Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Whakapapa'

Ngai Tahu Whanui claims most of the South Island as its takiwa (territory) and is one of the largest Maori iwi (tribe) of Aotearoa New Zealand. In 1996 Ngai Tahu Whanui became the first tribal group to have its identity recognised in legislation. The basis for membership in the legal-political identity, Ngai Tahu Whanui, is registration of whakapapa (genealogy) to a South Island kaumatua (elder) listed in the 'Blue Book', a list compiled in negotiation with the Crown in 1925. I argue that the management of whakapapa by the contemporary leadership Te Runanga 0 Ngai Tahu - constitutes the adhesive that holds together the individual members, who have historically been geographically, politically and culturally dispersed. This management is carried out through the Ngai Tahu Whanui roll of members and is legitimated by a supporting public narrative. The Ngai Tahu Whanui public narrative relies on the potency of whakapapa as metanarrative and three meta-themes about time, place and 'The Claim' Ngai Tahu have made against Crown violations of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. This management privileges the new legal-political identities of 'Ngai Tahu Whanui' by silencing or excluding other historic South Island Maori identities. Research for this dissertation includes participant observation in a range of Ngai Tahu settings and a series of recorded life histories and face to face interviews with Ngai Tahu individuals over the period from 1996 to 2000. Through investigation of political events over this period, within a context of historical events since 1840, and the personal narratives of Ngai Tahu individuals, the complexities of contemporary South Island Maori identities are examined. The dissertation does not adopt a 'body of theory' as such but uses a range of theorists from various disciplines. Anthony Giddens is relied on for consideration of whakapapa as cultural resource. Margaret Somers, Ken Plummer and Nigel Rapport are followed in their consideration of the role of personal and public narratives in the constitution of identity. Somers' concept of 'metanarrative', the most potent form of cultural resource, is used to analyse whakapapa. It is because of its metanarrative properties, including its role as narrative and a range of metaphoric associations and the interweaving of the meta-themes in whakapapa, that its strategic uses by Ngai Tahu Whanui leadership are consented to both by the Crown and by South Island Maori. While other political practices by the contemporary leadership are often challenged in counternarratives by Ngai Tahu individuals and by non-Ngai Tahu, the management and use of whakapapa as a resource is never challenged. I also consider Russell Bishop [1996] for his autobiographical contribution to account of the role of whakapapa as narrative. I have also used Corrine Kratz's typology of 'rhetorical techniques' to investigate aspects of tradition in my analysis of the Ngai Tahu public narrative. The dissertation includes an argument about the framing in narrative and supporting management of a national ethnic identity, borrowing from Margaret Somers, Craig Calhoun, Charles Tilly and Benedict Anderson. To my knowledge, this dissertation is the first in the study of contemporary identities for Maori to consider whakapapa for both its metanarrative qualities and for its uses as political resource.

In 2007 the Curriculum Council of Western Australia (CCWA) introduced a new Visual Arts Course of Study (2007), which contains a postmodern perspective and is inclusive of social criticism, multiculturalism, feminism and non-Western art forms. In keeping with the new Visual Arts Course of Study in this Creative Visual Arts Project, I have used the CCWA course outcomes as a framework to develop a visual arts program that is a vehicle for exploring individual personal identity, and has the potential to increase self-esteem in students in Western Australian secondary schools. The research stems from my personal view that students can benefit significantly from investigating their identity, enabling them to situate their self in a stronger position in their present day life-world when they have a more definite sense of who they are and where they come from. I have placed myself in the position of ‘the subject’ in order to transfer the process into a visual art program that can be utilised within the classroom. The visual arts program is underpinned by Efland’s expressive psychoanalytic model for aesthetic learning, which posits that art is self-expression, a form of learning that contributes to emotional growth. Visual art awakens intellectual inquiry in an individual, increases cognitive potential through enabling personal liberation, and is an adjunct to informing society and culture. The research project culminates in an exegesis and an exhibition of artworks that communicate personal memories and significant historical events exclusive to my whakapapa (Maori genealogy). The artworks are a vehicle for exploring my individual self-identity, enabling me to connect more deeply with my Maori cultural roots. The research paradigm utilised is narrative inquiry, a process of collecting and structuring stories that is characteristic of the traditional Maori practice of storytelling. This project has resulted in a reinterpretation of the perception of myself within my personal life-world. I have a deeper understanding of my cross-cultural roots, a stronger sense of who I am, and a sense of empowerment. I believe Year 11 students can also achieve this outcome through the visual arts program, using it as a tool for investigating their own identity, challenging cultural, social and gender limitations that impact on them, and ultimately empowering their personal life-world.

