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Since the 1950s, the advancements and developments in English language studies has had a profound impact on its description that has made it less syntactically driven and more communicatively oriented. This has the potential to influence language description moving it from a purely structurally focused orientation to a more semantically focused one that could influence pedagogic outcomes in more meaningful and useful ways. Nevertheless, in the case of the Māori language, its description has largely focused on structure linguistics that was prevalent in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There has been very little focus on a semantic description and this, in turn, is reflected in grammar books and textbooks on te reo. This thesis set out to explore a semantic approach to describe te reo and to rethink how this type of description may be realized and included in the design of grammar books and textbooks for the teaching and learning of te reo in the broader field of second language pedagogy and acquisition. The thesis also includes a practical component in which a small sample of Māori language teachers were interviewed to determine how linguistic and/ or semantic approaches to describe te reo may have or have impacted on their own beliefs, attitudes, and teaching practices (See, Chapter 7). Thus, it is argued here that research-based studies, advancements, and developments in language descriptions over the past five decades (See, for example, Council of Europe, 1949; Fillmore, 1967; Longacre, 1968; & Crombie, 1985b) should play central roles in the design of a semantic based description of the Māori language from which a linguistic based description can significantly benefit.

I am Māui I am not Māori. Reclamation of identity as uri o Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga is the ngako of this creative thesis, in response to the question, ‘who were we before and what is Māuitanga’? Due to its paucity my intention is to revive its frequency in restoration to its rightful status in this way; the tools to navigate authentication is through the lens of mātauranga Māui, embedded in kōrero tawhito, traditional cultural practice, lived experience and whakapapa. Validation is founded in our iwi repositories, pūrākau, ngā waiata, mōteatea, karakia, whaikōrero, rituals of encounter and the arts. Raranga as the creative vehicle affords the means to analogize kaupapa Māui. The creation of a Kākahu/Korowai is the appropriate representation as its significance aligns itself with the mantle of honour due to rangatira living and those who have passed. Exploration of kaupapa Māui infrastructure is fundamental to unravelling multi-faceted cultural narratives. These are the mechanisms to the reclamation of who we were before and to answer the question of Māuitanga. Ultimately to claim and to restore my heritage, to reinstate the common use of an ancient iwi, te iwi ‛Māui’.

Indigenous people’s connection to the natural world differs from place to place. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, Māori connection to nature is often articulated through the concept of kaitiakitanga whilst intertwining concepts of whakapapa, wairua, mana, mauri and place. Kaitiakitanga captures the relationships, narratives and practices that Māori utilise to protect kin of the natural environment as well as Māori communities in general. Over recent decades increase use of kaitiakitanga with respect to resource management has been linked to ideas of guardianship and stewardship, departing from important aspects such as place, whakapapa, intergenerational knowledge, spirituality and resource use. Calls to recognise the diverse ways kaitiakitanga has and can be expressed by Māori have echoed through academic literature, encouraging wider perspectives and application of the concept to develop. This has reinvigorated not only the need for natures protection but also the recognition of cultural knowledges and concepts in practicing kaitiakitanga. As with most indigenous people, Māori have experienced urbanisation that has spanned across generations of whānau and hapū. Urbanisation has the ability to challenge health outcomes, cultural practices and cultural knowledge, and more importantly, relationships to nature. Growing urbanisation and environmental degradation continue to challenge people and our relationships to nature. There is now a need to understand how urban spaces may also challenge the concepts that encourage connections to nature like kaitiakitanga. Moreover, there is a need to understand if such cultural concepts can become challenged when transient Māori reside in another tribal group’s boundaries. This research provides a deeper analysis of kaitiakitanga by understanding its application within the urban space of Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. From data gathered through a survey, focus groups and interviews, this research project illustrates the experiences of Māori in th

Ko Ngāti Whakaue tētehi iwi ahurei o te waka o Te Arawa. Ko tētehi taha ōna kei ngā tahataha o te kōroto moana o Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe, i Waingaehe ki Waimihia. Ko tētehi atu taha ōna kei te ūnga o te waka rongomaiwhiti o Te Arawa, arā ki Maketū. Kua whai mana a Ngāti Whakaue i ngā rautau e tū whakahīhī ai rātau hei iwi mana nui i ō rātau pūkenga me ō rātau pūmanawa kia mau tonu tō rātau Whakauetanga, tō rātau ahurea me ā rātau tikanga. Ko tētehi pūkenga pēnei i te āheinga ki te whakairo i te kupu rōreka, ki te tuitui i te kōrero i whakaputaina ai te kōrero ‘Te Arawa Māngai Nui’. He mea whakapuaki te kōrero rā e iwi kē ki te whakanui i ngā pūkōrero o ngā paepae o Te Arawa, ka mutu, koirā hoki tētehi pūkenga i hau ai te rongo o Ngāti Whakaue. Nā, ko te pūkenga e kōrerohia nei, ko te reo o Ngāti Whakaue. Ko tōna oranga tonutanga te kaupapa matua o tēnei tuhinga e rangahaua ana i te putanga o te kōrero a tētehi o ngā koroua matatau o te iwi i te tau 1992, arā a Hamuera Mitchell, nāna tonu nei i whakapuaki ‘Ka mate te reo o Ngāti Whakaue ā te tekau tau’. Nō reira, he whakatewhatewhahanga tēnei tuhinga o te reo o Ngāti Whakaue o tua, o mohoa noa nei hoki kia mōhiotia ai te oranga, te matenga haeretanga rānei o te reo o te iwi, o ngā hapū, o te hapori, o te kāinga o nāianei, kia tau hoki mehemea āe rānei kua whai hua ngā rautaki reo o mua a Ngāti Whakaue ki te whakarauora i tōna ake reo, ā, ka aha te iwi e anga whakamua ai. Ka mātaitia te āhua o te reo o Ngāti Whakaue kia mōhiotia mehemea i tika tā Hamera Mitchell i kī ai i te tau 1992, karekau rānei, mehemea rānei he wero kē nāna kia kaua e tukuna e te iwi o Ngāti Whakaue tō rātau reo kia mate. Ko te tikanga rangahau Pākehā, ko te tikanga rangahau Māori, me ngā tikanga ako reo ka kaha mātaitia i tēnei tuhinga kia tika ai te kohinga o ngā raraunga o tēnei momo rangahau, ngā tikanga matatika a te wānanga, ngā tukanga tātari me te whakahōrapatanga atu i ngā whakataunga o te rangahau. Hei āpiti atu, ka kōrer

