Heke Mai Ki Ahau Nei E! Roka Paora's Contributions To Tukunga Iho A Te Whānau-a-Apanui And Te Reo O Te Whānau-a-Apanui

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century Te Whānau-a-Apanui scholars continued to assert distinctive features of Te Whānau-a-Apanui identity through both literary and non-literary texts. Roka Pahewa Paora contributed to this important work by producing Māori texts for Māori language students and the community. Those texts became well-known in the field of Māori education for asserting distinctive features of te reo o Te Whānau-a-Apanui. This thesis explores a selection of tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui, kōrero tuku iho and taonga tuku iho, to illustrate how Roka and other Te Whānau-a-Apanui scholars before and after her have embraced and passed down tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui by renewing or extending core elements, otherwise referred to in this thesis as the iho, of earlier tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui.

Specifically, this thesis examines Roka’s published writings ‘Ka Haere a Hata Mā Ki te Hī Moki’ (Paora, 1971) and ‘He Kōrero Mō te Mahi Wēra i Te Whānau-a-Apanui’ (Paora in Moorfield, 1992) as extensions of earlier tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui about moki and whales. My analysis focuses on how Roka applied the knowledge, language and history of earlier tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui to her writings to assert te reo o Te Whānau-a-Apanui. Therefore, this thesis uses a tukunga iho framework to illustrate familial and intellectual connections between and across a selection of tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui and the tribal scholars that produced them. Roka’s writings and archive are repositories of important tukunga iho and provide connections to tribal, Māori and non-Māori scholars who offer insights and interpretations of mātauranga Māori that have been applied to Māori studies paradigms and kaupapa Māori. This wider range of knowledge, language and historical sources also help me to show how tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui contain important insights into the social, cultural and economic contexts in which my ancestors embraced, extended and passed down tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui. Overall, this thesis offers twenty-first century interpretations of tukunga iho a Te Whānau-a-Apanui and how they assert te reo o Te Whānau-a-Apanui.