I’m the first in my whānau to go to university and the first to get a PhD.
And now I’m first in my whānau to become a full Professor.
I stand on the shoulders of my tūpuna and the Māori scholars who came before me.
E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea.
White academia: You’ve ‘discovered’ racism this past fortnight and taken to the streets in support of BLM. Now it’s time to turn your attention to the saturating whiteness of your own universities, disciplines and teaching & research practices, and recognise your own complicity.
To those waving the United Tribes and Tino Rangatiratanga flags at parliament, mana whenua have spoken.
To those knit-your-own-yurt folk culturally appropriating indigenous imagery in the name of conspirituality, mana whenua have spoken.
It's time to go home.
So let me get this right, cancer patients may have their benefits cut if they don't get a job but landlords get a $3billion tax cut. What is this parallel universe I've entered?
If you are a teacher in NZ & find yourself with a greater workload due to some of your colleagues being absent, flick me a message & I am happy to try to organise to video call your class to talk about the NZ Wars
Sending support to the amazing, wonderful supermarket staff
@NewWorld_Thordn
near Parliament who are dealing with aggressive, unmasked anti-vaxx protesters at present. Thank you for coming to work under such trying circumstances. We see you. Keep safe.
I would like to see Trelise Cooper donate all proceeds from her "Trail of Tiers" dress to Navajo nation and Hopi nation reservations who are struggling during the pandemic. In May 2020, Navajo Nation had more confirmed cases per capita than 48 US States
Today I found myself ripping into a random racist in a Kapiti Coast bookstore who was banging on about 'all this rewriting of history' and 'Tay Rapra (ie Te Rauparaha) the war criminal'.
It was probably entirely unneccesary on my part but Twitter, it cleared the sinuses.
The headline that injured me this morning:
"Chris Trotter says MediaWorks’ decision to take Sean Plunket off the air raises disturbing questions about New Zealand’s political diversity"
I fell off my seat laughing.
Lor, when white men claim to be the voice of diversity 😜
UPDATE: If you are a teacher in NZ & find yourself with a greater workload due to some of your colleagues being absent, flick me a message- Vincent O'Malley (
@vomalley
) and I would be happy to organise to video call your class to talk about the NZ Wars
This is a thread about research trauma. It’s about how we tell stories, as indigenous researchers, about the violent past and the complicated, messy present; how we occupy different time-zones in the course of a fieldwork day. It’s also about how we exercise our privilege (1/14)
Wow, it never stops feeling painful when Pākehā colleagues erase your contribution to a project by removing everything you've written and putting their own words in place. How's your morning going?
"The day that Māori start taking advice from Judith [Collins] about tikanga Māori is the day we shall all have entered the twilight zone" : (The always delightful) Ella Henry tonight on TV1 News. 🤣🤣🤣
Ella is one of the most quotable wāhine on earth😂
"Twenty-two percent of the women had received threats of sexual violence. None of the men had. That’s a gender disparity so profound it speaks directly and explicitly of a violent misogyny."
Could we just be a little bit more fucking tolerant please?
THIS has made my day!
The town of Maxwell, named after the leader of the militia that brutally murdered Māori children, is FINALLY having its name changed.
Pākaraka once more!
Feeling pretty tearful right now.
@nzherald
I was first in whānau to go to university over 40 years ago and from day 1, I saw entrenched structural and epistemic racism.
What's changed?
Nothing.
It's been a really hard week in academia for Māori.
TBH, sometimes it really just feels too soul-destroyingly hard
When there's a knock on the door and the words accompanying these putiputi read : 'Ka whawhai tonu mātou' and you know that the wāhine toa are gathering. Thank you😭This will pass but right now I'm moved beyond words xxx
I stand in solidarity with Māori academics at Waikato University who are speaking out against institutional racism in their institution. Ka whawhai tonu mātou!
NZ fashion designer Trelise Cooper names one of her dress designs: "Trail of Tiers." I guess it's cool to be ironic about genocide and the forced relocation of 46,000 Native Americans.
@trelisewgtn
If academics imposed a strict work-to-rule regime and worked only the hours we are paid for, universities in Aotearoa would probably stop functioning altogether after a couple of weeks.
Was told today that I was considered a key contender for a very senior and important role but hadn’t applied for it. I laughed and deflected but afterwards wondered why the hell I did that.
Wāhine Māori, we need to recognise and own our strengths and magnificence way more often.
People begging for kai outside the supermarket on this coldest day of the year. And a koha of rotisserie chicken on my way out changes nothing since people will be hungry again tomorrow. Angry about the brokenness. Vicarious anger for the casualties of this Coalition of Cruelty
So when might we talk about mental health, the toxic work culture inside the Beehive and the Wellington beltway, and the vicious environment of NZ politics more generally?🤔
Now's good.
