MAI Te Kupenga: Supporting Māori and Indigenous doctoral scholars within Higher Education

Abstract

This article shares insights into the Māori and Indigenous Doctoral support programme, MAI Te Kupenga, as one assertion of Indigenous approaches within the Higher Education sector. Including the views of Māori and Indigenous staff and scholars from a larger project "Te Tātua o Kahukura" which explored Māori and Indigenous postdoctoral capacity building, this article provides an overview of Māori staff and students reflections on the role of MAI Te Kupenga in supporting Māori and Indigenous scholars throughout their doctoral journey. Key areas of focus for this article are (i) the implications of systemic racism for Māori and Indigenous scholars; (ii) the effectiveness of supervision for Māori and Indigenous scholars and (iii) the role of MAI Te Kupenga in providing positive support mechanisms for Māori and Indigenous scholars studying in mainstream university contexts.

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“…They influence globally. Often westernised educational environments can re-classify Mäori and Pasifika students as deficit and at risk, despite the reality that colonisation and westernisation are the problem Pihama et al, 2019;. He Vaka Moana centres around the Tongan proverb "pikipiki hama kae vaevae manava".…”

“…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.…”

Why isn’t my professor Māori? A snapshot of the academic workfWhy isn’t my professor Māori? A snapshot of the academic workforce in New Zealand universitiesorce in New Zealand universities

“…Increasing numbers of Mäori are gaining university qualifications (Hall, Keane-Tuala, Ross, & Te Huia, 2018;Pihama et al, 2019;Theodore et al, 2016). According to the Ministry of Education, Mäori student numbers at universities have risen from 10,765 in 1994 to 24,480 in 2017 (Education Counts, 2018).…”

“…In light of this, and in line with ongoing calls from Mäori students and academics to decolonise the New Zealand university sector, we ask: How diverse is New Zealand's academic workforce in universities? This question reflects long-held Mäori concerns about the poor representation of Indigenous scholars in higher education and the lack of access to mätauranga Mäori in course syllabuses (Pihama, Lee-Morgan, Smith, Tiakiwai, & Seed-Pihama, 2019), but it is also linked to wider Indigenous discontent about universities as strongholds of settler-colonial privilege.…”

Excluding indigenous bioethical concerns when regulating frozen embryo storage: An Aotearoa New Zealand case study

“…In practice, however, this has not been the case, as Glover et al (2008: 95–98) have described in detail. Instead, we see a national reproductive healthcare environment that is marked by the low rate of uptake of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) services within Māoridom (ibid, 2008; Reynolds, 2012); the apparent higher rate of infertility across the wider New Zealand population than global estimates for countries of similar wealth (Righarts et al, 2015); and the accounts of expressed suffering of Māori families struggling with interrupted fertility (Pihama, 2012). When considered together with the findings of this paper, it becomes possible to appreciate the strength of the continued structural press against Māori capacities to reproduce at individual, societal and cultural levels.…”