Writing in te reo at university

ABSTRACT

This article considers the use of te reo Māori as a language medium of research and scholarship in the universities of Aotearoa New Zealand, and reports on two small sets of empirical data about doctoral theses written in Māori: one a list of 17 such theses, the other the results of 4 interviews. All the reo Māori doctoral theses I found are written on research topics embedded in te ao Māori (the Māori world). Most focus on a specific language type, topic, or kin group; two are about Māori identity and two are about Kura Kaupapa Māori schooling. Interview results show there are steps that universities can take to support doctoral degrees written in te reo to be examined within their institutional processes, underpinned by a welcoming attitude towards te reo and tikanga. Dispensing with the international examiner, a translator to assist in the oral examination, and an abstract in English are three elements of a process that can be formalised and documented. When those individuals who can supervise and convene the examination of such work are supported by their university, to write a doctoral thesis in te reo is successful for all concerned, though never easy.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• indigenous academy
• Māori-medium education
• postcolonialism
• te reo Māori

Introduction

Te reo Māori remains one of few indigenous languages ever to be accorded official language status (1987), and reflecting that status, in recent years each university in Aotearoa New Zealand has adopted a language policy that allows for any essay or dissertation to be submitted in Māori, given suitable assessment arrangements are made. This language policy joins other Māori equity initiatives in university education such as campus marae (community centres), Wānanga (Māori tertiary institutes), Māori student support, and immersion-Māori teaching degree programmes. These developments in the university sector have occurred in a larger context of widespread support for te reo Māori, and increased recognition of how Māori have been systematically disadvantaged, in education and in society generally (Mulholland and McIntosh 2011).

The doctoral degree is core business for a university: a key criterion to distinguish it from other types of institution. This paper therefore focuses on doctoral theses, reporting two small sets of empirical data investigating doctoral theses written in te reo, as an initial study towards the larger research question of academic writing in Māori more generally.

Writing in te reo at university became politically imaginable under policies of ‘choice’ that swept through the structures of education as part of the neo-liberal reform of the 1980s (Roberts and Peters 2008). Writing in te reo at university can be considered as a natural extrapolation of Kaupapa Māori education in early childhood and school stages of formal education. To write in te reo at university is a legal right given the official language status of te reo Māori. Writing in te reo at university harnesses the energy and passion for language and culture of the Māori-medium sector, and yokes these to policy drivers such as equity, the Treaty of Waitangi, diversity, and innovation.

Any system of knowledge as extensive as a language can be thought about and therefore theorised, which gives rise to an immanent philosophy of that language. It has long been established that the philosophy of every ‘natural’ language will reflect and encapsulate the cultural world view of the ethnic group from which it arose (Salmond 1985). It is worth noting the limitations signalled by the scare quotes around the idea of a ‘natural language’ given the effects of globalisation on cultural and ethnic groups and their linguistic resources. In a theoretical sense, writing in te reo at university is an expression of productive postcolonialism in literacy (Ashcroft et al. 2002). Writing in te reo at university is a strategic deployment of the power of the written word in the politics of Māori language revitalisation and mana motuhake, under the broader intellectual project of Kaupapa Māori (Hoskins and Jones 2017).

Writing in te reo at university is about much more than ‘just’ language: it is a complex development that cannot be adequately understood as a simple matter of translation. Writing in te reo at university is by definition a form of epistemological ‘border work’ (Somerville and Perkins 2003) that deals in the liminal spaces, the ‘no man’s land’ between cultures and languages; the abysses and bridges that separate and traverse knowledge forms and bases (Andreotti et al. 2011). These metaphors reveal the nature of images of this theoretical nexus across various domains of academic discourse.

I found one research reference on the topic of ‘writing a thesis in te reo Māori’ in the form of a podcast by Professor Black (2009) available online at Massey University (www.massey.ac.nz) or Ako Aotearoa (www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz). Black does not specify doctoral theses, but he outlines some characteristics of typical students who might write a thesis in te reo, and the kind of research for which writing in te reo is helpful. He makes many of the points in the paragraphs above: writing a thesis in te reo Māori typically meets the needs of those student researchers who are working with local Māori knowledge bases, or mātauranga Māori. Doctoral students who embark on writing in te reo Māori typically demonstrate experience and leadership in Māori society, in roles such as teaching, media, iwi politics, etc. (Black, 2009).

