Abstract:
Maori with Bachelors degrees in Information Technologies (IT) have
specialist knowledge and skills far in advance of the general population of
Aotearoa/New Zealand. Problematically, this point is lost in dominant higher
education discourses that marginalise and position Maori negatively. The
'silence of the archives' with regard to Maori narratives of higher education
is a compounding factor. While the largest proportions of Maori pursue
tertiary education in the New Zealand Institutes of Technology and
Polytechnics (ITP), very little is known about them.
Kaupapa Maori theorising and research practices enabled a new approach in
an 'insurrection of suppressed knowledges' to identify and inform issues
that are problematic for Maori in particular. A traditional Maori metaphor of
poutama is used as a heuristic to illuminate core values and foundations of
a Maori worldview and philosophy, to generate a 'reversal discourse' that
gives a Maori perspective of the problems. Computer Graphic technologies
portray the spirals of learning implied by the multi-levelled, multi stepped
poutama; two heuristically separated worlds of Te Ao Maori and Te Ao
Pakeha and their integration into Te Ao Hou, The New World.
Re-interpreting a traditional role of Pae Arahi (Guides) as a Kaupapa Maori
research approach, respected members of tangata whenua, the indigenous
people of the land the ITPs are built on, facilitated appropriate entry into
fieldwork. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews conducted in 2006-2007
with 17 tauira Maori (students and graduates), 7 IT staff and 12 Maori staff
from three ITPs are the basis of narratives that 'positively image' Maori who
gained IT qualifications in the ITPs. A re-presentation of poutama as
whakapapa or genealogy explains the significance of foundational Maori
values of wairuatanga (spirituality), whenua (land), tangata (people) and
whanau (family), in academic success. A Maori worldview offers new
perspectives of what success is and challenges of being Maori in the tertiary
academy that are not commonly understood or acknowledged by non-Maori.
Five steps on a learning poutama follow the tauira Maori in their first
introductions to IT and prior education; enlightenment to the value of higher
education for whanau and openness to new understandings in the IT field; increasing confidence in their abilities to learn, to apply and share IT
knowledges; mastering the requirements of degrees in the academy and the
challenges of the virtually mono-cultural IT field and ITP environments; their
achievement of a pinnacle of IT degrees and other qualifications, and their
first steps into work.
Te Taumata, Te Timata expresses potentials for 'Maori Ways' to be
combined with 'IT Ways' and for more Maori voices to be heard in the higher
education discourse. Centrally it celebrates 17 unique individuals who are
role models, and inspirations for other Maori to follow to their own successes.
