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    Te whakaohooho, te whakarauora mauri : the re-awakening and re-vitalising indigenous 'spirit' of power, healing, goodness and wellbeing : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Roestenburg, Michelle Waireti Maria
    A ‘spirit’ of Indigenous healing, wellbeing and re-vitalisation has been quietly, yet surely re-awakening our personal-global Indigenous hearts, homes and nations for the last few decades. To trace, track and understand the source, force and course of this movement and release much needed healing into our communities, the stories of six Indigenous people who were raised in ‘against-all-odds’ identity development conditions, yet are now proudly and perpetuatingly Indigenous have been received, held, analysed and synthesised. To ensure the Original teachings, stories and Indigenous-centric scholarship of this research remain grounded in the vital and re-vitalising relevancies of our everyday embodied experiences of Indigenous source, a ‘Mana Wairua’ (‘spirit’ is primary) Kaupapa Māori theoretical form was created. By tracing the growing, yet not well understood movement of Indigenous re-vitalisation into and through my own and other Indigenous people’s hearts, bodies, lives and literature, the power, presence and movement of an indelible Indigenous source force, and the knowings, knowledge and language related to it have been re-emerged. This unstoppable force derives from the source of creation. It inspires the healing, wellbeing and dignity associated with Indigenous identities and development. Even when separated from our people, lands and lifeways, we continue to embody pools of Indigenous knowing that enable us to feel and respond to this force and to our Ancestors. This research confirms, a ‘spirit’ of Indigenous re-vitalisation is indeed stirring in and moving our personal-global indigenous ‘hearts-bodies’ and lives, however, subsequent to the past-ongoing silencing, denigration and dismantling of the institutions that taught us how to understand, speak about and align with it - a yawning discrepancy now exists between our almost unconscious-embodied, ‘individualised’ experiences, and our collective capacities to tune into and deliberately release these life-giving vitalities into all levels of our lives. In accord with Indigenous source and Ancestors, this work calls us to wake up and illumine our personal-collective-global Indigenous minds with the ‘spirit’ of re-vitalisation that is already moving our hearts and bodies. It is time for us to turn towards and come home to the wholeness of our indomitable and sovereign Indigenous healing, wellbeing, dignities and potentials.
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    Māori ways-of-being : addressing cultural disruption through everyday socio-cultural practices of [re]connection : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) King, Pita
    Within the discipline of psychology, many Indigenous scholars have endeavoured to rethink and re-theorise the foundations, focus, and methods used in an effort to construct psychologies that are more reflective of their own cosmologies and contexts. The presented thesis contributes to this Indigenous project by exploring the ways in which the ruling psychology of our times, and its underlying philosophical assumptions, can disrupt Indigenous peoples’ attempts to articulate our own understandings of being. Drawing on emic and etic approaches and grounded within Kaupapa Māori approach, this thesis engages with the complexities of what it means to be Māori today through two theoretically (chapters 2 and 3) and two community-based publications (chapters 4 and 5). In the first article (chapter 2), I decentre the dominance of ruling psychology by challenging the idea of a single disciplinary space within the discipline and introduce the notion of multiple sphericules that carry numerous cultural philosophical perspectives that combine to make up the discipline of psychology. Building on these ideas in the second article (chapter 3), I contribute to efforts to theorize Māori ways-of-being by drawing on Māori cultural understandings and associated literature, ideas from the European continental philosophical tradition, and personal reflections. Taken together, chapters 2 and 3 carve out conceptual space within psychology that is then explored through culturally immersive and auto-ethnographic techniques in chapters 4 and 5. Specifically, chapter 4 is set within the context of the low socio-economic urban landscape in which I grew up. Chapter 5 speaks more to issues of [re]connecting with ancestral homelands, communities, and ways-of-being. In chapters 4 and 5, I document how Māori cultural selves are preserved amidst histories of colonization and urbanization by paying particular attention to the role of culturally-patterned social practices evident in the conduct of everyday life. Overall, this thesis contributes to present understandings of the ongoing development of Māori subjectivities that often shift in response to the socio-cultural conditions and structural inequalities that many of our communities continue to face. This thesis provides some insights into how urban Māori, such as myself, construct and reproduce novel, creative, and culturally grounded strategies for dealing with the disruptions that have come with colonization. These efforts work to strengthen and preserve cultural connectedness and distinct Māori ways-of-being.