Research context and methodology

In 2017, there are nine institutes awarding doctoral degrees in Aotearoa New Zealand: Auckland, AUT, Waikato, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury, Lincoln and Otago, and Te Wānanga o Awanui-ā-Rangi. This article reports two small sets of empirical data: one being a list of the doctoral theses written in Māori from the eight universities (excluding Awanui-ā-Rangi from this article); the second comprising four individual interviews with reo Māori doctoral graduates, supervisors, and an administrator. These data inform this initial scoping phase of a larger investigation into academic writing in te reo Māori.

Writing in English – a methodological conundrum

In this article, te reo Māori is considered normal text, so not marked by italics, and not exhaustively translated, though most Māori words are translated in brackets on the first instance, and all translations are mine. When translations are part of quotes, they have square brackets. The final three-word phrase ‘ki te hoe’ is an exhortation to pick up the paddle and start paddling.

There is an obvious disjunction between studying doctoral theses written in te reo Māori, and writing this research in English. My personal position is that I can best use my skills in this way, since I can read and understand te reo Māori, and my research position and philosophy is based on identifying as Māori, but I write and think more fluently in English. I am comfortable with sitting on the fence of bilingualism in this way, but acknowledge the paradox of the position. For me, the paradox opens up to the productive tension of interculturalism, which is fundamental in what I consider the useful ‘bigger’ concept of bilingualism. I return to this discussion in the conclusion, below.

Finding reo Māori doctoral theses

To build the list of doctoral theses shown below, I searched each University Library and enquired with the librarians by email and/or telephone. This list of 18 doctoral theses¹ excludes sub-doctoral (mostly MA) theses, and theses written mostly in English, many of which have Māori titles, headings, abstracts, introductions and/or cultural elements, acknowledgements and so on, especially at the start. Of course, there are many other theses that include small-to-extensive samples of Māori language within their topics or ‘objects’ of study. This list is ordered by year of graduation, and includes only those doctoral theses in which te reo Māori is the primary language medium of the academic content.

Doctoral theses written in te reo Māori (October 2017):

Table

Year	Author	University
2000	Taiarahia Black	Massey
2001	Ian Christensen*	Massey
2004	Lachlan Paterson*	Otago
2005	Poia Rewi	Otago
2008	Darryn James Joseph	Massey
2009	Wayne James Ngata	Massey
2010	Dean Mahuta	AUT
2011	Koro Ngāpo	Waikato
2012	Wahineata Smith	AUT
2013	Joseph Te Pōroa Malcolm	Massey
2013	Jennifer Martin	AUT
2013	Delyn M. Day	Otago
2014	Petina Bray Winiata	Massey
2014	Valance Smith	AUT
2015	Agnes Jean McFarland	Massey
2015	Hinurewa Ngāmuringa Poutū	Massey
2015	Gianna Margurite Arinia Leoni	Otago
2017	Vincent Olsen-Reeder	Victoria

*These theses are presented in two versions, English and Māori.

These theses contain more information (such as names of supervisors) to guide future research, and the content itself can be studied as a linguistic artefact and substantial sample of contemporary reo Māori academic discourse.

The next section presents data from four interviews about writing doctoral theses in te reo Māori.

Interview results

This section reports on conversational interviews with four academics from two universities: two who wrote their doctoral theses in te reo and two professors with experience in supervision and administration of reo Māori doctorates. The interviewees crossed roles to some extent, for example, one graduate was also an experienced doctoral supervisor. Given the smallness of the field of practice, it is necessary to take extra care to protect the privacy of the participants. For this reason, no further details are given about them, and the quotes below are attributed to one of the three key perspectives being considered: Graduate, Supervisor, and Administrator. The subheadings below organise the main themes that emerged.

Reasons for supporting doctoral theses written in Māori

The writing of doctoral theses in Māori is supported for holistic and intertwined reasons, grouped for discussion below as political or epistemological.

