Tama Wātea:Integrating Māori Perspectives into Dance Education: A Tertiary Example

Abstract

This chapter explores the complexities and possibilities of intercultural dance education through refl ecting about a project carried out by the Dance Studies programme housed in the School of Physical Education, Sports and Exercise Sciences located at University of Otago in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The ethno-graphic reconnaissance examines the challenges and potentials of integrating Māori perspectives into dance education; and how Māori worldview(s) can stimulate critical-cultural-gender understandings. The politics of asserting indigenous world-view within education extend beyond the parameters of dance pedagogies and the New Zealand context. Dovetailing into global education conversations, this study provides insights into the following: the intricacies cultural diversity, the problems arising from multicultural tokenism, the need to confront offi cial school knowledge and curriculum; and the importance of recovering indigenous meaning and realities within postcolonial societies. Keywords Dance education • New Zealand • Gender • Indigenous worldview/ knowledge • Postcolonial context • Curriculum "This is very colonial curriculum", I said to my colleagues. We were discussing the content of (a)dance course and I was frustrated. I had recently migrated to New Zealand to start working as a lecturer at the University of Otago. Looking back now I think I was way too confronting and defensive. Plus, I was just beginning to understand the historical-political context of racism and the 'bicultural' identity of the nation. However, at that time a glaring discrepancy was that there was no M ā ori or Pacifi c Island dance in the syllabus. When I asked why, I was told it's because we don't have the skills and students get those subjects in other classes. However, the curriculum included dances which the tutors including myself were unqualifi ed to