Minority language speakers are being placed under increasing pressure to use languages that are moredominant, more prestigious, or more widely known. This is particularly so when using internet–based technology. Ironically, minority language groups are increasingly embracing the power of this technology as they struggle to ensure the continued health and survival of their own languages. Māori are no exception. Initiatives involving the Microsoft Corporation, Moodle and Google Inc. have resulted in a range of localised interfaces now available in the Māori language.

Fostering Te Pā Harakeke: Healthy and Prosperous Families of Mana: 25-26 November 2013, Trinity Wharf Tauranga. Registrations are now closed as the symposium is fully booked.

Associate Professor Paul Kayes, Kia Maia Ellis and James (Hemi) O’Callaghan will discuss the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga research project they are leading - “An investigation into the fisheries resources and interests of iwi, hapū and marae within Tauranga Moana and the impacts caused by the grounding of the CV Rena”. This research aims to assess the status of selected taonga shellfish (including pipi, tuatua, kina and pāua) resources within the Rohe Moana o Tauranga Moana, and the impacts caused by the grounding of the cargo vessel Rena on these fisheries and iwi ability to manage them.

In findings published this week, researchers have called for health professionals to look at how they can challenge the inherent racism in New Zealand’s health services and how this affects Māori men. The study by Jacquie Kidd, Veronique Gibbons, Erena Kara, Rawiri Blundell and Kay Berryman is in the latest issue of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, published by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.

Dr Joseph Te Rito will describe in this seminar the development of a spoken language corpus of the Māori language, and efforts to enhance it for the language’s revitalisation. The spoken corpus is that of the Rongomaiwahine and Ngāti Kahungunu tribes. It is comprised of over 2,000 on-air recordings of elders for whom Māori is their first language. The collection has been created and gathered over the last 25 years by Radio Kahungunu, which Dr Te Rito heads.

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) announces the appointment of two new editors of MAI Journal: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship.

Dr Maria Bargh and Associate Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes take over editorship of the Journal, published by NPM, from Professor Mike Walker and Dr Tracey McIntosh. MAI Journal publishes multidisciplinary peer-reviewed articles around indigenous knowledge and development in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. The Journal is published online and all content is free to access.

Dr Shaun Ogilvie explored new frontiers of knowledge in this seminar by posing a new approach for the relationship between what are often considered to be two distinct bodies of knowledge: mātauranga Māori and applied ecology.

To watch the video of this seminar, click here

In new research published this week, the significance of New Zealand’s Whānau Ora policy is examined. The analysis appears in the latest issue of MAI Journal: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, published by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.

Dr Amohia Boulton, Jennifer Tamehana and Dr Tula Brannelly in their paper titled “Whānau-centred health and social service delivery in New Zealand” offer their observations on how important this new policy approach has been, and will be in the coming years.

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) is pleased to announce their latest research commissioning round.

Renowned Central American literary expert and scholar Professor Arturo Arias will dispel myths surrounding the Maya Calendar, and address wider issues for indigenous cultures in a public lecture Tuesday 12th March.

On 21st December 2012, Maya communities in the Americas celebrated the end of the Fourth Era and welcomed the Oxlajuj B’aqtun, the Fifth Maya Era. However across the planet, from the US to Russia, people panicked at the idea that the world would end “as predicted by Maya astronomers”.