Professor Michael Reilly
Professor Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies
MA (Vic), PhD (A.N.U)
Contact details
Richardson South Tower, Rm 2S4
Tel 64 (03) 479 8677
Fax 64 (03) 479 8525
Email michael.reilly@otago.ac.nz
Research Interests
Michael's primary research interests follow several inter-related themes:
The analysis and publication of historical language texts from the Island of Mangaia (in the Cook Islands);
- The activities and ambiguities found in the work and lives of selected European collectors of Maori and other Pacific traditions, with particular emphasis on John White (Aotearoa) and William Wyatt Gill (Mangaia, Rarotonga), as well as indigenous scholars, such as Mamae of Mangaia;
- The qualities required of chiefly forms of leadership in eastern Polynesia;
- Traditional Maori historical narratives, especially looking at the language of emotion.
These particular themes are linked by an abiding interest in understanding the nature and form of traditional narratives within the eastern Pacific, and in those individuals who collected them. The underlying ideas found in these traditional texts point towards a shared inheritance, often expressed by Maori of Aotearoa as "ngā taonga tuku iho".
For further information on Professor Reilly please visit the Te Tumu website.