Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 455-477). Also available via the World Wide Web.

In acknowledging continual educational under-achievement of Maori children, this thesis investigates the relationship between education policy and Maori under-achievement. It argues that under-achievement is framed within boundaries of changing recognitions and realisations of power and difference: that conceptions of difference have influenced education policy and schooling practices for Maori. Theoretically, the thesis examines 'what counts as difference' and 'what differences count'. In recognising that unequal power relations between dominant and subordinate groups produce distinct views about difference, 'what counts as difference' encompasses the perspectives of dominant groups and 'what differences count', subordinate groups. The former view is developed to expand the basis for investigating 'Pakeha conceptions of difference', and the latter, 'Maori conceptions'. The thesis traces the interactions and relationships of 'difference' and 'power', and examines, historically, how they have contributed to and sustained Maori educational under-achievement. The contribution of these conceptions of difference to informing schooling practices is investigated through four sequential 'Classification Schemes' of Assimilation, Integration, Multiculturalism and Biculturalism. The thesis argues that Biculturalism is based on a positive view of Maori cultural differences, and examines the extent of Maori influence on four recent education policy making processes. The thesis also acknowledges a Maori focus on the importance of structural differences for addressing their needs. On the basis of those two different perspectives, the thesis develops the concepts 'Maori-friendly' and 'Maori-centred', to examine processes, and structures and the relative influence of Maori on mainstream policy forming processes. The thesis shows that Tomorrow's Schools, Education for the Twenty-First Century and the Maori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry encapsulate different degrees of both Maori-friendly and Maori-centred approaches, though arguing that ultimately, it is Pakeha conceptions of difference that inform and influence all the policy forming processes. However, the fourth policy process examined was originally a wholly Maori-centred initiative - Te Kohanga Reo. The thesis points to and traces the incorporation of Te Kohanga Reo into the mainstream education system and its consequences for Maori, and concludes that structural differences ensure continuing Pakeha control over Maori conceptions of difference and henceforth Maori educational under-achievement.

This thesis explores the dynamics of intersubjectivity and relationality in a corpus of contemporary literature by twelve Indigenous women writers in order to trace modes of subject-formation and communication along four main axes: violence, care, language, and memory. Each chapter establishes a comparative discussion across the Tasman Sea between Indigenous texts and world theory, the local and the global, self and community. The texts range from 1984 to 2011 to cover a period of growth in publishing and international recognition of Indigenous writing. Chapter 1 examines instances of colonial oppression in the primary corpus and links them with manifestations of violence on institutional, familial, epistemic, and literary levels in Aboriginal authors Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch’s debut novels Steam Pigs (1997) and Swallow the Air (2006). They address the cycle of violence and the archetypal motif of return to bring to light the life of urban Aboriginal women whose ancestral land has been lost and whose home is the western, modern Australian city. Maori short story writer Alice Tawhai’s collections Festival of Miracles (2005), Luminous (2007), and Dark Jelly (2011), on the other hand, deny the characters and reader closure, and establish an atmosphere characterised by a lack of hope and the absence of any political or personal will to effect change. Chapter 2 explores caring relationships between characters displaying symptoms that may be ascribed to various forms of intellectual and mental disability, and the relatives who look after them. I situate the texts within a postcolonial disability framework and address the figure of the informal carer in relation to her “caree.” Patricia Grace’s short story “Eben,” from her collection Small Holes in the Silence (2006), tells the life of a man with physical and intellectual disability from birth (the eponymous Eben) and his relationship with his adoptive mother Pani. The main character of Lisa Cherrington’s novel The People-Faces (2004) is a young Maori woman called Nikki whose brother Joshua is in and out of psychiatric facilities. Finally, the central characters of Vivienne Cleven’s novel Her Sister’s Eye (2002) display a wide range of congenital and acquired cognitive impairments, allowing the author to explore how the compounded trauma of racism and sexism participates in (and is influenced by) mental disability. Chapter 3 examines the materiality and corporeality of language to reveal its role in the formation of (inter)subjectivity. I argue that the use of language in Aboriginal and Maori women’s writing is anchored in the racialised, sexualised bodies of Indigenous women, as well as the locale of their ancestral land. The relationship between language, body, and country in Keri Hulme’s the bone people (1984) and Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2006) are analysed in relation to orality, gesture, and mapping in order to reveal their role in the formation of Indigenous selfhood. Chapter 4 explores how the reflexive practice of life-writing (including fictional auto/biography) participates in the decolonisation of the Indigenous self and community, as well as the process of individual survival and cultural survivance, through the selective remembering and forgetting of traumatic histories. Sally Morgan’s Aboriginal life-writing narrative My Place (1987), Terri Janke’s Torres Strait Islander novel Butterfly Song (2005), as well as Paula Morris and Kelly Ana Morey’s Maori texts Rangatira (2011) and Bloom (2003) address these issues in various forms. Through the interactions between memory and memoirs, I bring to light the literary processes of decolonisation of the writing/written self in the settler countries of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This study intends to raise the profile of the authors mentioned above and to encourage the public and scholarly community to pay attention and respect to Indigenous women’s writing. One of the ambitions of this thesis is also to expose the limits and correct the shortcomings of western, postcolonial, and gender theory in relation to Indigenous women writers and the Fourth World.

