Professor Michael P.J. Reilly - Dean of Te Tumu
MA(Well), PhD(A.N.U.)
Contact details
Room: Richardson South Tower, Rm 4S4
Phone: 64 3 471 6947
Email: michael.reilly@otago.ac.nz
Visit the Pacific Islands Studies website.
Research
Michael's primary research interests follow several inter-related themes:
- Writing histories to reflect indigneous cultural metaphors and values;
- 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 Māori 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;
- Māori 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 historical narratives within the eastern Pacific, and in those individuals who collected them. The underlying ideas found in these texts point towards a shared inheritance, often expressed by Maori of Aotearoa as "ngā taonga tuku iho".
Teaching
- MAOX 407 - Presenting Pacific Histories
- MAOR 207 - Ngā Kōrero Nehe - Tribal Histories
- PACI 101 - Pacific Societies (Guest lectures)
Supervision
Current
- Matani Schaaf - PhD - Motivation and Burnout in Pacific Sportsmen
- Karyn Paringatai - PhD - The causes and effects of Māori migration to Southland in the 1960s & 1970s
- Vaughan Bidois - PhD - Culture and Identity: Postcolonial Reflections in Aotearoa/New Zealand
- Tangiwai Rewi - PhD - Reclaiming Traditional Knowledge Frameworks in Waikato-Tainui
- Rua McCallum - PhD - Beyond the Boundaries of Southern Creation Mythology: An Inclusive Paradigm of Indigenous Knowledge, Quantum Science and Metaphysics (with Jim Williams)
- Erica Anderson - PhD - Domestic Violence and the law in Rarotonga: the psychological impacts on Cook Islands Women (with Michelle Schaaf)
- Justine Camp - PhD - Binaries and Trialectics: An Argument for Transformation of Māori Diabetes Management(with Peter Walker (80%), Michael Reilly (20%)
Past
- Michelle Schaaf - PhD - Sport, culture, race and gender, with particular reference to Polynesian sportswomen (2011)
- Erica Newman - MA - Who am I? The Identity of Māori Adoptees (2011)
- Paerau Warbrick - PhD - The Māori Land Court, 1960-1980 (2010)
- Malia Lameta- MA - The changing role of Samoan women in Samoan society (2010)
- Marsa Dodson - PhD - Practising Tamariki 'Angai: Mangaia's Informal Island Adoption (2009)
- Moira Fortin - MA - The Development of Theatre in Easter Island (2009)
- Nathan Matthews - PhD - He Kura Māori, he kura katorika [Māori Catholic Schooling] (2007)
- Poia Rewi - PhD - Te Ao o te whaikōrero: the world of Māori oratory (2005)
- Rawinia Higgins - PhD - He Tānga Ngutu, He Tūhoetanga – Te Mana Motuhake o te ta moko wahine: the identity politics of moko kauae [female chin tattoo] (2004)
- Lachlan Paterson - PhD - Ngā Reo o ngā Perehi: Māori language newspapers 1855-1863 (2004)
- Karyn Paringatai - MA - Poia mai taku poi: unearthing the knowledge of the past: a critical review of written literature on the poi in New Zealand and the Pacific (2004)
- Peter Clayworth - PhD - ‘An indolent and chilly folk’: the development of the idea of the ‘Moriori Myth’ (2001)
- Vernon Wybrow - MA - Constructing the Savage: Western intellectual responses to the Māori and Aborigine, first contact to 1850 (2001)
- Ilka Kottmann - MA - Te Waka! Life histories of two contemporary Polynesian voyaging canoes (2000)
Major Research Outputs
Book
Reilly, M.P.J. (2009). Ancestral Voices from Mangaia: a history of the ancient gods and chiefs. Memoir no. 54. Auckland: The Polynesian Society, 330pp.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2003). War and Succession in Mangaia from Mamae's Texts, Memoir no. 52. Auckland: The Polynesian Society, 111pp.