I am heart-broken about the silence of government who could, if it wished, come to the aid of a tertiary sector that lies in pieces. Who will educate your children in the years to come? Who will be left to speak truth to power?
"From the moment that the ancestors began to know this land as the Mother, Papatūānuku, stories have had the capacity to guide and teach as well as entertain or warn" Moana Jackson
Moe mai rā e te rangatira
"New Zealand First would do almost anything for a vote now. They’re as principled as a cigarette"
@JohnJCampbell
This is fkn great writing. It's a long read, but don't skimp. Treat it as homework but interesting.
So along with many others at Victoria University, my colleagues and I got the email of doom today, calling us to a meeting to advise us about the impact of the cuts to our programme. The vibe across campus is incredibly grim. Fun times.
Wellington conversation, today, in a lift at uni:
Bearded 20-something male to his mate: I think that's Joanna Kidman. I follow her on twitter.
Bearded mate: Nah, she's too old.
Bearded 20-something: Yeah.. nah, it's not her.
Ummm, I CAN HEAR YOU!
Perhaps a National government could set up a real estate company for foreign buyers.
They could call it the New Zealand Company.
Yeah, that would work.🫤
The right to protest, like freedom of speech, comes with responsibilities. It's not absolute. Yeah you can be obnoxious for the sake of it if you want, but once you start using swastikas, misuse symbols from the Shoah or spread disinformation you've signed away those rights IMO
When I raised urgent concerns at
@wellingtonuni
about the safety of Māori colleagues and students, I was listened to carefully and taken seriously. The VC and DVC (Māori) offered immediate support and my HoDs (both wāhine Māori) swung into action.
See
@AucklandUni
, it can be done
"I was relieved that I was no longer in the same department as two senior professors, who authored the 'Listener Letter' ... who subsequently used the Privacy Act and lawyers to gain access to my emails":
@taramcallister4
"
Last week a stranger in an underground carpark threatened to rape me 'to teach me a lesson' and then spat at me. I was very frightened
Recently I gave a talk about intergenerational memories of Ōrākau. I cried. The audience applauded
Memo to self: I'm not your fckn trauma trope
Why did this story make me tearful? It's lovely and those tāne are beautiful. But I got weepy because it brought home how stories about gentle, loving Māori fathers rarely appear in my newsfeed. These men are so often erased by negative media
via
@NZSTUFF
One of my research resolutions this year is to focus on how teacher education programmes facilitate, perpetuate and entrench institutional racism; how that affects whānau Māori across the country and also the teaching profession itself.
I've been biting my tongue for too long.
There is so much evidence that military-style youth boot camps don't work and are expensive, that I can only assume that this government hates children, most of whom will be poor and brown. Plus, it wants to snatch children's lunches. Is this a government or a death-cult?
Today I'm checking my transcripts of our visits to battle sites in Taranaki... and I just can't even...
Twenty years and wave after wave of invasion...haukāinga fleeing for their lives...being hunted down...endless land confiscations...
Some days this work is: Just. Too. Much.
I find it very confronting to hear that the Shaping Hamilton exhibition at Waikato Museum asks visitors to vote on whether they would invade Waikato had they been 19th century decision makers. And, a substantial number said yes. This hurts.
I find it terrifying to hear so many Pākehā academics suddenly claiming they are mātauranga Māori experts especially when securing funding or institutional resources. In some fields (e.g. law psychology, education, health) this can have a direct impact on Māori lives. Just stop!
I'm bemused by this. Due process takes time. There were privacy and mental health issues involved. Why shd the Greens have made public statements ahead of a fair employment process? Are we (the public) just grumpy foot-stomping toddlers who need information Now! Now! Now!
Thank you to the many for your online support as this particularly nasty deluge plays out. I know who you are and appreciate your advocacy. Please take this as a personal acknowledgement.
Please NEVER use words like 'kaitiakitanga' to justify redundancies
@VicUniWgtn
- this misuse of Māori concepts to justify putting people out of work is incredibly distressing and angering and racist! Just stop!
Kia ora everyone, am dropping in to thank you all so very much for your care and support. It's made a difficult day less challenging. I'm keeping an eye on my socials but will hold off posting for a few days until the storm passes. You're damn good humans.❤️
I see there's roiling upset about the image of crossed guns but perhaps they should check with the artist (Hint: it's a symbol of partnership after a period of anger & bloodshed). Kinda obvious but this is why we need to teach NZ history in schools. Toitū te Tiriti, dudes🙄
It's here! NZ Wars: Stories of Tainui.
And it had me in tears in the first 20 seconds.
If you watch nothing else this year, please watch this (+ the graphics are awesome!)
It just took
@vomalley
and me two and a half hours to replace a toilet seat in our bathroom. That's what 2 PhDs and 15 years of tertiary education does for you.
