November 04, 2014
Marsden scholars reach for the stars
Astronomy, privatisation and treaty settlements are among the subjects Maori researchers will tackle with help from the latest Marsden funding round.
Dr Rangi Matamua from the University of Waikato has a $710,000 grant for his Te Mauria Whiritoi project looking at the sky as a cultural resource, examining Maori beliefs, practices and observations in relation to astronomy, ecology and ritual.
The project will also involve researchers from Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Hawai‘i who will try to collect and preserve Maori astronomical knowledge that might otherwise be lost.
Dr Marama Muru-Lanning the University of Auckland’s James Henare Maori Research Centre has a $300,000 Marsden Fast-Start grant to look at how recent privatisation of three New Zealand electricity companies is redefining Maori relationships with their lands, resources and ancestral territories.
Auckland University Maori studies Professor Margaret Mutu will lead a $710,000 project to interview claimants around the country about their experience of the treaty settlement process.
Dr Carwyn Jones from Victoria University of Wellington has $300,000 to look at Maori legal traditions, drawing on cultural expressions such as waiata, whakairo, karakia and korero purakau which may illustrate Maori legal principles.
Dr Georgina Stewart from Auckland University’s faculty of Education’s Tai Tokerau campus in Whangarei has received $300,000 to study the results of university policies which allow for essays, dissertations and thesis to be submitted in Maori.
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