October 31, 2013
Maori TV dramas deserving of study
A Massey University researcher has won a $300.000 Marsden Fund grant to look at how Maori are portrayed in television drama.
Angela Moewaka-Barnes says television is a powerful force in shaping the way people see themselves and others.
Her research will include conducting focus groups to look at representations of Maori and non-Maori on the small screen, to see how audiences respond and what emotions are engendered.
"I have done a little bit of research around film and found that Maori felt pride in films such as Ngati and Mauri, whereas with Once Were Warriors, they felt angry and embarrassed about those representations of Maori. So lookng at those emotional responses and feelings and then looking at what might result in terms of behaviours, that might be feeling some inclusion or exclusion, marginalisation, discrimination," says Angela Moewaka-Barnes.
Other Marsden Funded projects with a connection to Maori include a $300,000 study by Cilla Wehi from Otago University of the impact of colonisation on human cultural and ecological systems, and a $773,000 grant towards Otago anthropology professor Richard Walter’s investigation of the role of the Wairau Bar in the systematic colonisation of New Zealand by Polynesians.
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