A Fire in the Belly of Hineāmaru: Using Whakapapa as a Pedagogical Tool in Education

Abstract

The numerous iwi (tribes) and hapū (subtribes) of Te Tai Tokerau (Northland) have a long whakapapa (genealogy) of influential leaders that have made a significant impact on the Māori world and beyond. However, ruinous media narratives that focus without relent on poverty, low employment, inadequate housing, and lagging educational outcomes—particularly among Māori—continue to negatively impact the ways students from this region define their identity. This paper presents a number of strengths-based narratives—focusing on tūpuna (ancestors) from Te Tai Tokerau whakapapa—that act as counter-narratives to this rhetoric. The paper discusses how these narratives can be used as powerful pedagogical tools that enhance Te Tai Tokerau Māori students’ self-efficacy, aspiration, optimism, and cultural pride, presenting them as powerful agents of their own destiny. This paper draws on data produced from a Marsden-funded study—led by Te Tai Tokerau descendents—that has collected and re-presented multifaceted hapū/iwi-based narratives that celebrate Te Tai Tokerau distinctiveness, success, history, and identity. This wider study has examined, contextualised, and celebrated diverse characteristics recurring in Te Tai Tokerau pūrākau (genealogical stories), pepeha (tribal sayings), waiata (songs), karakia (incantations), televisual materials, and written histories.

Voices from a Ngāti Tiipa oral history project

“…Whakapapa encompasses layers of relatedness that extend beyond the realm of humans to encompass all things. Whakapapa is thus crucial to articulations of individual and collective Mäori identity in the past, present and future (Webber & O'Connor, 2019).…”

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“…emphasises the importance of collaboration and culturally appropriate actions such as whakawhanaungatanga as a "metaphor for conducting Kaupapa Mäori research" (p. 215). The importance of relationality within re-search contexts is paramount among Indigenous peoples, and involves recognising how our positions as whanaunga can influence not only re-search participants or partners, but also those within our project teams, as we are often seen as "advocates, and sometimes therapists, guidance counsellors, and facilitators of change" (C. Smith, 2013, p. 95;Bishop, 2005;Kensington-Miller & Ratima, 2015;Sunseri, 2007;Webber & O'Connor, 2019). Within the He Vaka Moana project, re-search-tëina were viewed in these ways-as re-searchers and more.…”

“…Within Tängata o Te Moana are relationalities that shape our interactions and how we make sense of the world through theoretical and methodological paradigms (Bishop, , 2005(Bishop, , 2012. The multiple Mäori and Pasifika theoretical and methodological frameworks employed within the He Vaka Moana re-search fellowship are extensive; however, a commonality within these spaces has been the focus on our peoples and providing strengthsbased narratives that counter the westernised perceptions of Mäori and Pasifika within academia (Pihama et al, 2019;Webber & O'Connor, 2019). As a Kaupapa Mäori re-searcher, criticality and relationality are central to my praxis, and within He Vaka Moana these values and worldviews are privileged.…”

“…As noted previously, Indigenous peoples have always been re-searchers (L. T. . These worldviews are alternatives to the "dominant" western epistemologies that re-present Indigenous peoples in ways that fail to acknowledge the value in our "culturally framed resources, programmes and pedagogical approaches" (Pihama et al, 2019;Webber & O'Connor, 2019).…”

“…('E. Wolfgramm-Foliaki, personal communication, June 12, 2019) The re-thinking of re-search relationships also reinforced the importance of focusing on "growing the fleet" and the ways in which relationality can support wider Indigenous goals through both re-Indigenising and decolonising Pihama et al, 2019;Smith & Webber, 2019;Webber & O'Connor, 2019). The focus on development and enhancement and re-thinking what success looks like has been crucial not only to He Vaka Moana, but to our tuäkana-tëina relationships:…”