2021 Hui Poutama

Envisioning a Te Tiriti Led Institution

Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 August
8:30am – 5pm
Otago Business School

Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtāgo, the University of Otago boldly states in its Vision 2040 document that Otago will become Treaty led. Vision 2040 is embedded within the political milieu of a refreshed Education and Training Act 2020 and increasing needs to radically shift the education system for Māori and society more generally. Section 4 of the Education and Training Act 2020 states that the purpose “includes establishing and regulating an education system that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi and supports Māori-Crown relationships”. Alongside this legislative reform, a crescendo of aligned activity, such as the publications of Ngā Kete Mātauranga and Te Pūtahitanga: A Tiriti–led Science-Policy Approach for Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as a letter to the Minister of Education in 2020, from all Māori Professors addressing the “Crown’s failure to protect Māori staff and students in Universities and, consequently, its failure to uphold the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi”. They called “a nation-wide review of the University tertiary sector for the purpose of committing to, and accelerating with urgency, a tertiary sector that honours te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

We are now in a context where the status quo is no longer an option. The status quo at the University of Otago is that Māori staff are 6% of the total staff population (University of Otago Staff Equity Demographics Data, 2019).

This year’s Hui Poutama is a call to action to collectivise and galvanise our aspirations as Māori staff and students to imagine a Te Tiriti led institution by sharing research, academic and professional staff experiences to inform this process.

Hui Poutama is a collaboration between Te Poutama Māori (the University of Otago Māori Academic Staff Collective), Te Koronga Indigenous Science Research Theme and the Māori Professional Staff Collective. We invite abstracts from Māori academic staff, Māori professional staff and Māori postgraduate students that highlight research, teaching and professional activities related to the theme “Envisioning a Te Tiriti led Institution”.