Here's a link to our Lincoln 'Conservations' page on Maori Resilience and a draft of a Working Paper on our recent survey results, framed by statistics and interview quotes gathered over the past year.
Impacts on Māori of the Ōtautahi/Christchurch earthquakes
Our conclusions are that while resilience has become a commonplace term within the city, our results show the Māori experience thus far is best described as endurance: the ‘bounce back’ in people’s well-being has yet to happen. This should not be a surprising conclusion at this stage of the recovery in a process that will take many years to complete.
Overall, Māori are remarkably philosophical about the effects of the disaster with many proudly working in their roles through a historic event of great significance to the city and country. Most believe that ‘being Māori’ has helped cope with the disaster although for some this draws on a collective history of poverty and marginalisation, features that undoubtedly contribute to the vulnerability of Māori to such events. Reducing our future vulnerability will require the collective continuance of our cultural practices and an increase in Māori economic wellbeing.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Maori views on life, the universe and everything...
Horizon Research recently released a survey - Maori Viewpoint 2012 report - that tracks our views on a range of issues (actually, not that varied a range as it happens...). The survey was done in August and is of 433 adult Maori. (Some of these results are compared with a similar survey from May, 2011).
More of us evidently think Aotearoa/NZ is headed in the wrong direction, 71.8% (compared with 63.1% in May 2011). While consistent across all age groups, concern rises to nearly 80% among rangatahi. Goodbye Gisbourne, G'day Brisbane.
We're also increasingly dissatisfied with the Government’s handling of the economy and more are reporting their household financial positions are worse than a year ago, and more expect them to worsen in the next year. Overall 34.5% of Maori expect household financial positions to crapify.
As for iwi involvement, 5% of Maori are now more involved in iwi affairs than in 2011, though a third are still not active in iwi affairs. 51% have little or no contact with their iwi and 24.6% only rate contact with them by their iwi as adequate or better.
We feel better informed on iwi issues up from 42% in May 2011 to 55%. Nearly 44% of us think our iwi is/are adequately consulting. However, a small majority of 56% feel this consultation is inadequate (it was 72.3% in the previous study). Most of us - 82.3% - want more involvement.
53.7% of Maori say we have received no personal benefit from treaty settlements; 58% feel only a few cousins are benefiting. There has been a 14% fall in the number who feel their iwi are adequately managing their fisheries. Two thirds (64%) feel we have no influence on iwi fisheries policy.
No surprises that 81% of us oppose the Government’s policy to sell shares in state owned energy companies. The party splits are Labour 95%, Mana 100%, Maori party 79% and Green 82.2%. But we're a diverse mob nowadays, so of those who voted National, 67.03% support (14.40% of strongly). There is less certainty over whether Maori own water rights and can attach a value to them: 48.7% say yes, 32% no. The survey was taken in the week the Waitangi Tribunal started hearing an application from the Maori Council and others regarding asset sales and water rights.
Health, unemployment and secondary education are seen as the most important future challenges. Less important are mining and gas and oil exploration; marine and coastal area rights are still viewed as a priority by most Maori.
More of us evidently think Aotearoa/NZ is headed in the wrong direction, 71.8% (compared with 63.1% in May 2011). While consistent across all age groups, concern rises to nearly 80% among rangatahi. Goodbye Gisbourne, G'day Brisbane.
We're also increasingly dissatisfied with the Government’s handling of the economy and more are reporting their household financial positions are worse than a year ago, and more expect them to worsen in the next year. Overall 34.5% of Maori expect household financial positions to crapify.
As for iwi involvement, 5% of Maori are now more involved in iwi affairs than in 2011, though a third are still not active in iwi affairs. 51% have little or no contact with their iwi and 24.6% only rate contact with them by their iwi as adequate or better.
We feel better informed on iwi issues up from 42% in May 2011 to 55%. Nearly 44% of us think our iwi is/are adequately consulting. However, a small majority of 56% feel this consultation is inadequate (it was 72.3% in the previous study). Most of us - 82.3% - want more involvement.
53.7% of Maori say we have received no personal benefit from treaty settlements; 58% feel only a few cousins are benefiting. There has been a 14% fall in the number who feel their iwi are adequately managing their fisheries. Two thirds (64%) feel we have no influence on iwi fisheries policy.
No surprises that 81% of us oppose the Government’s policy to sell shares in state owned energy companies. The party splits are Labour 95%, Mana 100%, Maori party 79% and Green 82.2%. But we're a diverse mob nowadays, so of those who voted National, 67.03% support (14.40% of strongly). There is less certainty over whether Maori own water rights and can attach a value to them: 48.7% say yes, 32% no. The survey was taken in the week the Waitangi Tribunal started hearing an application from the Maori Council and others regarding asset sales and water rights.
Health, unemployment and secondary education are seen as the most important future challenges. Less important are mining and gas and oil exploration; marine and coastal area rights are still viewed as a priority by most Maori.
