This thesis has two foci: how Cambodians with a refugee background manage their new life in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and how an identity as a Khmer Kiwi transnational community has developed. Analytic concepts— such as forced migration, cultural bereavement, adaptation, integration, diaspora, transnationalism, identification, and community of practice— are used to trace the trajectory of the contemporary way of life of Cambodians, their community development, and their cultural identity. The data gathered from mixedmethod research reveal the various opinions, strategies, coping mechanisms, and paths that Cambodian participants have adopted in order to adapt to life in New Zealand and still maintain their Khmer heritage. The majority of participants were proud of their personal achievements, and now have found normalcy in their new life. Individual struggles to engage and integrate with multicultural New Zealand society have required negotiation and protection of group interests, and inevitably some of these have resulted in conflicts and fragmentation within the Khmer community. Religious practice, organisation, and leadership became the main driving forces for asserting Khmer community identity. Collective memory was harnessed to deal with shared cultural bereavement, and the quest for belonging lent momentum to the community’s development and management of its identity. Khmer Theravada Buddhism has emerged as a means by which the majority of Cambodians can achieve their spiritual wellbeing, and has become a platform for various community identity developments within the New Zealand social and legal contexts. Gender roles and structures are a significant part of community development and of my analysis. This development of Khmer identity in New Zealand is a new strand of Khmer identity: Khmer heritage, transnational experience, and ‘Kiwi-ism’. Such transformation of identity reflects geo-political influences on integration in the form of belonging to and identifying with two or more groups. For example, the majority of participants proudly identified themselves as Khmer Kiwis. Their transnational lives have been enriched by their country of origin (Cambodia) and their country of residence (Aotearoa/New Zealand). Key words: Cambodian refugees, forced migration, adaptation, integration, transnationalism, Buddhism, Khmer identity, community development, and community of practice.

This thesis has two foci: how Cambodians with a refugee background manage their new life in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and how an identity as a Khmer Kiwi transnational community has developed. Analytic concepts— such as forced migration, cultural bereavement, adaptation, integration, diaspora, transnationalism, identification, and community of practice— are used to trace the trajectory of the contemporary way of life of Cambodians, their community development, and their cultural identity. The data gathered from mixedmethod research reveal the various opinions, strategies, coping mechanisms, and paths that Cambodian participants have adopted in order to adapt to life in New Zealand and still maintain their Khmer heritage. The majority of participants were proud of their personal achievements, and now have found normalcy in their new life. Individual struggles to engage and integrate with multicultural New Zealand society have required negotiation and protection of group interests, and inevitably some of these have resulted in conflicts and fragmentation within the Khmer community. Religious practice, organisation, and leadership became the main driving forces for asserting Khmer community identity. Collective memory was harnessed to deal with shared cultural bereavement, and the quest for belonging lent momentum to the community’s development and management of its identity. Khmer Theravada Buddhism has emerged as a means by which the majority of Cambodians can achieve their spiritual wellbeing, and has become a platform for various community identity developments within the New Zealand social and legal contexts. Gender roles and structures are a significant part of community development and of my analysis. This development of Khmer identity in New Zealand is a new strand of Khmer identity: Khmer heritage, transnational experience, and ‘Kiwi-ism’. Such transformation of identity reflects geo-political influences on integration in the form of belonging to and identifying with two or more groups. For example, the majority of participants proudly identified themselves as Khmer Kiwis. Their transnational lives have been enriched by their country of origin (Cambodia) and their country of residence (Aotearoa/New Zealand). Key words: Cambodian refugees, forced migration, adaptation, integration, transnationalism, Buddhism, Khmer identity, community development, and community of practice.

