Te Whare Whakakotahi : Nuturing human potential with Aroha: A thesis submitted to partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Resources Studies at Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University

Abstract

Māori experience of service delivery, education programme development and resource allocation at Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University vary in degree across a continuum of negative to positive. The social milieu of dynamic tertiary institutional environments, local, national and global forces impacting how those institutions determine their delivery of service and prevalent Aotearoa/New Zealand issues regarding Māori access, retention and academic success in tertiary education shape the relationships and degree of authentic participation in tertiary activity for Māori students. Māori students of Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University have personal and collective choices to make in relation to their academic responsibilities/ response-abilities in context to these forces and impacts. The discourse of Māori access to participatory democracy as it relates to Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University binds takata whenua of this area to that institution. Māori student access to that discursive process remains marginal. Despite that discrepancy precedence for holistic community beyond the rhetoric of discourse abounds as example throughout the coevolutionary history /herstory of the whānau of Te Whare Whakakotahi and Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University over the last decade. The rhetoric of participatory democracy is transcended through the autonomous expression of tikaka Māori manifested in proactive processes of whakawhanaukataka via the conduit of Aroha ki te takata. Though issues of marginalisation, hegemony and dis-empowerment still impact Māori student welfare here at Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University, their commitment to practicing living the living practice of Tikaka Māori specific to their needs serves to inculcate and perpetuate self autonomous values that do not require the justification and affirmation of external forces. The result of this has been the continued support and perpetuation of community wide positivity experienced by people of multiple cultures, throughout the decade, nurturing trans-cultural relationships the implicit outcome of practicing tikaka Māori Illustrating the we-dentity potential of whānau as being able to encompass local, national and international dimensions highlights great opportunity for an integrated united community inclusive of takata whenua, academic staff, and students of diverse origins sharing dynamic personal gifts and abilities that have the potential to affect positive outcomes for authentic community beyond rhetoric. Though the whānau of Te Whare Whakakotahi have been successfully manifesting this potential over the last decade this vision is yet to be realised to its utmost degree by the stakeholders of Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University. Te Awhioraki has shown the way, the challenge remains for Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki/Lincoln University to participate authentically in the future of Māori student and wider community evolution in the next millennium. How will you respond?