Political reasons

The first rationale for supporting writing in te reo at university is expressed as ‘indigenising the academy at a policy level’ (Supervisor). The phrase ‘indigenizing the academy’ appears in the title of an edited collection written from a North American indigenous perspective (Mihesuah and Wilson 2004), where it is defined as:

Working to change universities so that they become places where the values, principles, and modes of organization and behavior of our people are respected in, and hopefully even integrated into, the larger system of structures and processes that make up the university itself. (p. 88)

The Māori education academic Wally Penetito (2014) uses this concept of ‘indigenising the academy’ in relation to university marae, which he argues act as ‘sanctuaries’ for Māori students, within the ‘often unfamiliar and hostile environments’ they encounter at university (p. 29). Analogously, writing in te reo is seen as normalising the use of te reo Māori in the universities:

When [a student] said, can I write in te reo, we said sure, thinking, why shouldn’t you? At that stage there was no policy at all. So you had to write to them and signal you were going to do this. [Make a special case?] Yes, and it’s not a special case, the language is an official language – you can exercise your right to be able to choose. So we said that for Māori studies, we should expect that students may wish to write in te reo. (Supervisor)

From a non-Māori perspective, working on behalf of the university to enable the assessment of doctoral work written in Māori is expressed as supporting and respecting a New Zealand language and its culture:

The first time probably is a bit scary when you do it properly, but what’s properly? Are you still going to be trying to keep to the policies and process – is it too hard to make sure that you’re still as respectful and will do a process that meets the needs of that culture? (Administrator)

One rationale concerns the role writing in te reo at university can play in overcoming intergenerational loss of language and culture, experienced by Māori as part of historical processes of colonisation:

This [adult learner of te reo] was courageous, persistent, and committed to the study. She drove the study, drove the study, and she was courageous because she wanted this for her family, to show her family, even though most of them would not know how to read it, that we’ve broken the cycle of language loss in our family, and her hope was that our mokopuna would be able to read it one day, so you’ve got to give her that support. (Supervisor)

These comments echo those of Black (2009) about students who are second language learners being attracted to the idea of writing a thesis in te reo, and recalls the concept of bilingualism and its difficult relationship with Kaupapa Māori ideals. Another overtly political rationale challenges and transforms deficit perceptions of Māori scholarship:

I feel quite strongly about thinking about our tūpuna [ancestors] as academics in their own right. They didn’t publish in journals but they certainly published, and tohunga [traditional experts] were definitely regarded as scholars and academics. My great-grandfather wrote a manuscript and his father wrote two manuscripts: they were never published but they were certainly academics theorising about their world. There was a point not long after the signing of the Treaty [of Waitangi] that New Zealand was more literate in te reo than England had ever been in English, and then we became bilingual. So our ability to write has always been better than England’s and I feel strongly committed to approaching that idea in my work when I write. My tūpuna did it, they did it the way that they had to; this is the way that we have to do it, to push [writing] in te reo as much as possible. (Graduate)

This explanation suggests the history of academic writing in Māori would be worth investigating. The following viewpoint places the onus on the university to keep up with those who are simply getting on with indigenising the academy:

A policy is really just something to try to get the university to invest in what’s going on in Māori departments or other departments around here. That’s what I’ve always thought. As a staff member, I’m going to do what I’m going to do. I will pick up any student that wants to write in te reo and supervise them. (Supervisor)

Epistemological reasons

The second set of reasons for writing in te reo at university primarily consider language or content, so can be considered epistemological in nature. Echoing Black’s (2009) commentary, this rationale relates to providing an appropriate language for studying Māori topics:

If it’s a topic that’s absolutely so related to Māori that the only way it can possibly be undertaken is to have it in the same language – that would be your motivation to do it. (Administrator)

Going further, interviewees are mindful of providing educational pathways for graduates of Māori-medium schooling to continue through to doctoral study. The following two comments drill down into what is involved, while also demonstrating the above politicised principles of normalising Māori scholarship and the use of te reo in the academy.

For me it’s always about clarity. I apply the same things we would when we’re writing in English and the same things when you’re taking a how to write an essay workshop, for example. For students, I’ve just taken those same things. Just because we’re using another language, it doesn’t mean that those things don’t apply to us as well. (Supervisor)

I’ve also developed my own philosophies around [writing in Māori at university]. You don’t have to copy an English format but there’s still a standard of writing that is academic and this is how we do that. Also for me it brings mana [prestige] to the language within the institute by promoting quality language use. (Supervisor)

Providing for doctoral study in te reo extends how Māori thinking can be used at university, and increases the language domains for use of te reo Māori:

