May 14, 2024
Identity challenge unlocks scholarship
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A 73-year-old doctoral graduate says his life is a cautionary tale of how deeply colonisation affected many Māori of his generation.
Te Piere Wārahi graduated this month from the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau with his doctoral thesis on caring for kaumatua.
He says colonisation led to his whānau thinking the pākeha way was best.
Caring for his mother in her final years led to him rediscovering his Māoritanga, and in 2021 he dropped the paheka name he had proudly carried through life – Edgar TPW Wallace.
0:18For so long, it had been the silent or invisible voice, that stood between two pillars of colonisation – Edgar and Wallace. Despite the fact that they travelled with me throughout my life, they didn’t actually determine who i really was.