This thesis has two foci: how Cambodians with a refugee background manage their new life in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and how an identity as a Khmer Kiwi transnational community has developed. Analytic concepts— such as forced migration, cultural bereavement, adaptation, integration, diaspora, transnationalism, identification, and community of practice— are used to trace the trajectory of the contemporary way of life of Cambodians, their community development, and their cultural identity. The data gathered from mixedmethod research reveal the various opinions, strategies, coping mechanisms, and paths that Cambodian participants have adopted in order to adapt to life in New Zealand and still maintain their Khmer heritage. The majority of participants were proud of their personal achievements, and now have found normalcy in their new life. Individual struggles to engage and integrate with multicultural New Zealand society have required negotiation and protection of group interests, and inevitably some of these have resulted in conflicts and fragmentation within the Khmer community. Religious practice, organisation, and leadership became the main driving forces for asserting Khmer community identity. Collective memory was harnessed to deal with shared cultural bereavement, and the quest for belonging lent momentum to the community’s development and management of its identity. Khmer Theravada Buddhism has emerged as a means by which the majority of Cambodians can achieve their spiritual wellbeing, and has become a platform for various community identity developments within the New Zealand social and legal contexts. Gender roles and structures are a significant part of community development and of my analysis. This development of Khmer identity in New Zealand is a new strand of Khmer identity: Khmer heritage, transnational experience, and ‘Kiwi-ism’. Such transformation of identity reflects geo-political influences on integration in the form of belonging to and identifying with two or more groups. For example, the majority of participants proudly identified themselves as Khmer Kiwis. Their transnational lives have been enriched by their country of origin (Cambodia) and their country of residence (Aotearoa/New Zealand). Key words: Cambodian refugees, forced migration, adaptation, integration, transnationalism, Buddhism, Khmer identity, community development, and community of practice.

This thesis has two foci: how Cambodians with a refugee background manage their new life in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and how an identity as a Khmer Kiwi transnational community has developed. Analytic concepts— such as forced migration, cultural bereavement, adaptation, integration, diaspora, transnationalism, identification, and community of practice— are used to trace the trajectory of the contemporary way of life of Cambodians, their community development, and their cultural identity. The data gathered from mixedmethod research reveal the various opinions, strategies, coping mechanisms, and paths that Cambodian participants have adopted in order to adapt to life in New Zealand and still maintain their Khmer heritage. The majority of participants were proud of their personal achievements, and now have found normalcy in their new life. Individual struggles to engage and integrate with multicultural New Zealand society have required negotiation and protection of group interests, and inevitably some of these have resulted in conflicts and fragmentation within the Khmer community. Religious practice, organisation, and leadership became the main driving forces for asserting Khmer community identity. Collective memory was harnessed to deal with shared cultural bereavement, and the quest for belonging lent momentum to the community’s development and management of its identity. Khmer Theravada Buddhism has emerged as a means by which the majority of Cambodians can achieve their spiritual wellbeing, and has become a platform for various community identity developments within the New Zealand social and legal contexts. Gender roles and structures are a significant part of community development and of my analysis. This development of Khmer identity in New Zealand is a new strand of Khmer identity: Khmer heritage, transnational experience, and ‘Kiwi-ism’. Such transformation of identity reflects geo-political influences on integration in the form of belonging to and identifying with two or more groups. For example, the majority of participants proudly identified themselves as Khmer Kiwis. Their transnational lives have been enriched by their country of origin (Cambodia) and their country of residence (Aotearoa/New Zealand). Key words: Cambodian refugees, forced migration, adaptation, integration, transnationalism, Buddhism, Khmer identity, community development, and community of practice.

This thesis will examine David Mitchell’s use of postmodern narrative structures and strategies in Cloud Atlas and how these relate to his overtly political concerns regarding relations of power between individuals and between factions. This will involve a discussion of debates surrounding the political efficacy of postmodern narrative forms. I will consider Mitchell’s prolific use of intertextual and intratextual allusion and his mimicry of a wide range of narrative modes and genres. These techniques, along with the complex structural iterations in the novel and the ‘recurrence’ of characters between its parts, appear to reinforce a thematic concern with the interconnectedness — indeed, the repetition — of human activity, through time and a fatalistic conception of being that draws on two central Nietzschean notions, eternal recurrence and the will to power. The vision of humanity and human relations of power that is expressed within Cloud Atlas is open to extended analysis in Foucauldian terms. Against this apparently nihilistic backdrop, Mitchell appears to promote a notion of (albeit limited) individual agency and the capacity for creative narration and reinterpretation of the past as a means to devise new ‘truths’ and explore new ‘meanings’ for the present and the future. I will explore the ways in which Mitchell’s metafictional self-reflexivity (and that of his protagonists), offers a vision of hope and political agency that counters the apparent (Nietzschean) fatalism of the novel.