Whaikōrero [oratory] has a format. You have your tauparapara [opening], you have the layout of your mihi [speech] – depending on the situation, mihi ki ngā mate [greeting to the dead], mihi ki ngā rangatira [greeting to the leaders], mihi ki te hunga ora [greeting to the living]. It’s also trying to teach a way of thinking in Māori where we can take that same layout and apply it to our writing. We’ve got certain things that we need to lay out before we get into the guts of the matter. It’s not like half of your whaikorero is mihi ki ngā mate. It’s a few simple but very eloquent lines to establish your point. I try to say, when you’re writing you do the same sort of thing in your intro. You’re just stating some key facts and then you elaborate later on in your middle section. They’re broadening their language skills as well, and how that interprets on the page when they write it down. (Supervisor)

The epistemological rationale for te reo at university can also be expressed as expanding the range of academic thought, discussed in the following extract.

[Can you imagine your thesis written in English?] I’m trying to now. Half of it would probably come across as part fictional novel, because when something’s written or spoken in Māori and it’s very descriptive, when you hear it in Māori it’s natural. You take it on, go, yes, that’s good, you get this idea and you continue on with the argument. But if I was to be just as descriptive in English, sometimes you have to be careful with that because it comes across too flowery. Bring it back to your argument and very formal language, whereas in te reo, some formal language is descriptive. It’s metaphoric. I do limit my metaphor, I don’t take it to that whaikōrero level. I use metaphor just to give a slight flourish to your point, whether it’s use of a whakataukī [proverb], or a simile using nature to talk about a theme in your idea. I wouldn’t use it as repeatedly as I would if I was to give a whaikōrero. (Graduate)

What helps support reo Māori doctoral graduates?

This section looks at how doctoral theses in te reo can be supported. Primarily, what are required are individuals with the appropriate range of skills, experiences and commitments. Advances depend on individual Māori academics, working with individual doctoral candidates. Māori supervisors are of key importance:

Those people who supervise in te reo really are the ones, that’s the machine behind it. That’s their work, that’s their mahi [vocation], that’s their passion, so then that’s where the tradition sits. (Supervisor)

It is difficult to overstate how challenging for all concerned it has been to bring the first doctoral theses written in Māori through the various stages of the examination process. The oral examination for one is described in this commentary:

We were able to paint the picture, and we said, three examiners, all that were recommended who have a particular level in te reo in the field, if we can, and we would dispense with the international – but there would be rigour. Now the very first one that we did was [name of doctoral candidate]. And so [three names] were the examiners, and they grilled him. They knew what was at stake so they grilled him in the oral for four hours, maybe five hours, to protect the process, the integrity of the process. (Supervisor)

The interviewees describe how this challenging process takes place afresh at each university, in dialogue between the Māori academics and those who run the doctoral programme.

I did notice that what we’re doing is stepping on new ground within this institution. They don’t know this stuff so we’re causing a bit of a stir by doing all of these things. (Graduate)

So what we did was this process of enculturation or acculturation, it certainly was a process of beginning the dialogue around how we would examine. Someone coming through, at every point on the continuum it challenges the system to have to review its policy and processes. (Supervisor)

This process of dialogue calls for allies and champions in a range of positions within the university: those who become the convenors of oral examinations in te reo, translators who assist the convenor to follow the discussion, and the postgraduate office staff who coordinate the arrangements. At first, there is a need to challenge and change perceptions, and work through the processes required.

Have [the universities] really been as conscientious with Māori development and how they would actually work with people who would have that as an official language and therefore could write in it? (Administrator)

The following passage describes the difference between a standard oral examination and an oral examination for a thesis written in te reo:

The essence of it shouldn’t be any different from the point of view of what you’re trying to achieve and the criteria. The process is that we would have the protocol, not only of how you actually undertake the oral, but you respect the beginning, have enough people there that will actually look at the introduction and do it culturally appropriately. The translator does slow it down, but it’s still allowing the thinking, the time and the appreciation of the culture of how it should be undertaken. In saying that, the same consideration should be made for anybody, but we do more for Māori as a New Zealand language, one of our official languages. (Administrator)

This commentary shows that the speaker is comfortable with the process, based on successful experience: ‘We did lead the way, we were the only ones that had actually gone that far, is my understanding, to actually have a very solid process’ (Administrator). When asked if a policy is important, this interviewee replied, ‘You can never take anything for granted. If you haven’t got it written down then how can anybody follow it?’

