Empowering Voices, Transforming Communities

Abstract

For Māori academics as a minority group within universities in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the constant struggle to ‘indigenise the academy’ and be agents of change, often becomes overwhelming.  This has seen Māori academics look to alternative places to work such as wānanga (tertiary institutions designed specifically to cater for Māori learning needs) because these providers are built on a philosophical framework and a set of core values which reflect a Māori world-view. 

Te Ipukarea - The National Māori Language Institute at the Auckland University of Technology, and its relationship with Māori involved in Māori language revitalisation in universities, polytechnics, wānanga, iwi (a tribe and often refers to a large group of people descended from a common ancestor) and community Māori language organisations nationally, has resulted in Māori opting to partner with the Institute because of their commitment to the revitalisation of the Māori language thus defying the silo attitudes of western tertiary providers which are competitive in their design.  Therefore, Te Ipukarea, serves as an agent of change within the academy to transforming the academy as well as the communities it serves.

This paper will critically examine the history and work of Te Ipukarea and the establishment of the International Centre of Language Revitalisation which sits inside Te Ipukarea as a space where indigenous epistemologies and world-views are nurtured within the academic realm. The holistic perspective to development and well-being, and the participatory nature of the indigenous community, which includes elders as repositories of knowledge and the transmission of traditional beliefs, values, skills and customs, in their quest to revitalise their language will be discussed