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    The mad dog and the Englishman : a critical history of the running amok as sponteneous naked savage : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Art in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2005) Panikkar, Rajeendernath
    I began this work with the intention of writing a genealogy of amok, the Malay malaise, not long now incorporated into the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), as a culture-bound syndrome. A reading of Foucault's genealogy, and especially of its innumerable critiques, convinced me of the incompatibility of matching an approach steeped in the Western tradition with a 'syndrome' of a people who were long colonised by this West. Foucault's conceptualization, and attributions, of power were also instrumental in my rejection of his incitement to 'write genealogies' (Sawicki, 1991; p. 15), as a method of resisting the 'often oppressive rationalities of discourse in the human sciences' (Lash, 1991; p. 259). In departing from the genealogical approach I have also gravitated to a postcolonial critique of the writing of the Malay and his amok, which I consider to be far more compatible, given his/ her colonisation by a succession of European imperial powers. Not coincidentally, as he is one of Foucault's most vehement critics, I have refracted this critical history of amok through Edward Said's secular-ethical working of the postcolonial thesis. This is my attempt to avoid what Said views to be the 'retreat of intellectual work' from the 'actual society in which it works' (Ashcroft, 2003; p. 264), and into 'the 'labyrinth of textuality' constructed out of 'the mystical and disinfected matter of literary theory' where a 'precious jargon has advanced' (Said, 1983; p. 4). I have then very deliberately attempted to minimise this 'precious jargon' to make this work more accessible. I have not included a literature review in this work and instead furnish the excuse that it is (this work) a literature review of sorts. It is a literary critique of the historical writing of the Malay and his malaise. A final word concerns the likely controversial use of the term, the 'White Man', which reprises a longstanding, and antagonistic, racial dichotomy which I and many others believe to be fundamental to 'modern' history. Though I explain my use of this term in my work, I make my sincere apologies to those who feel aggrieved with my continual reference to the 'White Man'. At times I have felt as aggrieved but, in considering various alternatives, could not in all honesty disregard the only too apparent authority this self-proclaimed 'White Man' has exerted on history, and more particularly, in the context of this thesis, on the Malay World.
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    Issues for consideration in cross-cultural neuropsychology : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Shepherd, Inez T
    This study surveyed people who had been seen for neuropsychological assessment and treatment at the Massey University Psychology Clinic, Palmerston North. The study addressed the question: Could the experience be enhanced for Maori clients by introducing a Maori cultural dimension? Several variables were identified that produced anxiety in the assessment situation. These included procedural, situational, interpersonal factors and test content. Some suggestions are made to assist neuropsychologists to reduce the impact of these variables in the assessment situation.
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    Developing a more bicultural psychology : academic discourses of resistance : a thesis submitted in partial fulfulment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Waldegrave, Tony
    Psychologists through-out the world, have found themselves under increasing pressure to reflect upon the suitability of the psychological theory they present, for the contexts in which they operate (Sue, 1993). In New Zealand this concern is manifested in a call for the development of a more bicultural psychology. This recognises the poor performance of Maori in academic and professional psychology, and draws attention to issues of bicultural partnership prescribed by a document of constitutional significance in New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi. Despite disciplinary intention to develop more biculturally, successive surveys have found that the movement toward this goal has been slow. Such findings prompted the present study, which considers whether conditions are conducive to the provision of the recommended changes. Issues of bicultural development were discussed with ten non-Maori psychology lecturers, from two New Zealand universities. A discourse based analysis of the transcripts was undertaken. This drew attention to procedures by which lecturers made sense of Maori concerns and the discipline's responses. The participants discourses were found to resist Maori concerns for bicultural development. This was achieved by undermining the validity of concerns, by claiming Maori were unfairly treated, by presenting current performance in a positive light, or by drawing attention to difficulties of being able to respond productively. These discourses used Pakeha values of legitimacy as commonsense rationale to resist changes. This process of legitimisation was determined to provide a barrier to the bicultural development of the discipline because it asserted monocultural control of a bicultural process. Attempts to account for Maori psychological needs and to capture the 'spirit and intent' of the Treaty of Waitangi would therefore work to accommodate Maori perspectives which could be legitimised by Pakeha values. On this basis it is argued that bicultural development is dependant upon the establishment of a dynamic of mutual accountability, on space being made for Maori values and the ability of Pakeha to assume an active role to facilitate ideological and systemic reflexivity, among students who may not otherwise have had this opportunity.