Hey, can the Pākehā media please stop referring to a group "illegally occupying" the whenua at Ihumātao. Know your history and get your facts straight. Also, check your bias. Check your privilege.
Today a male colleague described himself to me as an "equity champion'. 🧎♀️
Later, another one said he considered himself to be a 'thought leader'👨🎓
How grandiose.
Do these terms come with a tiara?👑
If so, can I have one?
I could be the tea-lady ninja 🥷
I wonder how museum visitors might have voted if asked to vote on whether they would defend their land and people if they were invaded. I also wonder what the f#&king point of the question was. Interactive engagement taken a bit far!
When researchers raised concerns about boot camps, we were publicly vilified. What will it take for the evidence-base to be recognised in this theatre of cruelty?
As of today I have two strong, clever, articulate wāhine Māori as my co-Heads of Department.
A/P Mere Skerrett and Dr Hiria McRae have adopted a distributed leadership approach.
THIS is what academic leadership in Aotearoa should look like.
@WellingtonUni
- you did good today.
Which ever of
@dbseymour
's staffers are running this account tonight ('cos it ain't him), tell your boss that I'm personally inviting him to pop across the road and have a coffee and a kōrero with me at The Lab - I'll even pay. Would love to have a chat. Is he brave enough?
As a wahine Māori who got a just-in-time bowel cancer diagnosis 12 years ago, I'm grateful to be alive. Stalling the bowel cancer screening programme is a vicious blow for Māori and Pasifika health
#CoalitionofCruelty
Heartwarming that so many men have stepped forward in the past 48 hours to reassure us ladies that misogyny isn't as bad as we thought.
Phew, here was me thinking... nah, wait... have to leave the thinking to the menfolk
#prettylittlething
'So I cried, because of the weight she’s now carrying. And reflecting with others as the day went on, many of us had similar feelings for her. I hope that the rest of te ao Māori will rally together to help her as best we can' - Tom Roa
Oh settlers! 🤦♀️Opened the Letters page of the Listener to find a bunch of University of Auckland professors, incl Liz Rata, denying that Mātauranga Māori is science. Where do these shuffling zombies come from?
Is there something in the water?
Jeez, a lot of finger-waving at Ngāpuhi for setting ground rules in their own rohe. You'd almost think people don't know how the Treaty of Waitangi is supposed to work.... oh... wait... 😂
Breaking news: Dog-whistling Auckland University professor makes scare-mongering claims that He Puapua will create an ethno-nationalist state.
Oh dear.😱
Ummm... NZ's been a (white) ethno-nationalist state since 1845 when the NZ Wars kicked off.
Guess she didn't get the memo.
Tucked between Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe maunga on SH47 is Te Pōrere redoubt where Te Kooti waged the last pā battle of the NZ Wars on 4 October, 1869. Cold and quiet on this winter afternoon.
@NewZealandWars
"The past doesn’t always have happy endings and knowing what happened helps us to understand how we live now."
My story about history, memory, forgetting, and always, and of course-- Ōrakau
With all the disinfo about NZ history floating about, it would be really nice if a few more pākehā university-based historians wd speak up publicly rather than always leaving it to Māori or to public historians to go into the firing line. But nah 🦗🦗🦗
We've just heard about a high profile case of burn out. Probably many women are identifying with this today incl those who are overtly racialised in their workplaces. Expressions of gendered hate, alongside everyday misogyny and racism, place us at huge risk. It's time to listen.
"Otago and Auckland Universities are teaming up and have told the government they can train up to 300 additional doctors annually, without the need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a third medical school at Waikato University"
Spending time with someone who has not much time left is one of the most gentle of privileges. Our conversations are really just small acts of memory. It's really hard and shitty, but it's also strangely wonderful.
Ross Meurant opining (on Stuff) today about how hard it was to be vilified during the 81 Springbok Tour.
Oh, cry me a river. The Red Squad were pricks with batons and the source of state-sanctioned 'extreme street violence'. Those bastards beat the shit out of us.
Far-right riots engulf UK streets and disinformation about Muslims spreads online.
In other news, NZ quietly winds down work on the outstanding recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attack.
My paper, which recently won the TASA Best Paper Award, about Māori academics and their complicated roles as critics and conscience of society is now available free
NZ parliament: Where the media is so prescient, it knows a person's guilt or innocence before a police investigation has been carried out. Before charges are even laid.
Women of colour especially- beware, you're always going to be found guilty ahead of the facts.
I was on the WONAAC frontlines in the 1980s in the defence of NZ abortion clinics and women's right to choose. We were manhandled by police and spat at by SPUC supporters outside the clinic in Pōneke but stood firm.
Today I'm an old woman grieving the overturn of Roe v Wade.