October 31, 2012
Wairua and emotion subject of Marsden Fund research
A team from Massey University’s Whariki Research Centre will be turning out for Waitangi and ANZAC Day commemorations for the next couple of years to see how they build national identity.
Centre director Helen Moewaka Barnes says the a three year, $850,000 Marsden Fund grant will allow the team to record selected participants, hold follow up interviews and work with focus groups to find out how people see the national holidays.
They will compare them with reactions to other celebrations such as Matariki, Chinese and Western new years.
Associate professor Moewaka-Barnes says social scientists often talk about emotion and wairua, but it is not incorporated into the way the data is interpreted.
“We kind of often talk about these things as being important or being an aside; we don't actually look at them in this holistic way as being important part of these experiences and apart of how people feel, therefore how people act and how people behave – how these emotions and wairua engendered through these days and through these experiences as well”.
Helen Moewaka Barnes says a lot has been written about Waitangi Day, but there has not been much research into what it means to a range of New Zealanders.
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