Examining a reo Māori doctoral thesis

This section identifies factors that have supported the process of examining doctoral theses written in te reo. One university has adopted the practice of having a translator present at the oral examination to assist the convenor. This university has also made it an expectation that an English translation of the thesis abstract will be provided.

We’ve had some really good people that have done convening of [oral examinations of reo Māori theses]. We’ve had to particularly get them to be part of it first and have translators there so the convener knows what’s happening, so it takes a lot longer, but it’s important that we do this. When a thesis is presented in te reo the only English part that we see is an abstract. (Administrator)

We had a convener come in and we organised a translator, one of our other colleagues who attended the oral examination. The convenor said, I don’t need you to translate the entirety of the discussion and everything that’s going on, but I need bullet points. The convenor and the translator had to talk about ‘if there are moments of contention, please pass that onto me’ because that’s his job as convener to keep an eye on the flow of things. It worked out really well. It went a little bit over two hours, the whole examination and I think that was because of how the topic was. Certain questions that the examiners had would end up turning into a discussion and it was at that point that the translator did a good job of saying, ‘OK, they’ve gone into a little tangent here discussing this, discussing this’ and then that’s when the convener would say, could you please pass on that, perhaps the subject has been exhausted and to carry on. So it navigated really well, it didn’t upset. We were able to have a little bit of tikanga [cultural protocol] as well in terms of having karakia [prayer], doing a mihi [speech of greeting] to our examiners as they come in and letting them speak back. Then I would go out for the convener to have their pre-meeting. We were able to do that. Today the postgraduate office is really open to any cultural needs that students have. (Supervisor)

Successfully navigating the initial doctoral examinations has been an important positive experience to build confidence in the process: ‘The ones that we’ve done to date have gone extremely well, and the feedback to the University Board has been how positive it has been’ (Administrator).

Two examples were given of sharing successful experience from one university to the others. Firstly, the te reo assessment policy has been shared through Māori academic networks:

To share policies, we just think it’s a no-brainer – people ask for the policy and it’s, like, yes, because it’s all for the reo. It’s for the reo and students and pathways and celebrating cultural responsiveness. (Supervisor)

Experience of success has also been shared with other universities through postgraduate administration networks:

As senior administrators responsible for postgraduate we get together, we talk probably in our emails once a month at least, because there’s things we look at and say – somebody wants to change something. Okay, let’s hear what the other universities do at this moment so we can have some consistency. My very early days in this role, it was discussed and they felt that we were the leaders at that time. They were more than welcome to follow anything that we did, but it’s up to them if they want to, because we’re quite happy to share things. (Administrator)

One of the graduates reflected on the extra time involved in writing in te reo as a serious consideration, and pointed to the availability of exemplars in the form of existing reo Māori doctoral theses as important models and resources:

I had more time. I had no kids. I didn’t have the same work pressures that [my supervisor] had, but the other thing is that I had more examples to follow because I’m ten years after [my supervisor]. So I could pull out [name’s] PhD and I could pull out [name’s] PhD and I could go through them and say this is how you make a point. (Graduate)

Barriers to reo Māori doctoral study and assessment

Two identified difficulties relate to the minority status of te reo Māori. The first is the challenge of finding examiners with expertise both in the language and in the field of study.

You’ve got to be really careful that you’re getting wide enough examiners that you’re benchmarking okay. Any group that has a particular context and a particular language will be smaller than some other areas that you would get people, perhaps for social sciences for example, and all speak English. You really do have to weigh that up and I would say the same thing to somebody coming along to me and saying can we do this in te reo, these are the supervisors, etc. The first question I will ask before they’ve even started would be, are there examiners there for that? Because it’s too late when you get down the track and you haven’t got the examiners that you would want for that topic. Examiners that would give a really good overall balance in the examination, a fair and just process. (Administrator)

The second challenge relates to when students may be motivated to write their thesis in te reo, but have insufficient language competency for the task.

I remember situations where there was a student who wanted to do it in Māori and their skills weren’t sufficient and at that time there weren’t enough people who could actually supervise them and read it effectively to give them the feedback. (Administrator)

To decide to write one’s doctoral thesis in te reo Māori carries serious long-lasting consequences, not only for the student but also for supervisors, and the university itself. While there are clearly good reasons why those who can successfully write in te reo should be enabled to do so, equally important is that there is good guidance available to ensure that students who are unlikely to succeed writing in te reo do not embark on a pathway that would bring them and others into jeopardy.

