Māori and Pacific students are not achieving in science in comparison with other ethnic groups in Aotearoa New Zealand. At the same time, evidence of engagement with their traditional ways of knowing and being in university science settings is limited. Most formal science curricula globally are founded on Western modern science, and this focus can contribute to the underachievement of Indigenous students in science, particularly if Indigenous knowledge is not included (Howlett et al., 2008). Culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012) acknowledges cultural pluralism, yet many science educators lack the cultural capital to comfortably reference Indigenous knowledge in their teaching.

This article is about a university course which decolonises the classroom by making culture count. It examines how the ethnic identity journeys of 13 Pacific students in a third-year course in Pacific Studies run by the University of Auckland define and derive meaning for a more secure ethnic identity as a strategy for success across teaching/learning and life courses. It also shows that in the context of a New Zealand monocultural education for Pacific students across all sectors, while good courses and teachers get the job done, great courses and teachers have the potential to liberate and heal.

The notion of “success” for Pasifika students in higher education remains contested given the socio-political agendas of education in New Zealand targeting Pasifika engagement. The motivation to increase academic achievement for Pasifika peoples stems from “tail-end” outcomes, in which Pasifika populations are compared with other demographic populations in the attainment of higher qualifications. Many institutional “success” strategies are initiated essentially from a deficit positioning, to respond to barriers of participation, and ensure academic progression and student completion.

Drawing on nautical notions of traversing the Pacific Ocean, we seek to encourage Māori and Pasifika researchers to come together in purposeful and transforming ways, not to further homogenise Oceanic identities but, as many sang in active resistance in Aotearoa New Zealand during the 1990s, Kia Kotahi ra Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (“Unite as one like the Pacific Ocean”). We present Vā-kā as a methodology that emerged from a research fellowship focused on Māori and Pasifika student success at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Conceptually, we lash together the Pasifika term vā—relational time and space—with the Māori term kā—to ignite, to consider, to be in action.

This article introduces He Vaka Moana, which has been tested and evaluated at international and local levels. He Vaka Moana is a strength-based model of academic fellowship that is framed by Oceanic principles and methodologies. The authors base this model on what connects and sustains us as Māori and Pasifika people—that is, Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.

He Vaka Moana - Navigating Māori student and Pasifika student success in the tertiary sector introduces a compilation of eight articles that provide an invaluable contribution to our understanding of how we can improve teaching and learning in tertiary settings.

Koia ko te kaupapa o tēnei atikara e aropā nui nei ki ngā karakia tūturu i takina i roto i ngā rā whakamaumahara o Te Riri Pākehā, arā, e mōhiotia ana ko Te Pūtake o te Riri, tae atu hoki ki ngā karakia tawhito i oti i roto i ngā tau maha ki ngā wānanga mau rākau, ki ngā momo tohi me ngā tikanga o te ao Māori. Ko te tapu o ngā karakia tūturu o tēnei ao, he rerekē ki te tapu o ngā karakia o te ao tūāuiruri whāioio o ō tātou tūpuna (Wānanga Karakia Māori, 2000). Waimarie kai te mau tonu i te tokoiti puta noa i Aotearoa ētahi o ngā karakia tawhito o tua whakarere, me te aha kai te kaha haere te tipu o te mate oha ki te ako i ngā karakia Māori.

He kipakipa mutunga kore kua oho ake i te whatumanawa o te tangata kia mōhio anō ia ki ngā taonga tuku iho a ōna mātua tūpuna. E kitea ana i te hiakai o te iwi Māori whānui ki ngā kōrero mō Matariki, te maramataka Māori, te whakatere waka, te whakaora tikanga, me te tupu matomato rawa o ngā kaupapa whakarauora reo. Nā, ko te aronga nui o tēnei tuhinga he kuhu atu ki ngā kōrero tuku iho e pā ana ki ō tātou atua Māori. Inā rā, ko te matapae i tōna whai tikanga nui ki te whanaketanga o te tuakiri Māori, ka tahi. Ka rua, he whakatakoto tauira o tā te tangata Māori whakahāngai i ērā kōrero atua ki ōna horopaki hou o tēnei ao hurihuri. Āe rānei, ka whai take i tua atu o Rautaki, o Mahere?

Kei te puta te tokomaha o ngāi raukura (ngā tauira o mua o te Kura Kaupapa Māori) ki ngā whare wānanga puta noa i te ao, heoi anō, he ruarua noa ngā tuhinga reo Māori e arotake ana i te Kaupapa Māori. E mātai ana tēnei tuhinga i te ahunga mai o te Kura Kaupapa Māori hei tauranga ātete i ngā tāmitanga a tauiwi. He kōrero tēnei mō te ariā Kaupapa Māori (mā ngā tauira whare wānanga): he tautoko i te putanga o te tuhinga taiea, te tuhinga i āta rangahaua, te tuhinga arohaehae, te tuhinga reo Māori. Ko te tikanga ia, ka puta he tuhinga mō ngā kaupapa huhua, engari ka taka te tuhinga nei i te whakaaro mō te mātātuhi wewete mō ngā raukura.

He rahi ngā kupu kōrero mō tēnei āhua o te ao wairua kei roto i te ao Māori. He hokinga ki te nehenehe nui o te ao ātea, ki tōna kunenga mai ki te ao tūroa. Ko tana whakapapa i ahu mai i te orokohanga:

Te Rākau o Te Ao

|

Te Ao Mātinitini = Te Rangi Mātinitini

|

Ngā atua nui tonu (70)

(Williams, K. K. & T. T. R., 1980)