Maori and Pasifika squeezing through a narrower window to Victoria University
Victoria University has applied to raise fees in its undergraduate education, social sciences and humanities courses by 8 per cent - twice the maximum permissible under government regulations - and justifies this by saying the revenue would allow the university to better support Maori and Pasifika students.
These courses have the highest proportion of Maori and Pasifika students.
With inflation running at a lower than predicted 0.8%, we continue to see universities seeking to raise fees by 4% across all courses.
As a lecturer I know that many students are really struggling financially and will take on whatever employment they can to minimise their debt. But tertiary study is time-intensive - we expect students to spend an hour or preferably two buried in the texts for every hour they sit in a lecture room but many are working as bar staff or supermarket shelf stackers, hardly conducive to intellectual exertion.
With education still our way out of the mire of poverty and underemployment, anything that narrows the window of opportunity is to be opposed, as Ivy Harper, Lincoln PhD candidate, argues...
These courses have the highest proportion of Maori and Pasifika students.
With inflation running at a lower than predicted 0.8%, we continue to see universities seeking to raise fees by 4% across all courses.
As a lecturer I know that many students are really struggling financially and will take on whatever employment they can to minimise their debt. But tertiary study is time-intensive - we expect students to spend an hour or preferably two buried in the texts for every hour they sit in a lecture room but many are working as bar staff or supermarket shelf stackers, hardly conducive to intellectual exertion.
With education still our way out of the mire of poverty and underemployment, anything that narrows the window of opportunity is to be opposed, as Ivy Harper, Lincoln PhD candidate, argues...
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Zizek and the Maori economy II
A typically jokey and random interview with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek appears in The Guardian.
I've noted in an earlier post about insights on the Maori economy through his thinking on how capitalist hierarchies enforce lower social status while constantly articulating the inherent value and nobleness of our drudgery. So we have tribal leaders, iwi elites, senior managers, cultural brokers and so on pronouncing on rank and file 'tribal members', beneficiaries, and shareholders. Because we hurt, our path must be the right one...
I've noted in an earlier post about insights on the Maori economy through his thinking on how capitalist hierarchies enforce lower social status while constantly articulating the inherent value and nobleness of our drudgery. So we have tribal leaders, iwi elites, senior managers, cultural brokers and so on pronouncing on rank and file 'tribal members', beneficiaries, and shareholders. Because we hurt, our path must be the right one...
I actually recognise a kindred soul in his subversive interpretation of humour and its role in revealing truth. "Most people think I'm making jokes, exaggerating – but no, I'm not. It's not that. First I tell jokes, then I'm serious. No, the art is to bring the serious message into the forum of jokes."
Gets you in trouble though ay.
Nice reposte to those who think intellectual elites have more insight than others: "When people ask me what to do with the economy, what the hell do I know? I think the task of people like me is not to provide answers but to ask the right questions."
I love laughing at Indigenous elites and their pretensions to intelligence, leadership, and even style (what is it with the orange-tanning application?! Or $70 underpants?!). But this can come back to bite you on the kumu, being such a small world n'all. And even though they are too often idiots, they too often have power, which is no less utilised despite being given them by The Man.
Gets you in trouble though ay.
Nice reposte to those who think intellectual elites have more insight than others: "When people ask me what to do with the economy, what the hell do I know? I think the task of people like me is not to provide answers but to ask the right questions."
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
He aitua: Wilson Whineray
Lincoln University pays respects to the memory of distinguished alumnus Sir Wilson James Whineray who died in Auckland on Monday 22 October aged 77.
Best known throughout New Zealand and internationally as a renowned All Black player and captain, Sir Wilson also had outstanding careers in the business world and with community organisations. The bulk of his business life was with Alex Harvey Industries/Carter Holt Harvey where he rose to be Deputy Managing Director then Chairman of Directors. He was also a board member of many other leading companies and CEO of the Wool Corporation. Community organisations he served included SPARC’s forerunner the Hillary Commission for Sport and Recreation, which he chaired, the Halberg Trust for Children, the Sir Peter Blake Trust, and the Cochlear Implant Trust (Children).
Sir Wilson came to Lincoln University, then Canterbury Agricultural College, in 1953 as a Rural Field Cadet, an elite group the College groomed for government department jobs connected with agriculture. He completed the Intensive Course then the course leading to a Diploma in Valuation and Farm Management, awarded in 1958.
Although born and brought up in Auckland, he came to Lincoln University from Southland where he had been engaged in farm work waiting to take up his Rural Field Cadetship. His father’s background included dairy farming in the Waikato and Wilson turned to the land for his first job after obtaining University Entrance at Auckland Grammar School, where he had been a prefect and vice-captain of the 1st XV. His mother wanted him to return to school but he wanted to “get on with things”.