This research is concerned with ethnic identity and focuses on the experiences of my tribe, the Ngai Tahu of the South Island of New Zealand, as a case study. Material drawn from interviews with eight Ngai Tahu respondents are used to illustrate the factors influencing Ngai Tahu identity, which include whakapapa, land, language, tikanga, mahinga kai, the Claim, our legal identity, and the perceptions of significant others. These factors are discussed within the context of the wider Maori identity and the New Zealand environment. The interviews also provide an insight into the personal nature of Ngai Tahu cultural identity and the experiences of the respondents in terms of inclusion and exclusion from the general Maori identity. A theoretical base on the issues of cultural identity development is gained from the literature and used as a framework for discussing Ngai Tahu identity development. This research investigates the development of pan-Maori identity and how it has manifested itself within New Zealand society. The cultural criteria used to measure and assess membership in the Maori ethnic collective are often inadequate and inappropriate for Ngai Tahu and within the Ngai Tahu context. This research illustrates how the environment and the choices it offers to people of Ngai Tahu identity both in the past and the present. I will argue that Ngai Tahu identity is largely a product of its circumstance. Although primordialist notions such as whakapapa are consistently present in that identity, the weight that they carry is largely determined by the political and cultural environment and context. The project concludes with an assessment of the level of appreciation given to differences that exist within different sections of Maoridom and the need to understand the validity and legitimacy of those differences if a positive sense of cultural identity is to be achieved.

Ruapehu is an active volcano located on the North Island of New Zealand, with the most recent major eruptions occurring in 1945, 1969, 1975, and 1995/96. Ruapehu is also home to the three major North Island ski areas, Whakapapa, Turoa, and Tukino. Because of the high frequency of eruptions, there is a significant volcanic hazard at the ski areas particularly from lahars which can form even after minor eruptions. Most recently, lahars have affected Whakapapa ski area in 1969, 1975, and 1995/96. The most significant risk at Turoa is from ballistic bombs due to the proximity of the top two T-Bars to the crater. Ash fall has also caused disruption at the ski areas, covering the snow and causing damage to structures. There is yet to be a death at the ski areas from a volcanic event; however the risk at the ski areas is too high to be completely ignored. The ski areas at Whakapapa and Turoa are currently operated by Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL), who have been significantly improving their commitment to providing volcanic hazard training for their staff and preparing for handling a volcanic eruption. RAL is joined by the Institute of Geological Sciences (GNS) and the Department of Conservation (DoC) in trying to mitigate this risk through a range of initiatives, including an automated Eruption Detection System (EDS), linked to sirens and loudspeakers on Whakapapa ski areas, as well as by providing staff training and public education. The aim of this study was to provide RAL with recommendations to improve their staff training and warning system response. Staff induction week at both Turoa and Whakapapa ski areas was observed. Surveys were distributed and collected from staff at both ski areas, and interviews were conducted with staff at Whakapapa ski area. Data obtained from staff interviews and surveys provided the author with insight into staff's mental models regarding a volcanic event response. A simulation of the warning system was observed, as well as a blind test, to collect data on the effectiveness of training on staff response. Results indicated permanent and seasonal staff were knowledgeable of the volcanic hazards that may affect the ski areas, but had differing perspectives on the risk associated with those hazards. They were found to be confident in the initial response to a volcanic event (i.e. move to higher ground), but were unsure of what would happen after this initial response. RAL was also found to have greatly improved their volcanic hazard training in the past year, however further recommendations were suggested to increase training effectiveness. A training needs analysis was done for different departments at the ski areas by taking a new approach of anticipating demands staff may encounter during a volcanic event and complementing these demands with existing staff competencies. Additional recommendations were made to assist RAL in developing an effective plan to use when responding to volcanic events, as well as other changes that could be made to improve the likelihood of customer safety at the ski areas during an eruption.

