Hinerauwhāriki: The collective higher education experiences of four Māori women ^☆

Hinerauwhāriki: Hine is a term of address for a young woman and used here represents the four Māori women sharing their higher education stories; rau means a hundred, or in this context, the many pathways we have traversed in our higher education journey; and whāriki is typically a woven floor covering and speaks to the interconnectedness of our lives and our life plans.

Abstract

The tradition in academic institutions seems to favour individual effort and achievement. In counterpoint, a group of four Māori women from Aotearoa New Zealand – Nan Wehipeihana, Kataraina Pipi, Vivienne Kennedy and Kirimatao Paipa – share their experiences of journeying together as a kaupapa whānau, ¹ enhanced by their whakapapa ² links to collectively navigate a higher education pathway. They asserted their ways of working and being supportive to each other through a postgraduate diploma in evaluation and research. Their collaborative way of working challenged the academic system where learning is focused on individual effort and achievement. Pushing the boundaries to ensure the benefits of a culture of inclusiveness, collaboration and collectivity in an academic sphere of learning requires a mixture of willingness and cooperation between students and the institution. This chapter describes how this group of four mature Māori students overcame challenges in asserting a cultural stance that was a key enabler to them in successfully attaining their higher educational learning goals.

Citation

Wehipeihana, N., Kennedy, V., Pipi, K. and Paipa, K. (2014), "Hinerauwhāriki: The collective higher education experiences of four Māori women ^☆

Hinerauwhāriki: Hine is a term of address for a young woman and used here represents the four Māori women sharing their higher education stories; rau means a hundred, or in this context, the many pathways we have traversed in our higher education journey; and whāriki is typically a woven floor covering and speaks to the interconnectedness of our lives and our life plans.

", Māori and Pasifika Higher Education Horizons (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 291-313. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420140000015022