Books - Edited
Hokowhitu, B., Kermoal, N., Andersen, C., Petersen, A., Reilly, M., Altamirano-Jimenez & Rewi, P. (eds.) (2010). Indigenous Identity and Resistance: Researching the Diversity of Knowledge. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 255pp .
Herda, P., M. P. J. Reilly & D.Hilliard (eds). (2005). Vision and Reality in Pacific Religion: essays in honour of Niel Gunson. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies & Canberra: Pandanus Books, 343pp.
Ka'ai, T.M., J.C. Moorfield, M.P.J. Reilly & S. Mosely (eds.). (2004). Ki te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society. Auckland: Pearson Education, 276pp.
Reilly, M. P. J. and Thomson, J. (eds.). (1999). When the Waves Rolled In Upon Us: Essays in Nineteenth-Century Māori History.Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 223pp.
Book Chapters
Reilly, M. P. J. (2010). 'Rediscovering the Hidden Heritage from Ancient Mangaia'. In Hokowhitu, B., Kermoal, N., Andersen, C., Reilly, M., Rewi, P. & Petersen, A. (eds.). Indigenous Identity and Resistance: Researching the Diversity of Knowledge. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, pp. 125-135.
Reilly, M. P. J. (2006). 'Leadership in Ancient Polynesia'. In Tony Ballantyne & Brian Moloughney (eds). Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Past. Dunedin: Otago University Press, pp. 43-63.
Reilly, M. P. J. (2005). 'Te `Ōrama a Nūmangātini' ('The Dream of Nūmangātini') and the reception of Christianity on Mangaia'. In P. Herda, M. P. J. Reilly & D. Hilliard. (eds). Vision and Reality in Pacific Religion: essays in honour of Niel Gunson. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies & Canberra: Pandanus Books, pp. 106-131.
Reilly, M. P. J., & P. Herda, 'Vision and Reality in Pacific Religion: an introduction'. In P. Herda, M. P. J. Reilly & D. Hilliard. (eds). Vision and Reality in Pacific Religion: essays in honour of Niel Gunson. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies & Canberra: Pandanus Books, (2005), 1-18
Reilly, M.P.J. (2004). 'Te tīmatanga mai o ngā atua: Creation narratives'. In T.M. Ka'ai, J.C. Moorfield, M.P.J. Reilly & S. Mosely. (eds.) Ki te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society. Auckland: Pearson Education, pp. 1-12.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2004) 'Whanaungatanga: Kinship'. In T.M. Ka'ai, J.C. Moorfield, M.P.J. Reilly & S. Mosely. (eds.) Ki te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society. Auckland: Pearson Education, pp. 61-72.
Ka'ai, T.M. and Reilly, M.P.J. (2004). 'Rangatiratanga: Traditional and contemporary leadership'. In T.M. Ka'ai, J.C. Moorfield, M.P.J. Reilly & S. Mosely. (eds.) Ki te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society. Auckland: Pearson Education, pp. 91-102.
Olssen, E. and Reilly, M.P.J. (2004).'Te tūtakitanga o ngā ao e rua: Early Contacts between two worlds'. In T.M. Ka'ai, J.C. Moorfield, M.P.J. Reilly & S. Mosely. (eds.) Ki te Whaiao: An Introduction to Māori Culture and Society. Auckland: Pearson Education, pp. 140-150.
Reilly, M. P. J. (2000). 'Imagining our pasts: Writing our histories'. In Fragments: New Zealand Social and Cultural History, B. Dalley and B. Labrum (Eds.). Auckland: Auckland University Press, pp. 14-38.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1999). 'Introduction'. In When the Waves Rolled In Upon Us: Essays in Nineteenth-Century Māori History, M.P.J. Reilly and J. Thomson (Eds.). Dunedin: University of Otago Press, pp. 9-14.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1996). 'Te matakite hou o ngā korero nehe no Nui Tireni: Revisioning New Zealand history'. In Ngā Pātai: Racism and Ethnic Relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand, P. Spoonley, D. Pearson and C. Macpherson (Eds.). Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, pp. 81-96.
