The Call of the Waka Kuaka: New Directions for the Journal of the Polynesian Society

Authors

Keywords:

anthropology, ancestors, Polynesian Society, leadership, kuaka

Abstract

The Journal of the Polynesian Society has been renamed as Waka Kuaka: The Journal of the Polynesian Society, heralding a new direction for the journal metaphorically reimagined as the waka kuaka ‘godwit on the wing’ traversing the Pacific. These new directions are explored here within this vision of the waka kuaka as a bird that symbolises collective vision and purpose. The authors, as members of the Council of the Polynesian Society including the editor of the journal, reflect on the history of the journal and discuss what this change means going forward, finally calling on scholars in and of the Pacific to fly with us as part of this new journey.

Author Biographies

Robert Pouwhare, Tūhoe; Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland

Robert Marunui Iki Pouwhare (Ngāti Haka–Tūhoe) is a television director/producer and app developer with 40 years of production experience in broadcasting. He has produced, researched and written documentaries, children’s programmes and 2D/3D animation series. As an artist he has exhibited paintings and a sculptural installation at Te Papa Tongarewa | The National Museum of New Zealand and the Wellington Art Gallery. He has also composed music and is the lyricist for over 50 original songs aimed at kōhanga reo ‘Māori language immersion preschool’ children in a concerted effort at language revitalisation. Robert is a fluent Māori speaker from the Tūhoe tribe. This environment has driven his commitment to the revivifying and extending of the Māori language and culture, spanning his entire adult life. It informs his teaching in the academy at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His pedagogical concerns centre on the creation of learning environments that value cultural knowledge and beliefs. He believes that artistic practice–led research opens up new and exciting possibilities for his research, writing and Indigenous scholarship. Robert is a Co-director of the James Henare Māori Research Centre at the Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland and is a member of the Council of the Polynesian Society.

Marcia Leenen-Young, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland

Marcia Leenen-Young is a Senior Lecturer in Pacific Studies at Te Wānanga o Waipapa at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. She completed a PhD in ancient history and has since transitioned to focus on the history of the Pacific. Her research interests include the historical relationship between Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, Indigenous Pacific ways of telling history, Pacific research methodologies and Pacific pedagogies. Marcia has received a number of awards for her teaching excellence in tertiary education, including national recognition with a Te Whatu Kairangi Award in 2022 alongside an Enhancing Pacific Learners’ Success Endorsement. Marcia is also the first editor of Waka Kuaka: The Journal of the Polynesian Society who is of Pacific descent.

Lisa Uperesa, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland

Lisa Uperesa is a Senior Lecturer in Pacific Studies at Te Wānanga o Waipapa at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. She holds a PhD in anthropology and her research and teaching interests include transnational mobilities in the Pacific and beyond; sport, gender and community; US empire; and race, culture and indigeneity. She is the author of Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game (Duke University Press, 2022). She serves as the Honorary Secretary of the Council of the Polynesian Society and is a former Chair of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania.

Marama Muru-Lanning, Waikato-Tainui; Ngāti Maniapoto; Ngāti Whātua; Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland

Marama Muru-Lanning is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Co-director of the James Henare Māori Research Centre at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. Her research is dedicated to transdisciplinary research with Māori communities that prioritises equity and social justice. What distinguishes Marama internationally as a social scientist is her specialisation in four interrelated areas of research: water, human–environment relationships, mātauranga ‘Māori knowledge’ and transdisciplinary research methods. Over the past five years she has also developed a passion and advanced new approaches and methods for conducting research with kaumātua ‘Māori elders’ with colleagues from the James Henare Māori Research Centre. In 2021, Marama was awarded the University of Auckland Research Excellence Medal for Team Leadership. Marama is from Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawahia, a place that is a potent living memorial to the many Waikato people taken by the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. She has whakapapa that connects her to Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Whātua. Marama is also President of the Council of the Polynesian Society.

Waka Kuaka front cover

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Published

2022-01-01

Issue

Vol. 131 No. 4 (2022): Waka Kuaka | The Journal of the Polynesian Society

Section

Articles

License

Copyright © 2024 by the Polynesian Society (Inc.)

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Inquiries should be made to:

Dr Marcia Leenen-Young, Editor
The Polynesian Society
c/o School of Māori and Pacific Studies
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland
New Zealand

email: m.leenen@auckland.ac.nz