People telling stories of national identity, land and spirituality contribute to the local formation of the nation. I explore this view of nationhood in Aotearoa/New Zealand from Māori and Pākehā perspectives. Theorising this exploration, I form my own national identity concept for guiding analysis, that of locally narrated roots. Locally narrated roots is, essentially, a way of looking at national identity through the everyday narration of land, spirituality and history/ancestry by individuals. Supporting the production of this term is Smith’s (2003) theory of revised ethno-symbolism, which links religion, nationalism, land and history/ancestry, and Thompson’s (2001) grounded, everyday approach summed up as local production of national identity. Research methods draw upon Thompson’s people-focussed approach in conjunction with a narrative approach inspired by life story and Kaupapa Māori Research practices, which informed the conducting of twelve semi-structured interviews. From these interviews, six Māori and six Pākehā stories of history, ancestry, spirituality, land and identity were generated. These narratives revealed that colonial settler society, romanticism and whakapapa (genealogy) are central to this research and vital for further exploration on national identity. I close with the suggestion that participants’ stories enact a process of locally authenticating one’s national identity. I also suggest this local authentication is a secular spirituality, an idea that combines both patent secularism and spirituality, and is expressed through land, history and ancestry in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

This study explores whakapapa as a tool, which can be used as a kaupapa Māori assessment framework in early childhood education, positioning kaupapa Māori theory as a paradigm base underpinning a philosophical and theoretical discourse towards assessment for children's learning. This thesis represents the culmination of a personal and professional journey, derived from the writer's longstanding interest in and commitment to kaupapa Māori early childhood education, and more specifically, philosophies and practices for assessment in this context. The study has canvassed a vast terrain of kaupapa Māori philosophy in its search for a theoretical grounding for a kaupapa Māori assessment framework for early childhood education. Foundation to the study has been the premise that the notion of whakapapa serves as an overarching philosophical matrix, encompassing the interconnected realms of genealogy, spirituality, and knowledge that precede, surround, and embrace the Māori child. Throughout the thesis, diagrams are employed to demonstrate and model the whakapapa underpinning the conceptualisations being explored. After contextualising the study within a historical overview of the impact of colonisation of kaupapa Māori education and research, it is suggested that a re-examination of key concepts from tikanga Māori will illuminate transformative possibilities applicable to the study's focus on the development of a theoretical base for an assessment tool within kaupapa Māori early childhood settings. Drawing from the literature, the thesis re-positions the view of the Māori child to one of being nurtured within a philosophical construct underpinned and immersed in tikanga such as whakapapa, ira tangata, whanaungatanga, mana and tapu, and ako, providing a strongly Māori theoretical base for the envisioning of the assessment process. The outcome of this study is to propose an assessment framework, which embodies and reflects these core kaupapa Māori philosophies as praxis.

