The Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Directorship Public Seminar by  Te Ahukaramū entitled Te Kaimānga: Towards a New Vision for Mātauranga Māori is now available for online viewing here (7 September 2009).

More information about Charles Royal is available at www.charles-royal.com.

The latest issue of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples is now available.

AlterNative Volume 4, Number 2 is a general issue and includes 11 papers on different indigenous themes from around the world. AlterNative has the ambitious goal of redressing the hegemonic discourse by providing a space where indigenous voices can be clearly represented. Each of the 11 articles in the issue is a pragmatic attempt to reclaim and rework recordings of history and re-establish self-determination of indigenous peoples. Here we can catch a glimpse of the active global indigenous movement. In this issue you can find papers bridging a wide diversity of disciplines and peoples spanning Australasia and the Pacific, North America, Africa and Europe. Our indigenous language paper in this issue is closer to home for us, a study of changing pronunciation in te reo Māori.
A full list of the contents and abstracts can be found by clicking here.

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We welcome submissions at any time, and would especially encourage people to submit papers for the 2010 general issue now. Please visit our website for more details on our guidelines and how to submit.
www.alternative.ac.nz

When: Monday, 7th September, 2009,  2- 3pm

Where: Wharenui, Marae, Waipapa Marae Complex, 16 Wynyard Street, Auckland.

Candidate: Te Ahukaramū, Charles Royal

Title: Te Kaimānga: Towards a New Vision for Mātauranga Māori

Abstract:

Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal recently completed a research project entitled ‘Te Kaimānga: Towards a New Vision for Mātauranga Māori’. This project was funded by the Foundation of Research, Science and Technology in the years 2004 to 2007. The lecture will commence with an overview of this project. Charles will discuss a working definition of ‘mātauranga Māori’ before exploring the ‘contents’ of mātauranga Māori – its applications and expressions in history and today. The lecture will also discuss the ‘creative potential’ of existing mātauranga Māori. Charles argues that despite its somewhat fragmentary and disorganised state, mātauranga Māori still retains ‘creative potential’ and given certain conditions is able to make distinctive contributions to our nation’s life, culture, society and economy.

The body of the lecture will discuss three key ideas which have emerged from the research – namely, the movement toward ‘creative potential’, a theme of cultural transformation in iwi/Māori communities An example of this movement is conceptualised as the movement through tangata Māori to tangata whenua. The lecture will conclude on the opportunities and challenges of indigenity. The relationship between people and the natural world is an issue that faces all peoples. ‘Indigenity’ represents a potential response to a range of contemporary issues and problems (climate change, for example) based as it is upon an intimate relationship between people and the natural world. There is fundamental need, Charles argues, to recalibrate humankind’s relationship with the earth. A new kind of indigenity represents a potential response to this challenge.

All welcome to this public seminar.