May 08, 2019
Māori research practices win respect
For the first time in more than a decade researchers at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa have been recognised in the rankings issued by the Tertiary Education Commission.
The positive rankings for 18 kairangahau or researchers will affect future funding from the Performance Based Research Fund.
Research director Pauline Adams says the wānanga skipped the last six-year funding round because of the way its kaupapa Māori research was being rated against western research principles, so the rankings are a welcome validation of its approach.
They reinforce its decision to embed research in mātauranga and in relationships with Māori communities.
"We also acknowledge that rangahau is not just a written thesis. Our rangahau is strong in many forms. In waiata we have produced a songs of rangahau album. We capture our narratives in video form as well, in oral form, so it's about growing our body of rangahau but across the many forms our knowledge is kept," Ms Adams says.
Research projects included a study of how 500 years of iwi and hapū knowledge informed the iwi’s progress towards a treaty settlement, a study of mixed race identity in the 21st century and how it was affected by the education system, and work on the sacred mountains or pillars of the house of Ngāpuhi, done in a way that will engage rangatahi in their own history and stories.
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