A whakapapa of the marae Whakapapa, a Maori word, is often abstracted to the English language as the word genealogy. Whakapapa however has a more subtle and comprehensive meaning in Maori. In that language it has complex connotations of genealogical lines, yes, but also the history of the people involved and perhaps most importantly, the inter-relationships between those people. Degrees of consanguinity are all important when establishing relationships within Te Ao Maori - the Maori world. Marae, the basis of this thesis, is another Maori word. A marae, at its simplest, might be referred to as an agglomeration of separated, functional buildings on an area of reserved land, usually deemed to be sacral to some extent. Marae have an ancient history both in New Zealand Maori culture, but really originating at least in part, in the older cultures from which our Maori culture was eventually derived, from other, earlier settled, Pacific Islands. This thesis then is a genealogy, a sort of cultural history of marae, but is based on the idea and Maori sense of the whakapapa and so partakes of the nuances involved. It is these additional complexities that are referred to by the use of the word whakapapa in the title of this thesis. This thesis investigates the lineage of the marae, tracing it back to legendary roots, but it also examines the relationships between the components of the marae and also the place the marae has established within Maori (and other) communities. Beyond the historical forms of the marae that this thesis investigates are the other aspects that delineate what a marae really is. It is not simply a group of buildings at all, although this is a common non-Maori understanding of its disposition. A marae is a tapu or sacred space, and within or nearby that space are buildings whose form, function and meaning have only come to their present conjunction in (written) historic times. What makes the marae is the combination of the people and the ritual that is involved on a marae, the marae space and lastly, the physical buildings. The buildings, particularly carved houses, have additional meaning that they lend to the thread of the story. They themselves represent the whakapapa of the marae, and specifically of the hapu (or sub-tribe) who inhabit that marae. They do this by direct representation, but also by analogy and by spiritual means that are little dealt with in most literature. Ancestors in Te Ao Maori are deemed to exist within the very fabric of the building and have a renewed or continuing existence that is created in the first instance by a melange of ritual and belief. This thesis discusses both the usage of ritual to create such physical interjacence, utilised in modern times within whare (houses), and the continued use of regular ritual on marae for human functions. It is only together that a complete modern marae is created. With any of these elements missing the marae form is truncated or lessened and diminished in some ways. So, marae which have been recreated in preserved forms, such as those in museums, are discussed at length in this thesis, by contrast with marae in regular usage for 'traditional' purposes. In essence then, this is an investigation of the marae, but in terms, manners and ways, which have not always been fully or comprehensively dealt with before.

The work I have presented here pulls together Maori epistemologies as evidenced in the whakapapa knowledge particularly of Ngati Maniapoto to see if and where connection lies with understandings of Maori cultural wellbeing. Whakapapa knowledge is the unbounded collection of theory, observation and experience as seen through Maori eyes. It is intricately connected by whakapapa, a tool for working with and extrapolating understanding and is the common thread that binds hapu, whanau and iwi (O’Regan, 2001). The aim is to investigate contemporary Maori realities with a strong interest in these traditions of wisdom and knowing. The rangahau presented here is of necessity both deconstructive and reconstructive. As a deconstructive project the rangahau seeks to place under the microscope of indigenous gaze the colonial theoretical, ethical, moral and political construction of Maori ways of knowing and being and the ontological orders of western paradigms and non-Maori worldview (Romero-Little, 2006). As a constructive project I am concerned with placing on the record and opening up sites for, but not defining, Maori epistemology as legitimate and ‘tika’ and at the same time putting forward ‘alternate epistemologies’ (Collins, 1991; Lopez, 1998; Smith, 1999; Marsden, 2003) that challenge certified knowledge and critically challenges dominant constructions of the truth as related to knowing. The implications of these explorations of epistemologies for Maori lives, opportunities and experience are also considered. This work argues for the maintenance of Maori cultural identities via whakapapa knowledge using connections to Maori ways of knowing. This includes examination of the effects of coming to terms with, of encountering, coming to terms with and engaging with Maori cultural practices, as well as, processes commonly referred to as ‘culture shock’ (Weaver, 1993) the psychological, emotional and physical responses to the phenomenon of identity reclamation and how these realities can be negotiated. What I found is