This study investigates the nature of the relationship that the state in New Zealand, the Crown, has established with Māori as a tribally-based people. Despite the efforts of recent New Zealand Governments to address the history of Crown injustice to Māori, the relationship of the Crown with Iwi Māori continues to be fraught with contradictions and tension. It is the argument of the thesis that the tension exists because the Crown has imposed a social, political, and economic order that is inherently contradictory to the social, political, and economic order of the Māori tribal world. Overriding an order where relationships are negotiated and alliances built between autonomous groups, the Crown constituted itself as a government with single, undivided sovereignty, used its unilateral power to introduce policy and legislation that facilitated the dispossession of whānau and hapū of their resources and their authority in the land, and enshrined its own authority and capitalist social relations instead. The thesis is built round a critical reading of five Waitangi Tribunal reports, namely the Muriwhenua Fishing Report, Mangonui Sewerage Report, The Te Roroa Report, Muriwhenua Land Report, and Te Whanau o Waipareira Report.

This study investigates the nature of the relationship that the state in New Zealand, the Crown, has established with Māori as a tribally-based people. Despite the efforts of recent New Zealand Governments to address the history of Crown injustice to Māori, the relationship of the Crown with Iwi Māori continues to be fraught with contradictions and tension. It is the argument of the thesis that the tension exists because the Crown has imposed a social, political, and economic order that is inherently contradictory to the social, political, and economic order of the Māori tribal world. Overriding an order where relationships are negotiated and alliances built between autonomous groups, the Crown constituted itself as a government with single, undivided sovereignty, used its unilateral power to introduce policy and legislation that facilitated the dispossession of whānau and hapū of their resources and their authority in the land, and enshrined its own authority and capitalist social relations instead. The thesis is built round a critical reading of five Waitangi Tribunal reports, namely the Muriwhenua Fishing Report, Mangonui Sewerage Report, The Te Roroa Report, Muriwhenua Land Report, and Te Whanau o Waipareira Report.

Abstract/ Whakarāpoto Take The specific aim of this study is to identify critical features of wānanga or the traditional Māori learning institution and how these might inform Māori education today in a University setting. It also examines the responsiveness of the tertiary institution in creating an indigenous infrastructure aimed at Māori educational participation. A number of ‘critical events’ relating to Māori educational development interventions in the 1980’s will be considered with the expectation that they will serve to inform the development of better educational outcomes for access, participation, recruitment, retention and the advancement of Māori in the conventional University setting. For the purpose of this study contemporary Māori academic sites, which include state funded wānanga, as well as other indigenous academic sites will be discussed, including the First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia1. There is thus an international perspective in this study. Whare wānanga were a key institution in traditional Māori society and represented in all regions of Aotearoa/ New Zealand. The ability to travel and share each other’s knowledge attested or benchmarked by others was a key part of the maintenance of the tribal lore. Tōhunga were central to the entire process of controlling the knowledge and selecting to whom it was to be imparted. This raises a question of what a contemporary wānanga, as an intervention and an academic entity would look like at the University of Auckland and would it withstand international scrutiny? As a kaupapa Māori educational intervention, it is a theoretical test in the configurations of conscientization, resistance and transformative praxis. The inclusive approach in using existing material and people resources to maximize the impact of the intervention is to be discussed in this thesis. Specific case studies provide a means for checking the evidence for the processes and the predicted outcomes for kaupapa Māori theory. The recalling of events is central to both case studies. An event such as the rugby match that took place between both countries in 1927, discussed later in this thesis, combined with similar initiatives embarked upon by indigenous leaders from both tertiary communities to create a physical presence for First Nations and Māori, are identities at the core of the case studies. Cultural connection, and a style of operation that is inclusive, enact in part the values raised by Madeleine McIvor: respect, reciprocity, relevance and responsibility. The factors all converge to build this thesis into a series of conversations. The collaboration undertaken over long distances and periods of time has motivated the creation of this record of the stories of both institutions, that can be added to by others in the future. The markers of success for the University of Auckland include the arresting of the decline of Māori student enrolments alongside the growth of Māori participating in post-graduate study and research, therefore providing opportunity to contribute to the bank of knowledge in New Zealand society. While the regeneration of the language in New Zealand has been the driving force behind the wānanga development at the University of Auckland building further on the foundations of kohanga reo, kura kaupapa Māori, whare kura and wānanga, the development of Māori as with First Nations initiatives has been in the area of education. Tertiary institutions offer a context in which kaupapa Māori theory brings together common threads of communication for people. Whether this is through elements of struggle within societies or just survival, the main thing is that people need each other to develop and progress.