This paper considers the Aboriginal population in Canada (composed of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples) and explores the hypothesis that the degree to which traditional knowledge concepts, specifically in the area of mental health, is impacted by the extent to which a given population has achieved self-government. Additionally, from a public policy standpoint, this study – using a single case comparison methodology – examines the gap between intentions outlined in policy formulation stage guidance documents, indicating that the Canadian federal government intends to incorporate traditional knowledge to a greater degree, and evidence present at the policy implementation and budgeting stage, where it is clear that the application of the guidance does not always result in the stated outcome. By looking at similarities and differences between the case populations, this study will highlight some successes in the field of mental health policy, assess the challenges that policymakers face in the area of Aboriginal health, and offer suggestions to arrive at a place in the future where fundamental mental health disparities have been reduced for Aboriginal people in Canada.

One out of every twenty children in school is affected, in significant ways, in classrooms across our nation by sensory processing disorders (SPD) (Nodding, 2017). In classrooms where students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are present, that number rises even higher because almost 100% of students with ASD experience SPD (Murray, Baker, Murray-Slutsky & Paris, 2009). Teachers must understand the unique needs of students with SPD in order to create environments where students feel comfortable to learn in every day. Optimal learning for students with SPD requires an environment that supports and assists them to effectively and systematically organize and understand the information they are taught. Unfortunately, most classrooms present sensory challenges that can be frustrating or even overwhelming for students diagnosed with SPD. The daily negative experience at school often adds more stress for these students due to their social interactions and how they regulate emotions (Lytle and Todd, 2009).<div><br></div><div>There are two purposes of the study: 1) general education teachers’ use of interventions to support students with ASD and SPD was examined to determine what worked most effectively in their classrooms, and (2) general education teachers’ perception of barriers for implementing research-based strategies was examined in order to identify potential problems in creating supportive environments for students with ASD and SPD in the general education classroom. Eighteen teachers participated in the study at a private school with 335 students in a suburban area. The survey included 8 questions about the effectiveness of sensory interventions for students with ASD and/or SPD at school.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The result of this study showed that the majority of teachers want to be supportive to students diagnosed with SPD. Seventeen teachers (94%) expressed a concern for students who may feel overwhelmed by providing some variation of a calming area within their classroom Concerning the use of flexible seating, 6 teachers (33%) responded that they do not offer flexible seating, and 3 teachers (17%) indicated it was the least effective intervention they offered students. These responses could indicate that there is misunderstanding concerning the use of flexible seating and how to effectively implement it within the general education classroom. Another notable result is that 7 general education teachers (39%) indicated they lacked the space to provide a calming area for students in their classrooms.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The result of the current study supports the findings in previous research that there is a need for teachers to be more knowledgeable about how to create classrooms that offer support, effective strategies for students diagnosed with SPD. A handbook was created for general education and special education teachers based on the result of the present survey study and findings in previous studies. This handbook focuses on clear explanations of the unique stresses that students with SPD face, with the hope that if teachers have a clearer understanding about the needs of these students, they will be inspired to consistently offer research-proven strategies to support and encourage their students who face unique challenges in the school environment every day. <br></div>