that Maori knowledge systems are replete with elements that contribute positively to the maintenance of cultural identities and these identities are uniquely and distinctively contextually and culturally relevant. These systems have been and continue to be threatened by the impacts of colonisation and colonial ideologies. The work has found that elders and relevant contexts retain and provide a large volume of knowledge that when engaged with can provide useful insights into living within Maori paradigms that can enhance wellbeing in the present. Maori communities and whanau are under high levels of stress with the pressures of contemporary living and the dis-location from ancestral lands, and the living activities, knowledge sharing opportunities and learning practices they support. This work seeks to offer up solutions via the maintenance, enhancement and advancement of cultural identities as a way for mediating and removing some of the effects of the stresses. The implications are that the continued disconnection of Maori from unique cultural identities informed by whakapapa korero knowledge may serve to weaken important elements and connections to an individual’s and group’s cultural identity, including personal history, stories, land and people. The potential exists for further investigation of how crucial cultural connections that acknowledge contemporary realities and yet support the maintenance of cultural identities with strong and vibrant connections to whakapapa korero knowledge connections might be maintained, enhanced and advanced. Additionally, the work here opens up the space for and advocates for much deeper exploration of distinctive elements of a groups identity through contextually located knowledge in forms such as waiata, purakau, pakiwaitara, whakairo, rongoa, wairua and the many other knowledge forms of tea o Maori to further depths/heights not yet achieved to reclaim (k)new and subjugated knowledge forms. This potential is exciting but there are a range of risks involved (including appropriations of indigenous knowledge) that requires certain minimum standards of knowledge protection such as discerning which knowledge is suitable for public consumption and that which is not. This is most suitably done after receiving guidance from the knowledge holders as to what the appropriate forums for such knowledge might be and analysing risks for abuse, risks of misinterpretation and risks of unintended use that might cause whakama. The enquiry suggested above as being of benefit is of course a deeply personal exploration and ideas of what is appropriate for public consumption and what is not is something that must be explored at the time of enquiry. As in my work here I was asked to include some things and to exclude others as a result of views by the elders that the public consumption of some knowledge they contributed was inappropriate to be shared beyond our korero because it could be perceived in a number of ways, some helpful and some not, for the people concerned, or for different groups of people. The knowledge that has been shared here and that which has not has therefore been discerned.

The thesis examines the contribution of Te Aute College to Maori advancement by exploring the whakapapa of Te Aute College and the brand that has developed out of the school’s whakapapa from its beginnings in 1854 prior to major European settlement in the Hawkes Bay through to the 21st century. In doing so, the notion of whakapapa is used to reveal the layers of tradition, history, connections, narratives, achievements and setbacks that have enabled the realisation of Maori potential and the ability of Te Aute College to sustain a contribution to the advancement of Maori. This thesis contends that the contribution of Te Aute College to Maori advancement stems from its whakapapa and its brand that is unequivocally Te Aute in focus and character. An Indigenous Maori research paradigm, a whakapapa research methodology, provides the context for researching Te Aute College, the basis of this thesis. The thesis also explores whakapapa as a tool that can be used as a legitimate research framework when engaging in Maori research. It posits an Indigenous Maori research approach as a paradigm base for a philosophical and theoretical discourse when researching Maori institutions and communities. This thesis signifies the continuation of both a personal and professional journey that originates from the author’s enduring interest in and sense of obligation to contributing to the story of Te Aute College. The initial thesis discourse contextualises the research through a historical chronology of the tangata whenua connection to the research community; of the first 150 years of Te Aute College providing education for predominantly young male Maori and of the ‘special character’ education that is offered by Te Aute College today. Three interconnecting themes provide the systematic basis for exploring the distinctive yet simultaneously universal layers of Te Aute College that emerged as significant to this research; the Te Aute Experience, the contribution of Te Aute College and He Toa Takitini - Collaboration. Finally, an analysis is given of these themes in conjunction with the whakapapa of Te Aute College and the future role of Te Aute College in sustaining its contribution to the advancement of Maori.

