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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Vol. 32, No. 24. October 2, 1969

Students Seek Stage III Maori

Students Seek Stage III Maori

Representations for a Stage III unit in Maori are being made by interested students.

A letter sent by several students to the Vice Chancellor, the secretary of the Joint Committee on Student Participation and the Dean of the Arts Faculty, notes the "extreme concern" felt at the information that there will be no provision for this unit in 1970.

"The course in Maori at this university is unique in that it is orientated to the oral and cultural traditions of the Maori and so is more than an academic study of a language", the letter said.

"For this reason it would be extremely difficult for students having completed Maori II at Victoria to take Maori III at Auckland where the course is less comparative and involved in literature and tradition and more purely analytical of the spoken language."

Several other reasons listed by the students why Victoria should offer a course in Maori to Stage III included the fact that the Turnbull Library and other national collections of published and unpublished material are now centred in Wellington.

The NZBC Maori programme material is available as are the Maori Land Court records.

"Wellington is handy to centres of Maori culture where there are still some people expert in the oral traditions of the Maori", the letter said.

"Much valuable liason work has already been done with regard to collecting original material for study."

The letter said that these factors "clearly point" to the need for teaching and research facilities at Victoria at a level where students can confidently commence analytical work on the valuable manuscripts and recorded versions of old Maori customs.

Referring to a previous refusal by the Professorial Board to accommodate a Stage III unit because of "lack of funds", the letter says discussions with anthropology department staff members reveal the course could probably be adequately undertaken with an additional junior lecturer on the staff.

"If lack of money is the reason for the refusal, the students involved may consider raising the money by efforts outside the university in order to pay a sufficiently qualified lecturer.

For the students to have to change universities at this stage would prove extremely difficult for reasons of studies, accommodation and finance."

One of the students concerned, Cesilia Whatapuhou, spoke of the "untapped and unrecorded knowledge, some of which is not even printed in books which the elders of tribes are taking with them to the grave.

"This is a big area of research," he said.

Another student who signed the letter, Stuart Davidson, spoke of the "oral transmission of knowledge" and emphasised that he was anxious not to let the research trail die with the old people.

He said some of the elders were suspicious that their knowledge would be used for commercial reasons.

This "mistrustful" attitude extended back into the last century when Sir George Grey did some research on the Maori.

Another Stage II student, Peter McLean, said the unit had "as much value as an academic discipline" because "Maori is a living language".

The next step for the students will be a meeting with the Dean of the Arts Faculty today.

"It's difficult at this time of the year", said Peter McLean.

"But I'm thinking of the students who have still to come to the university in years ahead".