Reilly, M.P.J. and Heke, I. (1995) 'Identity and authority: a dialogue on Māori history'. In Work in Flux, E. Greenwood, K. Neumann and A. Sartori (Eds.). Melbourne: History Department, University of Melbourne, pp. 200-219.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1990). 'John White'. In W.H. Oliver ed. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Volume One, 1769-1869. Wellington, Allen and Unwin, Department of Internal Affairs, pp. 587-89.
Commissioned Reports
Reilly, M.P.J. (2003). 'Report on selected casebooks from the WAI 785 Inquiry for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu'. Commissioned by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Te Tumu, School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, Dunedin, 99pp.
Dacker, B., Reilly, M. and Watson, L. (1996). 'Te Mamae me te Taumaha: A Report on Māori Representation and the Authority of Māori Bodies'. Commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal, Special Commission Research (SC 04). Department of Māori Studies, Dunedin, 154pp.
Journal Articles
Reilly, M P J. (2011). 'The Beginnings of Maori Studies within New Zealand Universities'. He Pukenga Korero: A Journal of Māori Studies 10(2), pp. 4-9
Reilly, M P J. (2011). 'Māori Studies, Past and Present: A Review'. The Contemporary Pacific 23(2), pp. 340-369
Walter, R. and Reilly M.P.J. (2010). A Prehistory of the Mangaian Chiefdom, Journal of the Polynesian Society, 119(4), pp. 335-375.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2010). 'Tuakana-teina relationship and leadership in ancient Mangaia and Aotearoa'. Journal of Pacific History, 45(2), pp. 211-227.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2008). 'Mangaia in the Colonial World, 1863-1899'. Pacific Studies, 31(1), pp. 1-30.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2007). 'Gifts from the Sea: The Two Iron Axes of Mangaia'. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 116(3), pp. 287-308.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2007) 'Transforming Mangaia’s Spiritual World: Letters from the Early Christian Community of Oneroa'. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 116(1), pp. 35-57.
Reilly,M.P.J. (2007) 'Lost priests in ancient Mangaia'. The Journal of Pacific History, 42(1), pp. 21-36.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2001). 'Women in Mangaian Society: A Historical Portrait'. The Journal of Pacific History, 36(2), pp. 149-161.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2001). 'Sex and War in Ancient Polynesia'. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 110(1), pp. 31-57.
Reilly, M.P.J. (2000). 'Secret writers in foreign lands: John White and William Wyatt Gill'. New Zealand Journal of History, 34(1), pp. 34-45.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1996). 'Inter-views of New Zealand history'. Southern Review, 29(3), pp. 267-276.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1996). 'Entangled in Māori History: a report on experience'. The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs, 8, pp. 387-408.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1995). 'An ambiguous past: representing Māori history'. New Zealand Journal of History, 29(1), pp. 19-39.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1993). '“In the Beginning was the Word”: Tuārangi, Evil Spirits and Foreign Beings in Mangaian History'. The Journal of Pacific History, 28(1), pp. 3-14.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1993). 'A Political Succession Text from Mangaia'. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 102(1), pp. 71-98.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1992). 'Works by Mary Layman Gill (Mrs Wyatt Gill) and William Wyatt Gill'. The Journal of Pacific History, 27(1), pp. 107-114.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1992). 'From the Archives: Notes on the Sources of Mangaian Traditional History'. The Journal of Pacific History, 27(1), pp. 115-7.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1991). 'A Book’s Progress: The Story of The Ancient History of the Māori'. The Turnbull Library Record, 24(1), pp. 31-48.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1990). 'John White. Part II: Seeking the Elusive Mōhio: White and his Māori Informants'. New Zealand Journal of History, 24(1), pp. 45-55.
Reilly, M.P.J. (1989). 'John White: The Making of a Nineteenth-Century Writer and Collector of Māori Tradition'. New Zealand Journal of History, 23(2), pp. 157-72.
