Leaders Workshops
Professor Sir Mason Durie - 14 October 2010
On 14 October 2010 a Leaders Workshop for academics was held at Otago University. Facilitated by Darryn Russell, Māori Development Manager, the workshop featured Professor Sir Mason Durie from Massey University, and local Senior Law Lecturer, Jacinta Ruru. Professor Sir Mason Durie's presentation was entitled Straddling the Academic / Māori Interface; and Jacinta spoke about Māori academic leadership from a woman's perspective.
Professor Durie discussed the context for academic leadership which included exploring future global trends that can be predicted, new technological advances, future demographic changes, Māori advancement through the dual aims of sustainable economics and whānau ora, and learning for the future. He also recognized and paid tribute to an enduring Otago tradition of producing great academic leaders such as Te Rangi Hiroa, Tutere Wirepa, Ned Ellison, Henry Bennett, Rina Moore, Eru Pomare, and Paratene Ngata. Finally, Mason outlined a framework for Māori academic leadership based on six key elements, being: connected, sustainable, informed, creditable, strategic and operational.
There were a number of questions asked from the 50 participants, including medical students, which ended with Darryn summing up both presentations.
MDurie Powerpoint (3,877 KB) Powerpoint (please note that this powerpoint is 3.8MB, and may take a while to download if you are on a slow network)
Professor Whatarangi Winiata - 19 August 2010
When Dr Rawinia Higgins first met Professor Whatarangi Winiata she was a brand new university student, straight out of college and enrolled in the Tohu Māoritanga, a pre-degree programme at Victoria University of Wellington. Winiata was a guest lecturer and he set the students a challenge – to think about the true cost of running a hui at a marae. According to Higgins, reflecting some twenty years later, the message from Winiata that day has stayed with her ever since.
This is just one of the stories shared when the MANU-Ao Academy hosted a half-day Māori Leadership Seminar at Te Herenga Waka Marae. Chaired by the Wellington Regional Coordinator for MANU-Ao, Meegan Hall (Ngāti Ranginui), the seminar centred on an address by Emeritus Professor Whatarangi Winiata (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Marutuahu), a formal response from Dr Rawinia Higgins (Ngāi Tūhoe) and closing comments from Pro Vice Chancellor Māori, Professor Piri Sciascia (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu).
For his part, Winiata's epiphanies about the roles and requirements of rangatira Māori seem to have occurred in a myriad of places and he shared a range of these stories in his address - from his encounters with the 'perfect human specimen', a Māori statue in a Chicago Museum, to his experiences developing the constitution of the Anglican Church, building Te Wananga o Raukawa and presiding as Tumuaki of the Māori Party. His key message was that Māori leadership today has to take a kaupapa-based approach, embodied in both governance and management.
In Higgins' response, she reflected on how Winiata had encouraged those long-ago students to identify the different kinds of cultural capital involved in maintaining the ahi kā of a marae. She likened it to the theorising of Bourdieu, with his notions of embodied, objectified and institutionalised capital, and suggested that,
'In the context of leadership, if you aspire to be a leader, or are put in a position of a leader because you may have objectified and institutionalized cultural capital that serves the purposes of the collective, then you should be considered and celebrated as a leader. However, if you have those and embodied cultural capital, then you should be referred to as a rangatira'.
Together, Winiata and Higgins created a rich picture of what it means to be a Māori leader and a rangatira Māori. Both stressed the importance of inherited Māori values and the need for them to be expressed and demonstrated through tikanga Māori.
Following the presentations, the seminar audience of 40 or so students, academics and community members enjoyed an extended period of discussion, probing both speakers with questions about their inspirations, experiences and predictions. The seminar then concluded with some reflective thoughts from Professor Piri Sciascia about his own list of inspirational Māori leaders.
Tā Tipene O'Regan - 24 June 2010
On Thursday, 24 June 2010, at Te Puna o Waiwhetu Christchurch Art Gallery, Tā Tipene O'Regan gave a thought-provoking seminar on Matariki to an audience of approximately 30 guests.
Tā Tipene chose the title "Matariki – Not Just Another New Year", in which he believed it was time that we, as a Nation, started to look at this concept of Matariki and its possibilities. Thus, he shared his candid thoughts about how Matariki has become standardised in a western world concept and the impact it is having on Māori ideology of celebrating a new beginning and a new year.
For one-and-a-half hours Tā Tipene covered various topics all leading to what impact the western world is having on Māori and what Māori were doing about it and he summarised by indicating that although Waitangi Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our origins as a nation, Matariki is the perfect opportunity to us to be celebrating our future, identifying our reasons for hope and anticipation and the perfect time for us to look at the positives and to see the glass half full, as opposed to half empty.
Comments from participants:
"It was a good evening at the Art Gallery, I always learn something interesting from Tā Tipene...,"
"...what a superb evening listening to Tā Tipene's amazing lecture on Matariki...great organisation and a credit to MANU AO."
Professor Linda Smith - 14 May 2010
On Tuesday 14th May, 2010 Professor Linda Smith presented at Ngā Wai o Horotiu, AUT marae with at least 30 members in attendance.
Professor Linda Smith's engaging presentation shared insights into her journey from a University student at Auckland University to where she is now as Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori at Waikato University. She delivered a heartfelt and honest presentation from a Māori Academic perspective, thus providing us an opportunity to acknowledge and reflect on the challenges faced by Māori (both academic and allied) working within tertiary education.
Sharing advice, practical tools and inspirational thoughts she reiterated that common sense, determination and perseverance will keep you in good stead to be able to succeed in educational institutions. A final point was that collaboration is key to enhance opportunities for Māori access, participation and advancement.
Comment from participants:
"I was personally inspired by her leadership, vision and understanding of the mahi we undertake in such a driven environment".
"If I was to take one thing from her presentation, it would be that a leadership role is not necessarily a learnt or taught thing; in most cases people already have the required skills they just need to develop these skills".