The final two sections, below, present other comments and considerations related to producing doctoral theses in te reo, according to the viewpoint first of a supervisor, and then of a student.

Perspectives of a reo Māori doctoral supervisor

More words

There are two aspects to the need for more words in a te reo doctoral thesis: the first of these is a greater need to explain fundamental concepts that would be taken for granted in an English language thesis. Furthermore, as a language, Māori differs considerably from English: one pertinent linguistic difference is that te reo sentences contain relatively more small particles, i.e. connecting or non-lexical words. Writing in te reo therefore requires a greater word length by comparison with the same task in English.

If you’re writing a thesis you have to have a third, you have to give them a third more word count. That’s what we did with the postgrad, because there are more particles of speech so it takes us … we require that extra word count. (Supervisor)

More time

It should come as no surprise, given the novelty of this kind of academic work, that the supervision of a te reo doctoral study takes up more time than standard supervision. This requirement reflects the lack of established practice using te reo as a language of the academy: appropriate genres are still being established; ways of expressing academic concepts are being invented. Each doctoral thesis written in te reo is contributing significantly to the field, but the usages and practices are as yet far from standardised.

When you’re sitting there editing it takes much, much longer. When they submit the drafts it’s like oh … this is awkward. This not how a Māori would say, describe this. So you have to unpick it all and then try to … rather than write it for the person, suggest that this is, examples, but also spend time with them. So the supervision timeframe grows and that’s not, we have not won that in the supervision workload. (Supervisor)

Bilingualism

Writing in te reo at university needs to be understood in context as part of the overall enterprise of Māori-medium education, in turn part of the larger purpose of retaining and revitalising te reo Māori alongside English. This larger perspective makes clear that initiatives to support te reo Māori aim for bilingualism (Webber 1996). Bilingualism is being used here in its larger sense, not in the smaller sense adopted in school education policy, in which ‘bilingual units’ in particular are contrasted with immersion Māori programmes. The aim of writing in te reo at university is to produce graduates who are excellent in both te reo Māori and English: individuals who fit the sociolinguistic definition of ‘balanced bilinguals’ (Bishop 1998, p. 30). Acknowledged exponents of te reo Māori are equally demanding in terms of their students’ command of English. ‘In terms of Māori medium education we need to have good te reo and we need to have good English’ (Supervisor).

Not a language test

Assessment of a doctoral thesis written in te reo is not a language test; rather, what is under examination is the competence demonstrated in relation to the topic of study.

We are not examining for the quality of te reo, we are examining on the rigour of the content in the field and the criteria. Nowhere in the criteria does it say this has to be perfect te reo. (Supervisor)

Of course, prospective students must ‘provide evidence of Māori language proficiency’ (Black, 2009) since any thesis student must be proficient in the language they write in. Supervisors referred to the generosity of examiners who assisted some doctoral students to perfect the grammar and spelling of the thesis, as part of the examination process. The languages used in these oral examinations were generally Māori-only, though some examiners occasionally switched to English during in-depth discussion of particular points.

Groundbreaking

It bears repeating that to write a doctoral thesis in te reo Māori is an extraordinary accomplishment that completely shifts what have heretofore been considered the norms of the academy. The oral examination of one of the first te reo doctoral graduates was recognised by those involved as being a hitherto unprecedented event: ‘There was also a philosophical discussion amongst the whānau with those examiners around the implications of this for Aotearoa. That was really interesting, to say, this is ground breaking’ (Supervisor).

Language support

The supervisors held an expectation that students will receive tutoring and help to support their ongoing language development in te reo Māori as they work their way through university, and pointed to their own practice in this area.

Even though they have students coming in who have the language, there is still a learning curve in terms of how that language can be used in that space, especially when you’re discussing research methods or stuff like that. At the beginning, you don’t translate it if it’s a specific term – one class I was doing, for example, we were looking at [Edward] Said and talking about Orientalism. We wouldn’t find a word for Orientalism, you’d just say, ko ngā mahi a te tangata nei … ka puta i tana ariā arā ko te Orientalism [this scholar developed the theory of Orientalism]. (Supervisor)

In terms of pedagogy, the supervisors drew comparisons with working in English: doctoral supervision practice involves a significant component of helping the student to improve their writing and develop mastery in academic language genres and conventions.

