Wairuatanga: Examining Wairua as Motivation for Doctoral Students

• In Event: Amorangi: Doctoring Our Own

Abstract

Wairuatanga is translated as ‘Māori spirituality’, and is a traditional concept that for Māori impacts on self and one’s inter-personal relationships in everyday situations. Formal academic relationships like doctoral supervision, reflects these intricacies in the same way other Māori philosophies are addressed in this symposium. The rejuvenation of cultural concepts like wairua asserts the mana of the language, the land, and the people. In reclaiming Māori concepts as theory is the potential to transform existing literature on motivational theory and supervision. In my study, a relational epistemology which is culturally and socially constructed underpins the fundamental belief that people and the environment are in relation with each other. Reaching amorangi status in this context is reflected in the degree of spirituality one reflects, their knowledge and practice of traditional spiritual systems and the quality of the spiritual relationships one engenders around them.
In my research about wairuatanga, I adopted a localised indigenous methodology that originated from the place of my whakapapa (genealogy). One traditional saying describes the unity of the Waimana ( situated in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zeanand) people as the spreading, entangled growth of the kumara vines (‘Waimana kaaku: Te horana o te kururangi’) and it framed my research. The vine (Te Aka) represents the interconnectivity of my study between the themes and the participants. The findings which emerged from the interviews with tribal doctoral scholars of their motivations during study assisted me in developing an Indigenous motivational model; wairua as motivation in doctoral studies, the value of wairua placed on one’s identity and culture; wairua and the significant role of whānau and role models; wairua and utu (reciprocity in contributing back to their communities); and the influence of wairua upon their doctoral topic. It is asserted that in becoming an amorangi, wairuatanga offers a more holistic and cultural way of understanding the driving forces which Māori scholars engage in to ensure completion of their doctoral studies.

Author

• Miriama Claudette Postlethwaite, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi