title: A study into the ifoga: Samoa's answer to dispute healing

authors: Tuala-Warren, Leilani

abstract: An investigation into the principles behind the Samoan ifoga, in order to ascertain whether this cultural practice can be implemented into the New Zealand Criminal Justice System.

text: A study into the ifoga: Samoa's answer to dispute healing An investigation into the principles behind the Samoan ifoga, in order to ascertain whether this cultural practice can be implemented into the New Zealand Criminal Justice System.

year: 2002

title: A dead ordinary woman

authors: Pears, Kim Susan

subjects: Women

abstract: Muriel Murdoch died in 1961 yet she asked  – bullied me more like – into telling her story. ‘Write it all down – all of it,’ she insisted from her an unmarked Essex grave that Mum never let me visit. She was furious to be dead at thirty-five, and wanted me to be her voice. I was reluctant. And curious.  
The veil between us lifted as Muriel shared her childhood losses, and her adult struggles with 1940s Essex as the backdrop. Muriel’s tales mirror, dovetail, and blend with mine. My doubts morph into enthusiasm; irritations settle and across time and space, a loving, playful connection forges between us.

The story needed to be told because Muriel said it did. She was a dead ordinary woman with a life cut short, yet she represented women labelled in 1940s Britain not just as difficult: but as ‘good-time girls’ and ‘home wreckers.’ She was hot-headed, loving, resilient, and principled: she thought that war was stupid; and was unafraid to call out the misogyny of some opinionated men in the chip shop queue: ‘Got herself pregnant? Never heard of that before. You’d better ring the papers.’ 
	I was influenced by Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum, whose protagonist starts her narrative from inside her mother’s womb, providing a poignant, witty story of her unfolding life using the omnipresent point of view. Alice Sebold’s Lovely Bones helped me to think about writing about the impact of loss from beyond the grave, and Doireann Ni Ghroifa’s  A Ghost in the Throat gave me a taste of a piece where the author included herself in her journey of researching and writing about a long-dead poet, doubting herself at times. This story was also about a woman who had been forgotten and overlooked.
	The story needed to be told for the adventure of the telling. In its writing, I trusted myself, the process, and the connection with my ancestor. Each day I sat at my desk with the loosest of plans listening to Muriel and putting her words to the page. The more I committed the more the stories came. Why her? Why this? Why now? I agree with Gurprakash, the Dutch, guitar-strumming yogi when he says, ‘The meaning is the experience.’
	Lastly, it needed to be told for my own growth. Writing as Muriel with her flaws and foibles has helped me to accept, love, and even revere, my ordinary self. To accept oneself fully, as Matt Haig writes in The Midnight Library ‘like the way you accept nature, a glacier or a puffin or the breach of a whale. And in so doing you find freedom.’ 
Above all, I wrote this because I wanted people to feel for Muriel, to feel for me, and for themselves.  To feel with compassion. And, as Matt Haig says: ‘Just to say your own truth out loud, is enough to find others like you.’

text: A dead ordinary woman Muriel Murdoch died in 1961 yet she asked  – bullied me more like – into telling her story. ‘Write it all down – all of it,’ she insisted from her an unmarked Essex grave that Mum never let me visit. She was furious to be dead at thirty-five, and wanted me to be her voice. I was reluctant. And curious.  
The veil between us lifted as Muriel shared her childhood losses, and her adult struggles with 1940s Essex as the backdrop. Muriel’s tales mirror, dovetail, and blend with mine. My doubts morph into enthusiasm; irritations settle and across time and space, a loving, playful connection forges between us.

The story needed to be told because Muriel said it did. She was a dead ordinary woman with a life cut short, yet she represented women labelled in 1940s Britain not just as difficult: but as ‘good-time girls’ and ‘home wreckers.’ She was hot-headed, loving, resilient, and principled: she thought that war was stupid; and was unafraid to call out the misogyny of some opinionated men in the chip shop queue: ‘Got herself pregnant? Never heard of that before. You’d better ring the papers.’ 
	I was influenced by Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum, whose protagonist starts her narrative from inside her mother’s womb, providing a poignant, witty story of her unfolding life using the omnipresent point of view. Alice Sebold’s Lovely Bones helped me to think about writing about the impact of loss from beyond the grave, and Doireann Ni Ghroifa’s  A Ghost in the Throat gave me a taste of a piece where the author included herself in her journey of researching and writing about a long-dead poet, doubting herself at times. This story was also about a woman who had been forgotten and overlooked.
	The story needed to be told for the adventure of the telling. In its writing, I trusted myself, the process, and the connection with my ancestor. Each day I sat at my desk with the loosest of plans listening to Muriel and putting her words to the page. The more I committed the more the stories came. Why her? Why this? Why now? I agree with Gurprakash, the Dutch, guitar-strumming yogi when he says, ‘The meaning is the experience.’
	Lastly, it needed to be told for my own growth. Writing as Muriel with her flaws and foibles has helped me to accept, love, and even revere, my ordinary self. To accept oneself fully, as Matt Haig writes in The Midnight Library ‘like the way you accept nature, a glacier or a puffin or the breach of a whale. And in so doing you find freedom.’ 
Above all, I wrote this because I wanted people to feel for Muriel, to feel for me, and for themselves.  To feel with compassion. And, as Matt Haig says: ‘Just to say your own truth out loud, is enough to find others like you.’

