Tūhoe community researchers with Tūhoe people we explored the social consequences of migration upon those who had remained ‘at home’. Most participants recognised and strongly supported ‘movers’ to better themselves and find successful futures but hoped that they would one day return. An emerging theme was an apparent age-distribution gap of people between about 20 and 50 years of age in the Tuhoe homelands. This is concerning for a number of reasons.  The ‘age gap’ may potentially bring about a) a lack of good role-models for younger children; b) a lack of people to help out with heavy work; c) a gap in people to sustain traditional teaching models for children, and d) a lack of qualified people in trades and professions. The age gap also means that a whole middle-aged group that in other communities might be contributing funds for capital expenditures are not present in the community.

year: 2008

title: Ngōku whakaaro – hei maumaharatanga. Maori women facial adornment: A mark of remembrance

authors: Nikora, Linda Waimarie

abstract: To honour the life and memory of the late Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu, and the elevation of her son King Tuheitia, a group of women from Tainui iwi under took the process of taking moko kauae - of colouring their chins with traditional patterns. The adornment process took place at Turangawaewae marae with family, friends, elders, and grandchildren. In this presentation we will talk about the journey of these women to prepare themselves for their transformations, the process they went through, and their lives since. We will also consider how their decision also meant exposure to outside opinion, the associated risks of objectification, “image-snatching”, and cultural and intellectual property issues.

text: Ngōku whakaaro – hei maumaharatanga. Maori women facial adornment: A mark of remembrance To honour the life and memory of the late Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu, and the elevation of her son King Tuheitia, a group of women from Tainui iwi under took the process of taking moko kauae - of colouring their chins with traditional patterns. The adornment process took place at Turangawaewae marae with family, friends, elders, and grandchildren. In this presentation we will talk about the journey of these women to prepare themselves for their transformations, the process they went through, and their lives since. We will also consider how their decision also meant exposure to outside opinion, the associated risks of objectification, “image-snatching”, and cultural and intellectual property issues.

year: 2008

title: Rigour and rigour mortis? Planning, calculative rationality, and forces of stability and change

authors: White, Iain

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: A defining feature of planning is that it is informed by sound evidence. An ever more diverse range of decision support tools is available to help achieve this, a trend that is set to accelerate along with the rise of Big Data and Smart Cities. At the same time, planning is frequently requested to improve the urban and environmental outcomes it helps deliver. This research draws upon intellectual resources from Science and Technology Studies, and empirical data from actors across the science–policy–practice interface, to analyse critically issues connected to the design, application and wider effects of calculative practices within planning. It finds that these practices selectively open up or foreclose discourses and play important political roles relating to ordering complexity and mitigating professional risk. They are also revealed as underpinning a stability and certainty within decision making that not only maintains the power of established calculative agencies but also serves to replicate an ideology of urban form that is in tension with more normative calls for change. More broadly, the findings help unsettle the planner and planning policy as the key agent able to change planning outcomes, which is instead revealed as more contingent on the political, institutional and professional culture, and the ways human and non-human objects align and combine to create internal stability when there are external calls for change.

text: Rigour and rigour mortis? Planning, calculative rationality, and forces of stability and change A defining feature of planning is that it is informed by sound evidence. An ever more diverse range of decision support tools is available to help achieve this, a trend that is set to accelerate along with the rise of Big Data and Smart Cities. At the same time, planning is frequently requested to improve the urban and environmental outcomes it helps deliver. This research draws upon intellectual resources from Science and Technology Studies, and empirical data from actors across the science–policy–practice interface, to analyse critically issues connected to the design, application and wider effects of calculative practices within planning. It finds that these practices selectively open up or foreclose discourses and play important political roles relating to ordering complexity and mitigating professional risk. They are also revealed as underpinning a stability and certainty within decision making that not only maintains the power of established calculative agencies but also serves to replicate an ideology of urban form that is in tension with more normative calls for change. More broadly, the findings help unsettle the planner and planning policy as the key agent able to change planning outcomes, which is instead revealed as more contingent on the political, institutional and professional culture, and the ways human and non-human objects align and combine to create internal stability when there are external calls for change.

year: 2019