KO TE KAWA TŪPANAPANA I NGĀ HAU TŪPUA A TĀWHIRI-MĀTEA – THE RITUALISTIC FORMS GOVERNING THE SUPERNATURAL WINDS OF TĀWHIRI-MĀTEA Mankind has always gazed skyward observing the im immense power generated by forked lightning when it strikes the land. The resounding thunder booming across the landscape never failed to capture the awe and imagination of a people. Māori were no different. The legacy of their Polynesian ancestors, who populated most of the Islands of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, the largest ocean on the planet, based on belief, courage, and navigational expertise, honed over many millenia, reached Aotearoa approximately in the 12 century. These highly skilled ancestors from the tropics applied a formalised process of settling a new land. It also required their own weatherlore to be recalibrated to the local conditions, in order to survive in a much harsher, colder climate. Over the centuries the descendants of these early Polynesian settlers, developed an extensive localised knowledge of weather, climate, and seasonal indicators to accurately predict daily weather, monthly or annual climate conditions. The ongoing lessons learned especially after experiencing a fatality were incorporated into cultural practices of important everyday activities such as ahuwhenua, te mahi hī ika, kohi rongoā, whakaako tamariki, gathering pounamu, whakatū rāhui, and kaitiakitanga, in order to minimise further loss of life. Formal recognition of these contributions was made at the inaugural Māori Climate Forum in Wellington in 2003, where a number of Māori elders highlighted the importance of giving a greater account of Māori knowledge of environmental change. Among the many priorities identified for research at this forum, an opportunity based on a challenge from a Māori elder led to the development of a pilot project to explore traditional Māori understandings of weather–climate variability and change. One of the key outcomes from this work was the identification of Māori environmen

This research is a narrative-based study of tūpuna narrative practices. As a privileged medium tūpuna narratives construct the conditions of iwi praxis which leads to mana-motuhake: the political independence and self-determination of Māori. This study explores how the Ngāti Koi applied ‘tūpuna narratives’ to challenge the hegemonic identity imposed on them that effectively alienated and silenced them erasing their memories of who they were and are. It is an auto-ethnography of an iwi, a whānau, a family it is a story about the writer. While this may seem a personal objective, the result indicates a cultural problematic in that the search for identity involves a critical kaupapa Māori investigation for an iwi to make sense of the act of colonisation, the colonial institutions that named them and the revitalization of their iwi identity in a Treaty of Waitangi context. This study has found that ‘tūpuna narratives’ represent identity conceptions that have implications for traditional normative practices. In narrative study there are no prescribed means for unearthing and creating meanings, research methods take the form of co-construction, the emphasis is on doing what is necessary to capture the lived experiences of iwi in terms of their particular-and-unique circumstances. Over time dominant theories have tended to align narrative practices with journalism, storytelling, myth and legend, tale and fable diminishing its conceptual role as the ‘epistemological other’ of the social sciences. The findings of this research illustrate the significant limitations of these theories. Narrative research is considered both a research method ‘in itself’ and also the phenomenon under study. In this study, narrative is applied as a conceptual metaphor to create interpreted descriptions, to understand and link causal historical and personal events to colonial institutional decision-making. Placed within the conceptual constellation of Kaupapa Māori narrative methodology becomes a p

This paper seeks to affirm Papakū Makawalu as a Hawaiian methodology that can be utilized to understand moʻolelo, mele and pule. Papakū makawalu is a name given to the process of deconstructing, analyzing, and reconstructing Hawaiian genres of discourse for the purpose of separating the embedded layers of metaphor to reveal the many possibilities of interpretation. The topics of choice that will be subjected to the papakū makawalu process are Lono and his role in the Makahiki festivities as recorded in mele and pule. This paper specifically examines the processes of time keeping, as Lonoikamakahiki is the akua of establishing the annual calendar by feeding the stars and aligning the calendar with the star constellation Makaliʻi. Lonomakua is the akua of ritual fire and all the geological activities that occur during the Makahiki. Lononuiākea is the akua for the celestial and atmospheric activities that transpire during the Makahiki season. The rituals, mele and pule that have been composed for these environmental expectations are rooted in generational observations to which layers upon layers of metaphor are added to describe Lono and his kino lau akua (manifestations). Papakū makawalu will establish that the environmental indicators that are affiliated with the season of Lono are in fact the kino lau akua of Lono. Papakū makawalu allows modern Hawaiians the means to expose the many layers and to understand Lono, which in turn allows the kānaka to better understand the ritual rules of engagement between the kānaka Hawaiʻi and the natural environment.