Kia mau ki te rangatiratanga o te Iwi o Hauraki Just as the whakataukī explains Hold fast to the power and authority of the Hauraki tribes the focus of this study is to examine and evaluate the impact of Te Ao Pākehā on Pare Hauraki lands and Tīkapa Moana under the mana of Pare Hauraki Māori and Pare Hauraki tikanga. The iwi of Pare Hauraki have land claims through the, (Wai 100) and the Hauraki Māori Trust Board, before the Waitangi Tribunal highlighting whenua issues and their impact on Pare Hauraki iwi. Also relevant is the foreshore and seabed issue which is documented leading on to the infamous Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, (for Māori anyway), sparking widespread opposition by Māori throughout the country, and other supportive non-Māori groups because of the issue concerning Māori kaitiiakitanga and guardianship roles. This investigation will commence by outlining the histories of discovery and settlement of Pare Hauraki, the concept of mana-whenua/mana-moana as it applies to Pare Hauraki Māori and our tikanga, and then to subsequent issues leading to land alienation of the early 19th to late 20th cenutries and then to the foreshore issue of the early 21st Century. This research will include information showing that before 1840 to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and thereafter that Pākehā and various Crown agents, through legislation claimed the rights to the lands, waterways and oceanic areas under the kaitiakitanga of my tupuna of Pare Hauraki. Tupuna and other iwi members have expressed their disgust seeing the mana of their traditional lands, waterways, oceanic areas and kaitiaki roles slipping away from them through these activities. Therefore, this thesis is a response to those issues and the impact on (a), Māori as a people, and our tikanga Māori and (b), Pare Hauraki Māori as the kaitiaki/guardians of the Pare Hauraki rohe/territory in accordance with tikanga Māori, and the significance of the responsibilities which arise out of the Māori concepts of kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga and rangatiratanga.

The content of this thesis is premised on a reflexive examination of some historical juxtapositions culminating in critical aspects of being Māori in the twenty first century and how such aspects have informed contemporary indigenous identity. That is, the continuing acknowledgement and exponential public recognition of critical concepts which inextricably link indigenous and civic identity. The theoretical sources for this research are, in the main, derived from anthropological and religious studies, particularly on the significance of mythologies and oral histories, as well as from the oral theorising of elders in Aotearoa New Zealand. A very significant contribution from one such elder, a senior Māori woman academic, has been included in the form of the transcript of an interview. She herself had collected the views of a number of elders on myth, creating a rare and valuable resource. In the interview she married her reflections on these with her own experiences and her cogent analyses. From the outset, it was necessary to be discerning so as to ensure the thesis workload was manageable and realistic. For this reason the selected critical aspects that have been used to frame this research are (1) a developing Western validation (that is, acknowledgement and respect) of Māori, Māori culture and their mythology; (2) oral history (genealogy) and traditions that have remained constant despite the influences of modernity; and (3) notions of fluidity, negotiation and pragmatism regarding kinship legacies and cultural heritage. The thesis is comprised of six chapters starting from a subjective narrative leading through increasingly objective discourses that culminate in a conclusion which supports a belief that modern Māori require a balancing of critical aspects of cultural heritage, with a broad understanding of the world of the 'other', in order to realise and develop their contemporary indigenous identity. Ultimately, indigenous ideologies, practices and knowledge recorded and examined in the world of academia today, become potential resources for tomorrow. The intention of this research is to aggregate and discuss intrinsic aspects of the Māori past as well as developing aspects of the present, in order to better understand the significance of the future, and to add to the growing corpus of indigenous worldviews.