This study examines children’s development and incorporation of literacy expertise across multiple sites and the transitions to school by four Māori preschool children, their whānau (families) and their teachers in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This study is embedded in a Kaupapa Māori framework of understanding and explaining teaching and learning processes across multiple sites of learning for children whose practices reflect ways of being and acting Māori. Descriptions of teaching and learning processes are also explained utilising a co-constructivist theoretical framework. These descriptions and explanations focus on the psychological processes of learning and development that children, whānau and teachers’ engage in their practice. A two phase case study design was employed that examines the teaching and learning processes of literacy across multiple sites. The first phase provides qualitative data that describes and explains how the different sorts of literacy and language activities are coconstructed by whānau and children. The ways by which literacy activities are constructed are inherent in parents ideas about teaching and learning reflected out of their diverse pedagogical practices. The distinct pedagogical practices also highlight the multiple pathways to learning that children developed and experienced in becoming an expert. This study also reported the influence of early educational settings as alternative and multiple contexts by which learning is organised and constructed. The different contexts provided families with specific ideas and practices about the teaching and learning process. The second phase of the study provides descriptions of how children’s literacy expertise was incorporated into classroom literacy and language activities. This phase of the study examines how teachers provided opportunities by which children’s literacy expertise was incorporated into classroom activities. This study reported incidents where incorporation of children’s level of literacy expertise was enhanced while other children’s literacy expertise was discouraged in classroom activities. The significance of the reported differences of incorporation was provided from teacher’s ideas and beliefs about children’s literacy expertise upon entry to school. The study showed how teacher’s ideas reflected the way that they organised and constructed literacy activities. Teacher’s ideas also reflected their awareness of the diversity of children’s literacy expertise. The earlier phase of this study examined the multiple ways and multiple contexts by which children learn and develop literacy expertise. Incorporation of children’s literacy expertise into classroom activities was determined by the degree to which teachers made connections that resonated children’s expertise. This was also determined by teacher’s instructional practices in the context of the classroom environment. The implications of this study make important contributions to pedagogical practices for teachers in classroom environments. The descriptions and explanations reported in this study highlight the complexities of teaching and learning for children of diverse cultural and language communities.

This study looked at the functions and uses of the problematic particle ai in New Zealand Māori. Ai is described primarily as a verbal particle. It appears in a number of seemingly disparate constructions, has no parallel in English, and there has never been a satisfactory explanation of all its uses. The data consists of a large corpus of sentences containing ai that were extracted from selected texts written by native speakers from as early as the 19th Century up until 2005. Sentences were also solicited from fluent speakers. Analysis of the data and discussions with native speakers led to the conclusion that ai exists as two distinct particles, which were labelled habitual ai, and anaphoric ai. Habitual ai is a verbal marker that confers habitual aspect on its verb. It was found that it is mainly used by speakers from the Eastern regions of the North Island. Anaphoric ai refers back to some element earlier in the discourse. It has two forms, labelled resumptive ai and resultative ai. Resumptive ai is an anaphoric pro-form that resumes a specific noun phrase in its clause. It was found to have a grammatical function. When resumptive ai was deleted from its clause consultants judged the results ill-formed. An example of a construction with resumptive ai is a sentence with an adverbial of reason located before the verb. Resultative ai locates its clause in prior discourse, making a causal link between its clause and the prior element. It was found to have a mainly lexical function. When resultative ai was deleted from its clause consultants judged that the meaning had altered and that the causal link was weakened or lost. An example of a construction with resultative ai is a purpose clause which follows an action that has been carried out for that specific purpose. This thesis provides a unified explanation for all uses of ai. It also accounts for previously unexplained appearances, by showing that one form of ai may occur in environments restricted to another. Its appearance in non-verbal phrases are accounted for, and observations have been made about changes in its use over time.