Where’s your ‘standing place’?   14 Jul 2016

Massey University

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Where’s your ‘standing place’?

Bachelor of Arts student Brandon Young travels Tamaki Drive past Bastion Point often. But he knew nothing of its historic significance as the site of a major Maori land protest in the 1970s until this year.

He is one of several hundred Massey University students to complete the Turangawaewae paper introduced this year ¬– the first of Massey’s new Bachelor of Arts (BA) compulsory core papers that challenge and explore ideas, myths and hidden truths around identity, belonging and citizenship. Students examine the influence of popular symbols, major events and narratives on national identity – from Gallipoli to gay rights – and how minorities find a voice in an increasingly diverse and economically divided society.

The paper, fully titled Turangawaewae: Identity and Belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand’, is one of five compulsory papers to refresh the Bachelor of Arts degree in a bid to combat obsolete but persistent negative attitudes about its value and relevance. Massey’s Director BA (External Connections) Professor Richard Shaw says the new papers also add a thematic structure and coherence to a degree with abundant and often baffling choices, as well as fostering a community of BA scholars.

“We’ve built this paper around the Maori notion of turangawaewae, or ‘standing place’. We explore diverse personal and collective identities of New Zealand’s past and present, as well as myths and assumptions about who we are as a nation.” Professor Shaw led a team at Massey, which did extensive research in a thorough review of the BA, including surveying current and former students, employers and business leaders and which resulted in the new papers.

Introducing Turangawaewae has been a well planned and researched exercise, says Professor Shaw, who is a politics lecturer in the School of People, Environment and Planning, says. Course content and lectures offer a depth and breadth of insights from across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, including sociology, politics, psychology, history, linguistics and more. While compulsory papers are a new concept in the BA, he is confident they will be of benefit to students and will add kudos to the degree.

A central rationale for the BA refresh at Massey is the importance of addressing the needs of graduates faced with fast-changing realities in the local and global workplace.

“The more research we do about the coming world of work,” Professor Shaw says, “the more obvious it is to us that demand is growing for the sorts of attributes associated with BA graduates, such as cultural competency, critical thinking and problem solving skills. In fact, employers are telling us that the constructively critical, probing and questioning approach we take in Turangawaewae encourages precisely the attributes they are looking for in new employees.”

Things we should all know?

Mr Young, a 23-year-old student at the Auckland campus studying philosophy and psychology after six years in the workforce, says despite his initial reservations, the Turangawaewae paper has been a revelation. He’s had his eyes opened to key events in relatively recent New Zealand history he’d never heard of, from the occupation of Bastion Point in the 1970s and the 1981 Springbok Tour to gaining a deeper understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi and settlement process. Things all New Zealand citizens should know about, he says.

“I was sceptical at first. But there’s no way I’d change anything about this paper – there was so much stuff that was completely new to me. It’s helped me see things and understand the massive changes in New Zealand society,” he says. “And it encourages you to take a look at your place in it.”

For Larissa Pakura (Ngati Whatua) enrolling at Massey was a giant step as the first person in her family to go to university. As well as majoring in business psychology, she’s discovered a passion for philosophy. Wary of the compulsory paper at first, Turangawaewae was a surprise, adding a rich understanding to other papers.

“It was very eye-opening and challenging – a grassroots paper – and really relevant to everything that’s happening in New Zealand today,” she says. It was even more so for her Pakeha classmates, who told her they appreciated learning in-depth about key events in New Zealand history. “I don’t know how anyone could come out of a university and not know this stuff!” Ms Pakura says.

Kathi Collins, 57, who is half-Samoan, is studying part-time doing a psychology paper and the Turangawaewae paper while she trains as a volunteer in hospital chaplaincy.

She says the Turangawaewae paper has been fundamental to her studies, enriching other areas of learning and life. “It’s the glue that holds everything else together,” she says. “It’s about attitudes, and what forms them.”

It has challenged some of her thinking and ideas as a Christian, and she appreciated that. “It’s important not to be fixed in our attitudes,” she says. “If we are not challenged we don’t grow. We freeze. We need to be open and flexible because our society is so diverse and changing.”

Professor Shaw says the addition of what he terms an “intellectual kete” of core papers signals a reality check for the University as a response to fast-changing realities of the 21st century, from the impact of technology on jobs, to climate change, terrorism, migration, the quality of political debate and the influence of social media on everything.

“It’s also a way of championing the intrinsic worth of a degree that nurtures critical, creative thinkers vital to a healthy democracy and economy.”

ENDS

Add a comment

News

Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students

29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more

New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process

7 Mar 2020 News By Rt HON WINSTON PETERS
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more

Business

NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19

17 Mar 2020 Business News By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more

NZ Government announces aviation relief package

19 Mar 2020 Business News By Hon Phil Twyford
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more

Living

Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London

6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall. It was the first... more

Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate

12 Jan 2022 Arts By Charlotte Everett
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...  New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more

Property

Fairer rules for tenants and landlords

17 Nov 2019 Property By Minister Kris Faafoi
17 NOVEMBER 2019 The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more

New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax

17 Apr 2019 Property By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more

Migration

Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued

19 Nov 2019 Migration By Hon Iain Lees-Galloway
19 NOVEMBER 2019 We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more

Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location

18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018 HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more

Travel

Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled

19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more

New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas

19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas more

Sport

The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners

27 Oct 2019 Cricket By Charlotte Everett
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more

PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final

26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more

Columns

Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade

11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade First published on Werewolf The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more

Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome

10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell   Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more

Kiwi Success

Congratulations to Loder Cup winner

26 Sep 2018 People By Hon Eugenie Sage
25 SEPTEMBER 2018 The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more

Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO

16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO HON JENNY SALESA Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more

Recruitment

Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers

14 Aug 2018 Recruitment By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers RT HON JACINDA ARDERN HON CHRIS HIPKINS Prime Minister The... more

Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers

22 Aug 2018 Recruitment By RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers RT HON JACINDA ARDERN HON CHRIS HIPKINS Prime Minister The... more