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Representation, COVID-19, and failed metaphor: A critical analysis of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board vaccine booklet
No full textINTRODUCTION:
This paper will critically analyse the Bay of Plenty District Health Board’s (BOPDHB) controversial vaccine booklet, which featured mataora-adorned cartoon images of the COVID-19 virus. This imagery caused a furore with anecdotal evidence from social media suggesting that Māori were outraged by the portrayal of Māori in this way.
This paper will offer two arguments. The first argument builds on Hokowhitu’s (2001) work, which deconstructed representations of Māori as animalistic, savage-barbarian, physical unintelligent, mythical, bewildered-childlike, and romanticised-noble. The first argument will extend Hokowhitu’s (2001) analysis by deconstructing the representation of Māori as disease-virus. While it is impossible to understand the BOPDHB’s intentions, the second argument posits that the objective might have been to use the concept of taniwha as a metaphor for COVID-19. Though this argument is significantly weaker than the first, it still warrants some exploration, even if only to provide a sense of balance to this paper
Piki Toi
No full textTeare:
“I see Piki Toi as being a vehicle for an artist movement in the CBD, collectively using the art as a vehicle to engage with our community groups. I am involved with Piki Toi because if I can help someone else, that helps me and improves the quality of my life, it builds my wairua.
(Re-)uses of historical knowledge in architectural education: The value of the client – Reginald Ford on professional practice
No full textWith the support of Tūāpapa Rangahau Research and Enterprise at Unitec New Zealand, a research project devoted to Gummer and Ford – an Auckland architectural firm founded in 1923 by William Henry Gummer (1884–1966) and Charles Reginald Ford (1880–1972) has been developed by a team of researchers. This paper announces the second stage of the research project devoted to Gummer and Ford, which builds up to the 2023 centenary of the firm’s establishment – seen as a milestone in the New Zealand architectural calendar. In 1921 Reginald Ford, a founding partner of Gummer and Ford, often described as New Zealand’s most eminent architectural firm from the interwar period, wrote an explanation of architectural practice titled “Architect and Client.” Ford’s explanation, written one hundred years ago, of what an architect is and what an architect does still rings remarkably true today. In framing his explanation from the client’s point of view, he naturally prioritises the ability of the architect to communicate, both with the client to manage expectations and to make clear the value of the architect, and to the contractor to assist in construction.
This paper aims to show that, though commonly understood as detached from practice, history can teach us valuable lessons and provide solutions for contemporary professional challenges. With a little effort, architectural history could be reinvented by researchers and educators, reflecting all of the atest demands, pressures and priorities of higher education and the architecture profession throughout the world, enhanced by the accreditation process (NZRAB and AACA). In doing so, the teaching of history would produce knowledge that would stand the test of time and help equip students to practice architecture with confidence
Connecting to culturally significant anchors as a means of maintaining wellness for community workers and social workers
No full textThis presentation explores the importance and value of connecting to our own cultural anchors when working in highly demanding social work and community support roles, as a means of anchoring ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically, and ensuring wellness is preserved in the social practitioner. Based on my Master’s thesis research on the topic of ‘psychological first aid’ and ongoing psychological support for social workers, the presentation also examines the impact of poor cultural connection and its effect on relationships in both professional and private spaces, and on general wellbeing and professional growth. Drawing on interviews with participants in my Master’s research, and observations and lessons learned from supervising social workers from across a variety of operational theatres, I will provide evidence that social workers’ connection to, and regular engagement with, their own cultural genealogy and worldview is a key factor for effective maintenance of personal wellbeing, professional performance, and ability to engage in ongoing growth and development
What is good practice in aged healthcare provision? A literature review of international studies informed by cultural context: Volume I: The Aotearoa New Zealand perspective.
No full textWhat do nursing and healthcare students need to know, and to be, to provide exemplary services to older people? The global rise in longevity means that this demographic is making a growing demand on the health sector, yet specialist training in aged healthcare attracts fewer applicants than almost any other area (Gawande, 2014), and “personnel to meet the demand is not projected to keep pace” (King et al., 2011, p. 9). In Aotearoa New Zealand we too face this challenge – but we can also make a significant contribution to the discussion, drawing on an environment which promotes health, physical activity and wellbeing, and our unique bicultural heritage which blends indigenous and western perspectives to how we respect and support older people. Identifying and sharing good practice in aged healthcare provision and education is the very heart of this project. In 2019, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology formed a partnership with Chinese higher education providers to progress teaching, learning and research collaborations related to aged healthcare. The long-term objective is to inform higher education programme development, training and qualifications which draw on the cultural contexts of both sets of international partners. The Sino-New Zealand Aged Healthcare Association (SNZAH) currently has 15 New Zealand members including academic staff, medical and healthcare practitioners, and aged care professionals. Chinese universities and technical institutes who have, or wish to join the Association include Chengdu University, China Medical University, Jinjiang College (part of Sichuan University) and Peking University
Finding me in the academy : a Cook Island, Samoan world view
Get PDFI have learnt …about me
I have learnt, someone believed in me
I have learnt, you bring yourself into the teaching
I have learnt identity, ancestry has relevance, presence
I have learnt, I walk, carry, dance with my students
I have learnt, alofa is the greatest intelligence
I have learnt, the significance of The Treaty of Waitangi to my teaching
I have learnt how to survive in the academ
Fairy Tales: The Dark Side
No full textThis dissertation comprises the written component of a research project undertaken by Alice Jones which examined the portrayal and treatment of women in fairy tales as it relates to the treatment of women in contemporary New Zealand. Fairy tales often reflect the experiences and preoccupations of women, especially women of a marriageable age. Jones’ position is that the way women are viewed and portrayed historically is reflected in their social status and wellbeing in the present. Part of the investigation involved researching and analysing relevant fairy tales from various aspects, including historical and feminist considerations. The work of theorists such as Jack Zipes, Marina Warner, Andrea Dworkin, and Clarissa Pinkola Este̒s provided evidence of the relevance of fairy tales to the lives of contemporary women. Jones also researched two aspects of abuse faced by women in contemporary New Zealand: intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. Research in The Homicide Report and in police records show that one in three New Zealand women experience intimate partner violence and one in four experience sexual assault. Two fairy tales formed the basis for Jones’ research and inspiration for her artwork. “Bluebeard”, by Charles Perrault, describes the tale of a murderous husband and was chosen for its relevance to the subject of intimate partner violence. Different versions of the “Sleeping Beauty” fairy tale provided insight into the issue of sexual assault.