year: 2022

title: Ecological, genetic and cultural status of Solanum aviculare, poroporo (Solanaceae)

authors: Weavers, Graeme Morris

subjects: Solanum aviculare

abstract: Solanum aviculare, endemic to Australasia, is an opportunist pioneer secondary successional plant occupying disturbed and open lowland habitats, and was an important medicinal and cultural species to Māori known as poroporo. It is currently in 'decline', the ecological decline appearing to correspond to a decline in knowledge and cultural use of the species. To gain understanding of the reasons for the decline, enhance ecological knowledge, assist conservation and cultural restoration of Solanum aviculare this research documented the successional role and cycle of regeneration dynamics and tactics, established morphological characteristics, investigated the genetic diversity and recorded cultural and conservation information.
The successional status and role was identified. Growth data identified cohort development and inter-site differences, metadata found height and crown spread growth to be significantly correlated and likely part of an early reproduction and dispersal strategy. Germination of soil cores from differing depths confirmed a viable seed bank exists sufficient for species maintenance. Viable seed spread via animal gut passage was determined by germination and chemical tests, results showed rats passed higher rates of viable seed than birds. Seed germination trials with stratified and fresh seed confirmed temporal and depth behaviour, flowering observation documented temporal differences with the closely allied species Solanum laciniatum, indicating a relationship to stasis induction. Leaf morphology studies documented differences between the two allied species and proposed further nomenclature.
Genetic diversity was investigated through the use of PCR/ISSR techniques. Chloroplast DNA was extracted by CTAB and DNA kit protocols. CTAB extraction was unable to effectively remove RNA, although use of DNA samples with high quantities of RNA confirmed that RNA was not an inhibiting factor in PCR production. The production of consistent reliable ISSR bands proved difficult, with no technical explanation found. ISSR findings indicate that Solanum aviculare is highly monomorphic, consisting of predominant invariant monomorphic loci. Twenty primers were tested with no polymorphic loci
identified and no intra species variation documented. Indications were also that Solanum aviculare and Solanum laciniatum are inter species invariant on monomorphic loci. Monomorphic loci may possibly be the evolutionary markers of generic differentiation within Solanum.
Surveys identified Solanum aviculare as uncommon and rare, existing mainly as single plants or small groups in the majority of areas surveyed. The Threatened and Uncommon Plant listing of Solanum aviculare as an 'at risk declining' species is confirmed and a further Recommendation category proposed. Ecological decline and corresponding decline in cultural use and knowledge of Solanum aviculare was identified through specialist interviews; appearing to be related to removal from Māori of control over their land. The name poroporo being now associated mainly with non indigenous Solanum species. Māori cultural concepts in practice were highlighted as fundamentally important to reversing the decline, with an example of a successful traditional practice based (tikanga) integrative collaborative restoration program being documented.
This research forwards that optimal collaborative solutions, programs integrating scientific and tikanga knowledge and practices, provide the best opportunity of reversing the declining trend and for increasing and maintaining knowledge associated with the traditional role of poroporo.

text: Ecological, genetic and cultural status of Solanum aviculare, poroporo (Solanaceae) Solanum aviculare, endemic to Australasia, is an opportunist pioneer secondary successional plant occupying disturbed and open lowland habitats, and was an important medicinal and cultural species to Māori known as poroporo. It is currently in 'decline', the ecological decline appearing to correspond to a decline in knowledge and cultural use of the species. To gain understanding of the reasons for the decline, enhance ecological knowledge, assist conservation and cultural restoration of Solanum aviculare this research documented the successional role and cycle of regeneration dynamics and tactics, established morphological characteristics, investigated the genetic diversity and recorded cultural and conservation information.
The successional status and role was identified. Growth data identified cohort development and inter-site differences, metadata found height and crown spread growth to be significantly correlated and likely part of an early reproduction and dispersal strategy. Germination of soil cores from differing depths confirmed a viable seed bank exists sufficient for species maintenance. Viable seed spread via animal gut passage was determined by germination and chemical tests, results showed rats passed higher rates of viable seed than birds. Seed germination trials with stratified and fresh seed confirmed temporal and depth behaviour, flowering observation documented temporal differences with the closely allied species Solanum laciniatum, indicating a relationship to stasis induction. Leaf morphology studies documented differences between the two allied species and proposed further nomenclature.
Genetic diversity was investigated through the use of PCR/ISSR techniques. Chloroplast DNA was extracted by CTAB and DNA kit protocols. CTAB extraction was unable to effectively remove RNA, although use of DNA samples with high quantities of RNA confirmed that RNA was not an inhibiting factor in PCR production. The production of consistent reliable ISSR bands proved difficult, with no technical explanation found. ISSR findings indicate that Solanum aviculare is highly monomorphic, consisting of predominant invariant monomorphic loci. Twenty primers were tested with no polymorphic loci
identified and no intra species variation documented. Indications were also that Solanum aviculare and Solanum laciniatum are inter species invariant on monomorphic loci. Monomorphic loci may possibly be the evolutionary markers of generic differentiation within Solanum.
Surveys identified Solanum aviculare as uncommon and rare, existing mainly as single plants or small groups in the majority of areas surveyed. The Threatened and Uncommon Plant listing of Solanum aviculare as an 'at risk declining' species is confirmed and a further Recommendation category proposed. Ecological decline and corresponding decline in cultural use and knowledge of Solanum aviculare was identified through specialist interviews; appearing to be related to removal from Māori of control over their land. The name poroporo being now associated mainly with non indigenous Solanum species. Māori cultural concepts in practice were highlighted as fundamentally important to reversing the decline, with an example of a successful traditional practice based (tikanga) integrative collaborative restoration program being documented.
This research forwards that optimal collaborative solutions, programs integrating scientific and tikanga knowledge and practices, provide the best opportunity of reversing the declining trend and for increasing and maintaining knowledge associated with the traditional role of poroporo.

year: 2010