This thesis examines modern iwi governance systems and their effect on whakapapa as an organisational framework in Māori societies. The main question addressed was; can whakapapa survive as an organisational process, or will it be stifled, as Māori societies struggle to establish a strong identity in contemporary New Zealand. As an organisational framework for Māori societies, whakapapa works through a series of principles that function through relationships between people, and between people and other elements that make up the world. Contemporary Māori groups continue to claim that they are whakapapa-based societies. This thesis examines that claim by investigating to what extent of "being Māori" today is about adherence to those principles and to whakapapa-based processes and relationships, and how much is it about being shaped by non-Māori constructs that have been formed by state-intervention and legislated changes to Māori social organisation. If being Maori today has as much or more to do with the latter, what place does whakapapa have in contemporary Māori society, and to what level and to what extent can the principles of whakapapa be upheld as the basis for contemporary Māori societies. A series of stories and case studies were used to answer the questions posed in the thesis. The case studies demonstrated the ways in which whakapapa worked in everyday situations, and how the people who take part in whakapapa-based relationships understood them to work. They also demonstrated how state intervention through legislation has challenged the way Māori groups structure themselves when new circumstances have required compromise and change. The institutionalised evolution of Māori societies is examined in more detail using one example of a modern tribal structure, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. The Ngāi Tahu example typifies the implications for Māori if they choose to move from a whakapapa-based organisational model of governance to a centralised legalbureaucratic model of governance. The adoption of the new centralised governance structures, such as Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, will mean that Māori hapū and iwi societies are in danger of disappearing to be replaced by a generic group,shaped by legislation and integrated into the wider nation-state of New Zealand. Whakapapa can only remain at the core of Māori societies, if Māori allow it to, but when Māori adopt centralised "generic" system of governance, hapū and iwi societies, become censored versions of their former selves.
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This thesis is based on the oral histories of social workers, birth parents, and adopted people who have personal experience of ‘closed stranger adoption’ in relation to New Zealand Māori. Viewed collectively their histories, and my own analysis, demonstrate the legislative sleight of hand and societal illusions, which bound all parties involved in an uncomfortable and contrived silence. Between 1955 and 1985, over 80,000 children in New Zealand were adopted. The majority of these adoptions were under the state-sanctioned practice of closed stranger adoption. While exact numbers remain unknown, it is widely accepted that a significant proportion of these adoptions involved children of Māori ancestry who were placed into white homes. Although the era of closed stranger adoption, which is now widely viewed as an indefensible social experiment, has been well documented, there still remains very little scholarship and analysis of the adoption of Māori children and their birth parents, during this period. When Māori experience of adoption is discussed, it is usually assumed that the subject is whāngai adoptions. However, closed stranger adoption is almost the antithesis of whāngai, the only similarity being that a child is cared for by people other than their birth parents. This thesis highlights the inextricable links between closed stranger adoption practices, the relevance of ‘race’, and ongoing colonial processes and structures in New Zealand, arguing that while the history of closed adoption begins formally with the passing of the Adoption Act 1955, the wider issues of degradation, disregard and devaluing of Māori people and values that are manifest in this particular policy and practice can be understood as a continuation of the policies and practices of colonisation. The manipulation of identity, the silencing and erasure of self to fit roles described and prescribed by others, the forced assimilation, the infantalising, the expectation of gratitude, and the inter-generational trauma, are all practices of colonisation that are reproduced in the closed stranger adoption of Māori children into white families. Meanwhile, New Zealand publicly maintained the illusion of a progressive, egalitarian society, with an enviable record of race relations. This thesis argues that the impact of closed stranger adoption was particularly onerous for Māori resulting in ruinous long-term, intergenerational consequences on Māori family values, kinship ties, and social organisation. The most debilitating effect for many Māori adoptees has been the inability to trace their Māori parent, and thereby access knowledge of their whakapapa. Many Māori adoptees grieve their unknown whakapapa and feel ‘inauthentic’ and invisible as Māori as a result. However, the silence surrounding the adoption, and more recently the out-of-home care, of Māori children is slowly starting to be addressed. Through the use of testimony, historically contextualised, this thesis provides a space where the burden of holding singular, personal stories of grief and dislocation can be shared. Making private testimonies public, provides a powerful, amplified voice, which requires a wider societal response. This thesis is based on a Māori-centred research approach and incorporates poetic transcriptions in the (re)telling of the narratives.