Additional research involved examining the work of feminist artists who used fairy tales for inspiration, for instance, Kiki Smith, Paula Rego, and Sally Smart. Jones’ textile work utilised quilting techniques in keeping with a tradition of women artists using textile’s historic association with women as a means of highlighting feminist issues. Women artists have made quilts both as art and as feminist symbols in order to address social injustice, as explained in The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker. Further to these artists, Jones’ researched work by textile artists, including Faith Ringgold, Bisa Butler, and Chawne Kimber. Their work provided inspiration through both their textile methods and their focus on feminist and other social matters, such as racism or rape. The artworks made by Jones, based on the fairy tales, “Bluebeard” and “Sleeping Beauty”, are a feminist response to intimate partner violence, and to sexual assault against women in contemporary New Zealand
“Wake up, Sheeple!”: Conspiracy theories and Māori during COVID-19
No full textThis situation report outlines some of the literature about conspiracy theories and its application to Mäori during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report shows that while there are some psychological factors at play with regard to vulnerability to conspiracy theories, it appears that issues around power and powerlessness are most applicable to Mäori, given our historical and political context. The report also advocates for a manaakitanga-informed approach to dealing with whänau who are disseminating conspiracy theories. A manaakitanga-informed approach is about continuing to treat whänau and friends with respect and supporting and nurturing relationship
Tā ki tahi tā ki ʻuta = The one who can perform in both land and ocean is well a rounded person. A Tongan proverb
No full textRESEARCH QUESTION
How can the investigation of faiva generate a contemporary Pacific architecture that strengthens all Polynesian cultural identity?
ABSTRACT
Strengthening the cultural identities of Pacific and New Zealand born Polynesians living in New Zealand remains a rising issue. The ever-changing social and political environment over the years has caused this issue to shift accordingly. The influence of these contexts have resulted in a sense of disconnectedness with cultural identity within these groups.
However, Polyfest has been a key event that strengthens the cultural identity of youth through performance. Polyfest allows students to embark on a cultural journey of identity by participating, practicing, learning and immersing themselves within their cultures through traditional dance and music. It allows students to strengthen bonds with one another and share a platform that allows them to discover their cultural identity through their traditional performances.
The purpose is to create a cultural performing arts centre that can strengthen cultural identity of all Polynesian people. Investigation and analysis of faiva from Tongan culture will contribute to responding to this projects underlying issue
Identification of queen-less beehives using signal enhancement techniques and neural networks
No full textBeekeeping has a long history of about 180 years in New Zealand. The first group of honey bees introduced has expanded to approximately one million registered beehives by now. An increasing number of residents have been associated with beekeeping to process and produce world-famous New Zealand honey products. The honey market competition has become more severe than before due to the slow growth of pollen resources, weather change, and the limited number of experienced apiarists. New Zealand beekeepers have lost approximately 10% of bee colonies every winter since 2015, caused mainly by the queen bee problems. In this situation, apiculture needs the support of new technologies urgently.
Since the 1980s, various bee monitoring methods based on processing a wide range of physical signals, including audio, temperature, video, weight, vibration, number of bees, humidity, and O2/CO2 content, have been developed to prove the feasibility of precision beekeeping. Unfortunately, few of these systems have been applied in practice because it can be very complicated to analyse the honey bee signals indicating significant statuses, like queen-less beehives. According to previous studies, monitoring the audio signals generated by a beehive can help us predict nearly all of the crucial statuses of the beehive. Hence, this research proposes to identify queen-less beehives by monitoring the bee audio signals. However, the bee audio signals are always acquired with natural environmental noise, which means the noisy bee signals captured from the beehive must be appropriately filtered to obtain the enhanced signals close to the original signals generated by bees.
This thesis proposes an approach to identify queen-less beehives by using audio signal enhancement techniques and neural networks. More particularly, the audio signals corrupted by rain noise are enhanced by Multi-band Spectral Subtraction and Wiener filtering techniques, respectively. The improved Mel-frequency Cepstrum Coefficient (IMFCC) of the enhanced signals are extracted as input features of a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) model to classify queen-less beehives. The result shows that this approach improves the classification accuracy by around 10% to 29%, depending on the quality of the input signals. It is also reported that the proposed system has a higher classification accuracy and better learning ability than other systems using KNN and SVM algorithms