New Dean for Waikato’s School of Māori and Pacific Developme

New Dean for Waikato’s School of Māori and Pacific Development

Super-freezing winters are a thing of the past for the University of Waikato’s new Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development.

Professor Brendan Hokowhitu (Ngāti Pukenga) took up the role of Dean on 5 January after nearly four years as Dean and Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at Canada’s University of Alberta in Edmonton. Before that he worked at Otago University for 10 years in various positions ending with being Associate Professor in Te Tumu, School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies and the first Associate Dean (Māori) within the Division of Humanities.

Professor Hokowhitu’s research looks at the stereotype belief that Māori do well at sport as opposed to other areas.

“Some of my research was a historical analysis into Māori in sport, and rugby in particular, and that in turn led to my work in Māori masculinity and thinking about stereotypes surrounding indigenous men. I found out that physicality was an underpinning idea which was linked to colonial history in general.

“I found that part of colonial history was limiting Māori to certain roles, so I’d call a lot of my research a history of contemporary stereotypes. Curricula in native schools for example was very focused on the physical, where for a long time for instance native schools didn’t offer School Certificate, meaning Māori actually didn’t have access to careers beyond physical labourer jobs. The Jake the Muss image was in some ways very real in that it arose out of that colonial history.”

Professor Hokowhitu’s more recent work has been into Māori media and indigenous media and how Māori men are being portrayed in media. He has published an edited collection with Otago colleague Vijay Devadas on Māori media, looking at how Māori were represented through mainstream media and how Māori have gone on to form media in which to represent themselves.

Professor Hokowhitu has moved to Waikato with his wife Nālani and their two children. He says a couple of drawcards for coming to Waikato University were that he felt it was a real hub for Māori and Pacific studies, but it was also almost a return to his roots.

“I’m originally from Ōpōtiki, so after Canada and Otago, coming to Waikato feels like something of a homecoming.”

ENDS

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