Te Ihu Rangahau Symposium - Our word, our way (from a Samoan perspective) ...

Rangahau Symposium poster pic (above)

Gearing up for a symposium presentation at our Te Wananga o Aotearoa (Mangere Campus) biennial rangahau (research) symposium which is on this Friday at the Jet Inn in Mangere with the theme as "Celebrating Rangahau, Our word our way".

My contribution is looking at "Tofa sa'ili - Rangahau in action from a Samoan perspective" whereby I'll be sharing some of my journey as a post-graduate student back at Auckland University with my first major research project going back to my roots in Falealupo, Savaii (the big Island) in Samoa and what I have learnt since that day.

I'll be tracing my re-search journey in my 20s and acknowledging the faaSamoa ways that my parents and aiga taught me about in being able to successfully complete my first Masters degree in a field of study that was very new (to me) and to the Geography department at the time in the field of Geo-mentality.

I'll then quickly whisk through the various Ministry of Education research projects that I found myself in that were not at all in keeping with the Indigenous Research principles, roles and responsibilities that I'm now teaching about and then will discuss my first attempt to study towards my PhD in Geography which felt very wrong at the time to now where I am taking stock of my EdD studies ensuring that I am true to myself and my spiritual/cultural upbringing and then ending with a poem.

With so much work do between launching books, marking and teaching assignments and looking after my family, it's a wonder I get anything done but I thank God for strength and wonderful people surrounding me who inspire, encourage and love me in knowing that there is more to do for another day.

As usual, looking forward to the weekend after the presentation. Roll on the weekend...