Research centres

Te Kawa a Māui is home to the national Māori organisation, The Māori Association of Social Science (MASS)

Overview

Māori Studies currently hosts the Executive of two national Māori organisations. They are the Māori Association of Social Science (MASS) and Te Pouhere Kōrero - the Māori History Association.

Māori History Association

Te Pouhere Kōrero is the national Māori History Association. It has a wide membership that is drawn from the universities, wānanga and iwi. It produces a journal and runs conferences and seminars on a regular basis. Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington is currently in its second term managing the national office of the organisation.

Te Pouhere Kōrero 4

Ko Te Pouhere Kōrero e ngunguru nei! So begins the fourth issue of Te Pouhere Kōrero. The journal is gaining a reputation for being the major platform for the publication of research by Māori into Māori pasts and Te Kawa a Māui staff and students have contributed to this issue in a range of ways.

The articles in this issue are drawn from the He Rau Tumu Kōrero symposium hosted at Te Herenga Waka Marae in 2009, and include essays by Pūkenga Matua Dr Rawinia Higgins and PhD Student Arini Loader. In the book reviews section, Arini Loader, Meegan Hall (PhD Student), Parehau Richards (PhD Student) and Maria Williams (Honours Student) contributed reviews of relevant book titles. All of these articles and reviews demonstrate the depth and range of research happening in Māori Studies, and we are particularly proud that Te Kawa a Māui students are producing work of this high standard.

Several Te Kawa a Māui people have also been involved in the production of the journal: Pūkenga Matua Dr Rawinia Higgins is Reviews Editor, Pūkenga Matua Dr Alice Te Punga Somerville is Co-editor, and the formatting and layout was undertaken by Arini Loader and Monoa Taepa.

Māori Association of Social Science

The Māori Association of Social Science (MASS) is a relatively new organisation that emerged in 2006 following an initial conference of Māori social scientists in Rotorua. At that conference it was decided to work on establishing a permanent forum that Māori social scientists could interact with each other in and this was formalised at a major conference at Te Herenga Waka Marae in 2008. MASS has received funding from the Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences (BRCSS) network and also has close links with the Whariki Research Group at Massey University in Auckland.