Recent artists like Norwegian Recycling and E-603 have created a new genre of art within music: digital recycling. These artists take many different well-known and less-known lyrics, music, and spoken word and combine them together. This meshing of multiple pieces of art has new historical roots. The different images, auditory and visual, that these creations produce and often enhance meaning and connections through popular media. These connections interest me most. Through the lenses of post-colonial, gender, and queer theories, I examine Witi Ihimaera's creative work. I splice in different theorists' words, my own thoughts, and images to enhance and accent Ihimaera‘s ―Singing Word‖ (Juniper Ellis 170). According to Ihimaera, the written word and the ―novel is alien to the indigenous form, and that where Maori are going now is probably where it‘s most natural, and that is into theatre or into poetry…and oral storytelling‖ (Ihimaera 170). As the first published playwright in New Zealand and as an English professor at the University of Auckland, Witi Ihimaera is a role model and leader to many other Maori and New Zealand playwrights and writers. I am most interested in understanding what and how he has been influenced as an artist. I craft a document that extends the idea of a written word in a Maori context, in which I explore the major influences on Ihimaera as a theatrical creator and influencer of other Maori artists. Chapter one introduces Witi Ihimaera and my methods. Chapter two includes my research on the Maori culture with the following subsections: the people, their traditions, and their paternal systems of power. Chapter three is my research on the influx of Pakeha authority highlighting the Mormon take over and how that affected author and playwright Witi Ihimaera. iv Chapter four is my research on how Ihimaera‘s homosexuality has influenced his creations and the contemporary Maori Performance. Chapter five contains my conclusions of the connections I find. In addition, I use examples from Witi Ihimaera‘s fictional novel The Uncles Story, as well as many other of his plays and novels, to show examples of influences from Maori culture, Mormonism, and his homosexuality on Ihimaera‘s work.

No description available.

L’exode rural des Maori suivant la seconde guerre mondiale a bouleversé le paysage socioculturel néo-zélandais. Cette thèse explore une de ses conséquences directes : l’émergence de gangs maori comme tentative de re-territorialisation de l’espace environnant dans une logique de différentiation par rapport à l’ordre établi. La rupture avec la ville européenne et les traditions ancestrales maori s’imposait. Le gang dit « maori » ne pouvait, et ne peut plus, dès lors être pensé dans le prolongement du tribalisme et du bellicisme maori pré-colonial, analyse figeant le Maori dans des considérations essentialistes. Cette thèse présente le gang maori comme un produit historique contingent et vise, sans cautionner l’approche essentialiste, à déterminer les effets de cette posture analytique sur les pratiques quotidiennes du membre de gang, ainsi que ses rapports au public.Les gangs, qui souhaitaient inventer un espace qui leur était propre, finirent par admettre leur héritage maori, si bien que les membres allaient non seulement réécrire l’histoire de leur organisation en lui trouvant d’autres origines, mais aussi celle du passé maori pré-colonial en y introduisant des éléments propres au gang de rue contemporain / The Maori urban drift after the Second World War has deeply altered New Zealand’s sociocultural landscape. This thesis explores one of its direct aftermath: the emergence of Maori gangs as an attempt to reterritorialise the surrounding space in a logic of differen-tiation from the established order. Therefore, breaking off with the European city and Maori ancestral traditions was required. In this respect, so called “Maori” gangs could and can no longer be thought as the extension of Maori tribalism and precolonial belli-cism. This type of analysis freezes the Maori into essentialist considerations. This thesis introduces the Maori gang in its historical contingent dimension and aims – without sup-porting the essentialist approach – at pinpointing its very effects on gang members’ daily practices and also on their relationship with wider society.The same gangs that wanted to create their own space ended up acknowledging their Maori heritage. As a result, the members were not only to rewrite the history of their or-ganisation, as they found out other origins, but also precontact Maori history as they in-troduced elements that are typical of contemporary street gangs