Any institution can have a policy but without support for students as they come through, just letting them write in te reo wasn’t enough. You still have to help them acclimate to academic life. It’s about taking them to the next step. These are some new skills you need to learn, you need to watch your punctuation. Exactly how we would fix their English if it was wrong, I do the same with their Māori. They’re getting their grammar fixed as well. I do that because I have to. It’s not necessarily a te reo thing, it’s more about basic writing skills that I think belongs to not just English but also Māori. We can apply those things to whatever language we’re looking at. (Supervisor)

Language style

The supervisors also reflected on immanent academic genres of te reo in terms of the need to pay attention to writing style, such as in the appropriate use of metaphor.

That is my idea of translating between English and Māori. There are times when you’ll generally translate word for word but it’s also a translation of style. When I talk about methodology in te reo I can use things like, te whare [the meeting house], so I can talk about tāhūhū [ridgepole] for my rangahau [research], me ngā poupou o te whare [and the posts of the house], I can use that when I talk methodology, but when I write it in English I wouldn’t – I could in a way talk about the house and the posts, but it’ll come across more as if I’m explaining this is how it is in te reo, in Māori, in my world. You’re still referencing te reo. When I’ve read a lot of other stuff in English, stuff written in English by non-Māori, that’s kind of the example I pull from when I try and look at the differences of how people write in English and Māori. When they’re looking at frameworks, to use that as the example, they wouldn’t talk about some sort of cultural thing to pull from. (Graduate)

Perspectives of a reo Māori doctoral student

A significant proportion of the demand to write in te reo at university come from the graduates of Māori-medium education, and of Kura Kaupapa Māori (KKM) in particular. For a graduate from a Māori-only school background, there is inevitably a culture shock on arriving at university, which one of the interviewees recalled as ‘truly mind blowing’. ‘To go into a completely te reo Pākehā area was a little daunting. Sometimes I actually – there were a few assignments where I would write it in Māori and try and translate it’ (Graduate). For this former student, however, the experience was not entirely negative:

Even though I talk about the hardships of being a Kura Kaupapa graduate in a completely te reo Pākehā area, I liked it. I liked the difference. For someone like me, because I had a couple of friends who came down and then they only lasted a couple of years and then come back [home]. You’ve got to be prepared for that. If you’re a person who’s grown up with nothing but our idea of what te ao Māori is. It doesn’t have to be around te reo but you grew up with your kuia [grannies], you go to a marae when there’s a kaupapa, that sort of stuff. To go to a place like that [university], unless you’re prepared for difference, you’re not going to survive. (Graduate)

Unsurprisingly, having an older student from the same school already at university was an important way to support and mentor younger KKM students:

When I was a senior, that’s when I started getting some [younger students from the KKM]. I ended up pulling five students that went to [name of university] from [name of KKM] after that and it was just because of me going, I’m down here. While I’m here I’m living and I started to work. Send them down here and they know someone. They know they have a relative down here to look after them. (Graduate)

For KKM graduates going to university, writing in te reo is taken for granted, considered the norm:

There was no question of which language do you choose. When I started varsity in the Māori department as soon as I found out that they took assignments in te reo I was like, great, I’m writing in that. That was my language of communication, especially when you’re fresh coming out of Kura Kaupapa, that’s your mode. It’s just natural for you to speak like that wherever you go. (Graduate)

Writing one’s doctoral thesis in te reo has implications for publishing in terms of limited venues and audiences, as one of the interviewees discussed.

A natural progression, especially in my discipline, is to take material from the PhD and publish it and because I’ve written it in Māori there are very few places to publish, although that number has grown. That means that I have to work a lot harder to get my work out there. It means that publishing for me – there’s a lot at stake that maybe other people in other positions don’t have so much. (Graduate)

Just as the supervisors identified that supervising reo Māori doctoral work is more time-consuming, so also the graduates spoke about the extra time that writing in te reo takes, giving as examples the time required to translate quotes and key terms.

