Friday 11 March 2016 9:37am
Anne-Marie Jackson hosts a
lunchtime gathering for Maori
Postgraduate students.
Pip Pehi and Anne-Marie Jackson share the new part-time role.
Pip says the positions, which come under the Graduate Research Services Office and the Office of Māori Development and complement Te Huka Mātauraka (Māori Students' Support Centre) and Te Tumu (School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies) postgraduate initiatives, will ensure all Māori postgraduate students at the University of Otago have indigenous-specific support during their studies.
The pair have already started weekly informal lunchtime gatherings and in two months will be hosting the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Māori Doctoral Students' Conference at Puketeraki Marae in Karitane.
Māori postgraduate student numbers grew 74 per cent in the last decade, and Anne-Marie and Pip say the new service aims to help students through the at-times isolating periods of postgraduate study.
Both Pip a postdoctoral fellow, and Anne-Marie, in her second year of a PhD on customary fisheries, know the core issues facing Māori students.
"We have known each other for years, being part of and benefiting from what was previously a largely voluntary support network for Māori postgraduate students," Pip says.
"It's awesome we now have resources, the space and the connection to projects already in place like those in Te Huka Mātauraka, Te Tumu, the Office of Māori Development, as well being a core part of the Graduate Research Services Office."
Anne-Marie describes the pair as friendly faces for Māori students.
"We're keen to help in any way we can."
Māori Graduate Research Services initiatives include:
- Informal gatherings every Wednesday
- Monthly student hui - a chance for students to meet up, listen to relevant speakers and have kai
- Academic workshops (such as careers, Endnote, writing etc)
- Advocacy for student issues/supervisory issues
- Information about student services (eg Careers, Student Learning Centre, ITS)
- Access to local, national and international Māori and indigenous networks
- Help with scholarship applications.
If you want to find out more about Pip and Anne-Marie's support service, you can email them at maori.postgrad@otago.ac.nz.
For more information:
