Aro-Mind

Last Monday (3 Dec 2012), thanks to Prof Jane Kelsey, I had the opportunity to present some ideas on mātauranga Māori/indigenous knowledge to negotiators who were meeting all this week in Auckland to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership. It was a very brief opportunity which took place at Waipapa Marae, University of Auckland. Here are some of the things I said: Our vision is for the indigenous dimension of New Zealand society to be positive, dynamic, creative force in our nation’s life, economy and culture, something that all New Zealand can be proud of.  We seek to turn colonisation and its deleterious effects on its head.  The contribution of indigenous peoples is not merely to gain participation in existing arrangements in New Zealand society , but also to bring distinctive aspects and creativity to our nation, to improve it according to indigenous vision, experience and action We remain concerned with matters of social justice – we are alert

Māori is a term used primarily as a cultural/ethnic identifier. That is to say, it is used to label a group of people, the descendents of the aboirginal inhabitants of New Zealand at the time of European arrival. It's meaning is constructed and expressed in the context of other ethnic/cultural signifiers particularly Pākehā (European New Zealanders) and, later, Pasifika, Asian and more. There is another way, however, of thinking about 'Māori'. Originally the word 'māori' meant 'natural'. This referred to something that lacked impurities, something that naturally and organically appeared in the world. An example is 'waimāori' or pure water. Historically when children were considered for entry into the whare wānanga (institution of higher learning), the elders would sit and study each child to understand the qualities that were naturally appearing in each child, prior to any teaching. The elders were concerned to understand what energies and qualities

In our recent deliberations regarding research and the Māori language, we identified three major questions facing the life of the language. The first concerns "how do we increase the number of people speaking the Māori language?". The second question is 'how do increase our understanding of fluency in the Māori language and increase the number of people achieving fluency?" The final question, and the one that is less well researched is "what is the value of the Māori language?" This is vitally important question which, if addressed properly I feel, will bring even more energy into the revitalisation of our language. As a response to this question of the value of the Māori language, I offer the following ideas: - The contribution of the Māori language to the construction and articulation of identity. This leads to feelings of empowerment and mana leading to social cohesion. This is the case for the individual Māori person who is building a sense of their o