So those two [key terms], when I was translating them, I wanted to keep the very essence in te reo, but I also wanted them to be instantly understandable and I spent a long time, I spent about six months purely on translating the terminology and checking the translations. (Graduate)

The final point to be made from these interviews returns to the question of the rationale for writing in Māori. One graduate discussed how and why it makes more sense for topics about te ao Māori or te reo:

Ko te mea nui mōku i ahau ka whakaaro ake me tuhi taku kairangi kia tuhia ki te reo. Ko te reo te kaupapa o taku ako nō reira e tika ana kia tuhia ko te kaupapa ki te reo. Kia whai ahau i te huarahi o taku ako i te reo; koia te mea tuatahi. Ko te tuarua ko te whakaora reo te kaupapa o taku tuhinga, nā reira mehemea he reo Pākehā te reo o taku tuhinga roa, tērā pea ka werohia aku tuhinga, nā te mea he reo Pākehā te reo kawe i ngā whakaaro, nō reira ko wai au ki te kī atu mē pēnei te tangata e whakaora ana i te reo, mehemea he reo Pākehā katoa aku tuhituhi? Kāore pea he mana o taku rangahau. Nō reira i whakaaro au, kia whai mana ai aku kaupapa, e tika ana kia reo Māori, mō aua kaupapa e rua [Writing in te reo was an important consideration for me when I was thinking about doing my doctorate. Te reo is the topic of my study, so it is right to write it in Māori. Firstly, to align with the aim of my study. Secondly, my topic was revitalisation of te reo, so if I had written in English I could have been challenged: who am I to talk about how to revitalise te reo, if I am writing entirely in English? My research would then perhaps have no mana. Therefore I decided, for my research to be more authoritative, it was appropriate to write in Māori, for those two reasons]. (Graduate)

Not a conclusion

Clearly, it is possible to complete a doctoral degree with a thesis written entirely in te reo Māori, and some universities have processes in place to ensure this can happen within their institutional structures. Key elements include an abstract in English, a translator to assist the convenor of the oral examination, waiving the international examiner requirement, and a welcoming attitude towards the use of te reo and tikanga. Written policy guidelines support the te reo assessment policy, and those universities that have gone further along this pathway are open to sharing their work with others.

Doctoral theses in te reo Māori have so far mainly emerged in Māori Studies, a local discipline that blurs into other adjacent fields especially Māori Education. All the thesis titles describe topics embedded in te ao Māori, and therefore in te reo Māori. Many are about some aspect of te reo Māori itself, or a specific language form such as mōteatea, whaikōrero, niupepa, etc. Several locate themselves in a particular iwi group; several refer to Māori identity, and two are located in KKM. This pattern reflects what is happening at the sub-doctoral level: there are many Master of Arts/Education theses written in te reo Māori, with current rapid growth in this area. Māori Health and Māori Legal Studies are other interdisciplinary areas in which it would be unsurprising to see reo Māori doctoral theses within a few years, with potential for extension to other disciplines such as psychology, art, history, sociology, and environmental science.

The results presented in this article highlight the relevant politics of the university context, and draw attention to micro-level processes within the institution that support the writing of doctoral theses in Māori. Informative in themselves, these data also open up several lines of inquiry for future research. As well as extending these studies to give a more comprehensive picture of current practice, one could anthologise and analyse the doctoral texts. Additionally, two substantive theoretical investigations present themselves: first, the history of academic writing in Māori, which was referred to in one of the interviews. The pre-1900 publication of an anthropological paper by Tamati Ranapiri as lead author (Ranapiri and Smith 1895) is suggestive of the beginnings of academic writing in te reo, albeit suppressed in the memory of the national academy.

The second focus of a much-needed theoretical study is the contested relationship between writing a thesis in te reo Māori and bilingualism, which is an abused straw man concept in the communities of Kaupapa Māori education. My list of 18 includes two bilingual theses, presented in two versions, one English, the other Māori, but as noted there are many bilingual doctoral theses in which te reo is used in the title and headings, in front matter, in quotes and other inclusions, and in the text of the chapters. Of course these cover a wide range from limited inclusion as a statement (or performance) of identity to extensive use in key concepts and arguments.

The demand to write doctoral theses in te reo Māori will continue to grow, and universities would do well to be proactive, rather than relying on special cases and ad hoc procedures. What I have done in this article is only a start – there is much to be done. Ki te hoe!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Georgina Stewart http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8832-2415

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Royal Society Te Apārangi [Grant Number Marsden Fund AUT 1401].

Notes

1 I apologise in advance to anyone whose reo Māori doctoral thesis is omitted from this list and would appreciate being sent the missing information to [email protected].