When awarded the Bledisloe Medal by Lincoln University in 2006 for outstanding contributions advancing New Zealand’s interests, he confessed that he would have gone farming as a career if he had possessed the money! Instead, with his Diploma in Valuation and Farm Management, he went to a position with the State Advances Corporation, then later entered the business world having in the meantime completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
In 1969 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship which took him to Harvard University and an MBA degree. He was encouraged to apply for the Harkness Fellowship by Lincoln College Principal Sir Malcolm Burns, himself a Harkness alumnus, and he always acknowledged Sir Malcolm’s support.
“My time at Harvard University and in the United States of America was life-changing,” he said.
At Lincoln University Wilson captained the 1st Rugby XV in 1957, under coach Harry Garrett, and led his team to winning the Ellesmere Senior Competition. At Lincoln he was both a Rugby and Boxing ‘Blue’ and it was from there that he was selected as an All Black in 1957 while still a student. He was the University’s third student All Black after John Hotop (1952) and John Buxton (1955). In all, as a student, he played for Lincoln College, New Zealand Universities, Ellesmere, Canterbury and New Zealand.
In later years Wilson would tell of travelling to games in the back of the College’s student truck - covered but with a wooden seat - and of quick after-match socialising before rushing back to the College for dinner by 6.00pm! He said he was always “hugely grateful” for his years playing rugby for Lincoln, Ellesmere and Canterbury.
Wilson Whineray was knighted in 1998 for his services to sport and business management. He is survived by wife Lady Elisabeth, two daughters and a son.
Here's a pic from our archives, Wilson Whinerary is back row, second from the right.
Best known throughout New Zealand and internationally as a renowned All Black player and captain, Sir Wilson also had outstanding careers in the business world and with community organisations. The bulk of his business life was with Alex Harvey Industries/Carter Holt Harvey where he rose to be Deputy Managing Director then Chairman of Directors. He was also a board member of many other leading companies and CEO of the Wool Corporation. Community organisations he served included SPARC’s forerunner the Hillary Commission for Sport and Recreation, which he chaired, the Halberg Trust for Children, the Sir Peter Blake Trust, and the Cochlear Implant Trust (Children).
Sir Wilson came to Lincoln University, then Canterbury Agricultural College, in 1953 as a Rural Field Cadet, an elite group the College groomed for government department jobs connected with agriculture. He completed the Intensive Course then the course leading to a Diploma in Valuation and Farm Management, awarded in 1958.
Although born and brought up in Auckland, he came to Lincoln University from Southland where he had been engaged in farm work waiting to take up his Rural Field Cadetship. His father’s background included dairy farming in the Waikato and Wilson turned to the land for his first job after obtaining University Entrance at Auckland Grammar School, where he had been a prefect and vice-captain of the 1st XV. His mother wanted him to return to school but he wanted to “get on with things”.
When awarded the Bledisloe Medal by Lincoln University in 2006 for outstanding contributions advancing New Zealand’s interests, he confessed that he would have gone farming as a career if he had possessed the money! Instead, with his Diploma in Valuation and Farm Management, he went to a position with the State Advances Corporation, then later entered the business world having in the meantime completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
In 1969 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship which took him to Harvard University and an MBA degree. He was encouraged to apply for the Harkness Fellowship by Lincoln College Principal Sir Malcolm Burns, himself a Harkness alumnus, and he always acknowledged Sir Malcolm’s support.
“My time at Harvard University and in the United States of America was life-changing,” he said.
At Lincoln University Wilson captained the 1st Rugby XV in 1957, under coach Harry Garrett, and led his team to winning the Ellesmere Senior Competition. At Lincoln he was both a Rugby and Boxing ‘Blue’ and it was from there that he was selected as an All Black in 1957 while still a student. He was the University’s third student All Black after John Hotop (1952) and John Buxton (1955). In all, as a student, he played for Lincoln College, New Zealand Universities, Ellesmere, Canterbury and New Zealand.
In later years Wilson would tell of travelling to games in the back of the College’s student truck - covered but with a wooden seat - and of quick after-match socialising before rushing back to the College for dinner by 6.00pm! He said he was always “hugely grateful” for his years playing rugby for Lincoln, Ellesmere and Canterbury.
Wilson Whineray was knighted in 1998 for his services to sport and business management. He is survived by wife Lady Elisabeth, two daughters and a son.
Here's a pic from our archives, Wilson Whinerary is back row, second from the right.
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| 1957 VFM Back Row: Walshe, W.M. Tothill, T. Firth, R.A. Keene, M.G. Wilson, A.R. Cashmore, B.D. Pinckney, G.W. Janett, D.L. Cassie, A.F. Whineray, W.J. Such, B.W. Front Row: Dalmer, M.J. Mason, G. Cull,S.J. McGregor, E.M. Guise, J.W.B. Frengley, G.A.G. Manson, R.M. Tate, G.F. Tait, R.B. Batten, G.J |
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