Seminars

The wide variety of cultural and social features among Māori present a formidable challenge to those who seek to understand Māori identity – what ‘it’ is and how ‘it’ may be conceptualised and defined.

The 5 October 2011 grounding of the MV Rena on Otaiti was acknowledged as the worst environmental disaster in New Zealand’s history. The grounding and subsequent pollution had significant environmental impacts that were experienced in anthropogenic terms as impacts upon social, economic, and cultural well-being. The Ministry for the Environment responded with the Rena Long-Term Environmental Recovery Plan launched on 26 January 2012. The plan’s goal is to “restore the mauri of the affected environment to its pre-Rena state”.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

The first Horizons of Insight Seminar for 2013 was Professor Charles Royal speaking on “Creative Potential” – the vision and concept underpinning the strategy of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. If you missed this seminar, click here to watch the video.

“Whatukura: a computer based model of the human eye” is a long term research project in which Dr Jason Turuwhenua and his research team are aiming to produce optically and biomechanically functional computer eye models. Through such modelling he expects to increase our understanding of the eye and its diseases, and hopes to provide enhanced clinical diagnostics and interactions with patients.