MAI Review Editorial: Welcome
Haere mai! Tomo mai!
Welcome again! MAI Review publishes quality material that contributes to the body of knowledge about Māori and Indigenous development. It seeks to do so in a way that also assists in advancing the capabilities of Māori and Indigenous people who are engaged in research and scholarly training. For further information about the aims, objectives and scope of this publication, go to our ‘About’ section.
The articles in this issue include two papers on leadership. One is a comprehensive overview of Māori leadership (Katene) while the other is a short report on a research symposium on the subject (Williams). The paper by Emeritus Professor Hohepa is based on an inspiring address he gave to doctoral students at this year’s annual MAI writing retreat. It illustrates the kinds of research and scholarly contributions one can make to both the academy and the indigenous home community. The Māori community is also the focus of the article by Professor Rush and colleagues who study the traditional foods usually consumed at cultural gatherings. Professor Hook provides an essay on the challenging idea of a national Māori university and a thoughtful commentary on that paper is provided by Carl Mika. Van der Meer and colleagues report on research that examines the experience of first year Māori students at Otago University and there are two research intern reports presented in the Māori language. One traces the contributions of a Māori scholar through his published work of almost 100 years ago (Gabel) and the other (McDonald) investigates a customary part of Māori mourning and funeral practice.
The new section on Poetry has been added to extend the journal’s reach into ways of knowing and understanding. As readers will know, academic writing is a rigorous, well-defined and systematic process that reflects the research inquiry method—but it is also creative. Producing meaningful work in the arts is definitely creative—but it is also usually rigorous, defined and systematic. In short, artistic expression leads to another way of knowing that helps us understand phenomena. We warmly acknowledge the initiative and drive brought to this development by Dr Vaughan Rapatahana, who has joined the editorial team. We are fortunate to launch this initiative with works from several highly-respected poets and we believe that their poems have a part to play in extending our boundaries of understanding and enlightenment with respect to Māori and Indigenous realities.
Te Kokonga (the workshop corner) continues to provide a selection of papers addressing questions about writing technique, peer mentoring and averting IT disasters. Please note that you are always invited to share or ask about other aspects of practical knowledge and scholarly work (for more background go to Author Information and then to its Te Kokonga sub-section).
Please note that you are always invited to share or ask about other aspects of practical knowledge and scholarly work (for more background go to Author Information and then to its Te Kokonga sub-section).
The Resources section continues to offer efficient access to nation-wide repositories of E-theses, a link to the MAI Central portal hosted by Massey University, glossaries for translations, a radio link to Hawaii, a link to Ako Āotearoa and a customised Google search that covers the journal and the wider MAI network.
We are always pleased to receive feedback and suggestions regarding any aspect of this journal. Further, if you have any queries about the suitability of any material for consideration, please contact us.
We hope you enjoy this issue.
With best wishes,
The Editors
editor@review.mai.ac.nz
