Breadcrumbs

Modern Māori Men

2 March 2016

Brendan Hokowhitu

Professor Brendan Hokowhitu puts Māori men at the centre of his research.

In the 19th century Māori masculine physicality was like the untamed countryside, something to be conquered and civilized; in the 20th century it was something to be harnessed to provide manual labour for New Zealand's developing colonial nation; in the 21st century it has become a spectacle played out by the overachievement of Māori men on the sports field.

So says one of the University of Waikato’s newest professors, Brendan Hokowhitu (Ngāti Pūkenga), Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development.  He’s a leader in Māori and Indigenous Studies, recently returned to New Zealand from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada where he was Dean of the Faculty of Native Studies for four years.

Professor Hokowhitu will talk about his research at his inaugural professorial lecture, being held on Tuesday 15 March at the University of Waikato.

“Some of my research has been a historical analysis of 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,” he says.

“I found out that physicality was an underpinning idea which was linked to colonial history in general. The dominant opinion was that the Brits had the brains and Māori the brawn, and so historically colonialism has attempted, at least, to limit Māori to certain roles based on their ‘natural’, that is stereotypical, propensities.”

The professor grew up in Ōpōtiki and spent a year at the University of Waikato before completing a physical education degree at Otago. He did a Masters at the University of Victoria (Canada) and then a PhD at Otago, before becoming a lecturer in Te Tumu, Otago’s School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, where he spent 10 years.

Professor Hokowhitu’s more recent research has focussed on Māori and indigenous media. He has published the first-ever edited collection on Māori media, with Otago colleague Vijay Devadas, 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’s Inaugural Professorial Lecture on 15 March is free and open to the public.  It will take place at the Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Waikato, starting at 5.15pm.