The principal objective of this doctoral research is to examine the ways in which key contemporary (2000-2005) fictional writings by Māori women authors Patricia Grace, Paula Morris, and Kelly Ana Morey demonstrate “survivance” – a term used by University of New Mexico Professor Gerald Vizenor and Ohio State University Professor Chadwick Allen to refer to the ways in which indigenous authors use their texts as “a means of cultural survival that comes with denying authoritative representations of [indigenous peoples] in addition to developing an adaptable, dynamic identity that can mediate between conflicting cultures” (Allen “Thesis” 65). I argue that acts of Māori cultural survivance are manifested in the works of these three authors both internally, in terms of the actions of characters in their fictional narratives, and externally, by the authors themselves who fight for survivance in a literary publishing world that is often slow to recognize and value works of fiction that challenge traditional (Western) modes of novel form and style. Thesis chapters therefore include both extensive critical readings of Grace’s novel Dogside Story (2001), Morris’s novels Queen of Beauty (2002) and Hibiscus Coast (2005), and Morey’s novel Bloom (2003) as well as detailed biographical information based on my interviews with the authors themselves. The thesis emphasizes the ways in which each woman’s approach to writing survivance fiction is largely driven by her personal history and whakapapa. The study also asserts that Grace, Morris and Morey are producing acts of indigenous literary cultural survivance that “imagine the world healthy,” something author and critic Maxine Hong Kingston demands that contemporary writers of critical fictions must do if they are going to convince the book-buying populace “not to worship tragedy as the highest art anymore” (204). Grace, Morris, and Morey depict the creative, generative, and “healthy” aspects of Māori cultural survivance as taking place in both the real and imagined communities which they live in and write about. Their texts offer hope for the ongoing survival – and survivance – of Māori culture in the twenty-first century.

The principal objective of this doctoral research is to examine the ways in which key contemporary (2000-2005) fictional writings by Māori women authors Patricia Grace, Paula Morris, and Kelly Ana Morey demonstrate “survivance” – a term used by University of New Mexico Professor Gerald Vizenor and Ohio State University Professor Chadwick Allen to refer to the ways in which indigenous authors use their texts as “a means of cultural survival that comes with denying authoritative representations of [indigenous peoples] in addition to developing an adaptable, dynamic identity that can mediate between conflicting cultures” (Allen “Thesis” 65). I argue that acts of Māori cultural survivance are manifested in the works of these three authors both internally, in terms of the actions of characters in their fictional narratives, and externally, by the authors themselves who fight for survivance in a literary publishing world that is often slow to recognize and value works of fiction that challenge traditional (Western) modes of novel form and style. Thesis chapters therefore include both extensive critical readings of Grace’s novel Dogside Story (2001), Morris’s novels Queen of Beauty (2002) and Hibiscus Coast (2005), and Morey’s novel Bloom (2003) as well as detailed biographical information based on my interviews with the authors themselves. The thesis emphasizes the ways in which each woman’s approach to writing survivance fiction is largely driven by her personal history and whakapapa. The study also asserts that Grace, Morris and Morey are producing acts of indigenous literary cultural survivance that “imagine the world healthy,” something author and critic Maxine Hong Kingston demands that contemporary writers of critical fictions must do if they are going to convince the book-buying populace “not to worship tragedy as the highest art anymore” (204). Grace, Morris, and Morey depict the creative, generative, and “healthy” aspects of Māori cultural survivance as taking place in both the real and imagined communities which they live in and write about. Their texts offer hope for the ongoing survival – and survivance – of Māori culture in the twenty-first century.