Browsing by Author "Meihana P"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    My Ancestors Met Cook in Aotearoa 250 years. For us it's time to reinterpret a painful history
    (The Conversation, 2020-04-29) Meihana P
    This article discusses the experience of the Kurahaupō tribes during the Tuia 250 Commemorations.
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    Navigating the Politics of Remembering
    (UTS ePRESS, 6/12/2022) Meihana P; McKergow', F; Watson, G; Littlewood, D; Neill, C
    Remembering the past is not as straight forward as it might appear. The histories that we choose to retell and privilege speak to contemporary concerns. For Rangitāne, Ngāti Kuia and Ngāti Apa, the indigenous peoples of the northern South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, history is political. Histories are recounted in the present for a purpose, that is, to maintain the mana (prestige, authority, influence) of the community to whom the histories belong. This article touches on some recent examples of history speaking in the present.
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    Pouwhenua: Marking and storying the ancestral landscape
    (abramis academic publishing, 2023-08-20) Meihana P; Forster M
    This paper explores a series of contemporary strategies to restore and share our stories and knowledge of Te Tapuwae Tahi a Rangitāne-nui-a-Rangi (the single footprint of great Rangitāne of the heavens); the tribal territory once occupied and controlled by the descendants of the ancestor Rangitāne. Colonisation stifled our storytelling traditions, disrupting the Indigenous communications landscape by silencing Māori voices and removing the tangible markers of our authority, histories, relationships and connections. Yet, Māori have a long legacy of resisting erasure of our memories and authority derived from the tribal territory. This paper explores a series of contemporary strategies to restore and share our stories and knowledge of Te Tapuwae Tahi a Rangitāne-nui-a-Rangi (the single footprint of great Rangitāne of the heavens); the tribal territory once occupied and controlled by the descendants of the ancestor Rangitāne. As part of He Tātai Whenua, a project to develop a Māori landscape classification system, we explore contemporary practices of mapping and marking the tribal territory and systems for assembling our knowledge of the environment. We describe here contemporary physical expressions and associated rituals in the tribal area of the Rangitāne people (i.e., Wairau area and along the Manawatū River) of the tradition of pouwhenua (posts used to mark tribal authority over an area or resource). We argue that this practice is a form of Indigenous and ethical mapping that seeks to disrupt mapping traditions that colonise and silence Indigeneity. Māori therefore are building on old traditions for naming and visualising the cultural landscape to continue our storytelling traditions, decolonise the landscape and connect with the communication landscapes of our ancestors.
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    Tsunami or storm deposit? A late Holocene sedimentary record from Swamp Bay, Rangitoto ki te Tonga/D’Urville Island, Aotearoa–New Zealand
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023) King DN; Clark K; Chagué C; Li X; Lane E; McFadgen BG; Hippolite J; Meihana P; Wilson B; Dobson J; Geiger P; Robb H; Hikuroa D; Williams S; Morgenstern R; Scheele F
    Informed by Māori oral histories that refer to past catastrophic marine inundations, multi-proxy analysis of stratigraphic records from Swamp Bay, Rangitoto ki te Tonga (D’Urville Island) shows evidence of an anomalous deposit extending some 160 m inland. The deposit includes two distinct lithofacies. The lower sand unit is inferred to have been transported from the marine environment, with corresponding increases in the percentages of benthic marine and brackish–marine diatoms, and geochemical properties indicative of sudden changes in environmental conditions. Radiocarbon dating indicates the deposit formation is less than 402 yrs BP, and pollen indicates it is unlikely to be younger than 1870 CE. Core stratigraphy age models and co-seismic chronologies point to the marine unit most likely being emplaced by tsunami transport associated with rupture of the Wairarapa Fault in 1855 CE. The overlying unit of gravel and silt is inferred to be fluvial deposit and slope-wash from the surrounding hills, loosened by ground-shaking following the earthquake. These findings indicate the 1855 CE earthquake may have been more complex than previously thought and, or, available tsunami modelling does not fully capture the local complexities in bathymetry and topography that can cause hazardous and localized tsunami amplification in embayments like Swamp Bay.
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    What for the future, from learning the past? Exploring the implications of the compulsory Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum
    (Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 24/11/2022) Neill C; Bell R; Belgrave M; Meihana P; Watson G; Higgins, J; Cherrington, S
    Important curriculum development work has progressed since the 2019 announcement that Aotearoa New Zealand histories would become compulsory learning across all schools. Much effort has gone into considering how learning ‘our’ histories can engage, inspire and empower children in schools through years 1 to 10, and recent writing has focused on how to address challenges in building knowledge and capability to meet those aims. However, what will be the effects beyond those years? Will students still be drawn to choose history in their senior school years, or will they be ‘over it’? In a quest to gauge the implications of the new curriculum, our research team surveyed secondary school history students on their motivations and areas of interest in learning history, and their views on Aotearoa New Zealand history becoming compulsory for Years 1-10. Findings from our research confirmed that students’ past engagement with history influenced their ongoing interest, motivation and understanding of the subject. However, the positive learning that had drawn them to history was often about everyone else’s history rather than their own. Students identified international histories – often involving war or conflict – as favourite topics. So, while most supported the implementation of the new curriculum, they equally expressed concern that the local focus should not be at the expense of wider perspectives. They felt history could become repetitive and boring; elements which could put students off engaging with history in future. We conclude by presenting important considerations for ensuring such negative impacts do not occur.