Joan Metge

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Dame Alice Joan Metge , DBE (born February 21, 1930 in Auckland ) is a New Zealand social anthropologist , educator, lecturer and writer . She has conducted adult education at the University of Auckland and taught and researched Māori culture and social structures at Victoria University of Wellington . Besides the Māori culture, her main anthropological areas are the problems of intercultural communication.

Youth and family

Alice Joan and her younger sister Dorothy Mary are the daughters of Cedric Leslie Metge and Alice Mary Rigg; both parents worked as teachers. The paternal grandfather was from Navan , northwest of Dublin , and emigrated to New Zealand from Ireland. His ancestors were Scots, Irish, English and originally Huguenots who had fled to Ireland from France.

The family lived in Auckland during the Depression and until around 1940 and then moved to Pukekohe , where Joan Metge first came into contact with Māori - unskilled migrant gardening and farming workers - and was aware of the economic and social differences between Māori and Pākehā , New Zealanders with European roots became aware. At the time, racism in New Zealand was expressed in the fact that there were around 40 laws "for the good of the Māori" that restricted their lives and legally classified them as minors.

A few years later the family moved again, this time to Matamata , where there were several Māori communities in the area. Years later, the parents moved to Orakei, a suburb of Auckland, and Metge used her parents' home as a base for her studies on rural-urban migration.

academic education

geography

Māori tribal areas

Her parents enabled Joan Metge to study at the University of Auckland, where she first studied geography from 1948 with a special focus on anthropology. Metge graduated with a Master of Arts with first-class honors in 1952 with a topic on the geographic distribution of the Māori in North New Zealand (data from the 1926, 1936 and 1951 census data and the annual reports of the Department of Maori Affairs ).

anthropology

The University's Department of Anthropology was only established in 1951 under the Australian Ralph Piddington with the subjects of physical anthropology , social anthropology and archeology ; later Māori language and linguistics were added.

After completing her master's degree, Metge worked as a junior lecturer in geography and was one of the first students in the new department of anthropology under Piddington, where she learned systematics and field work (research in the field ). Three of her fellow students were Māori, and through one of them, Wiremu (Bill) Tawhai, belonging to the Iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanui in the eastern part of the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island, she gained further access to the Māori culture.

Māori rural-urban migration

With a scholarship and under the supervision of Piddington, she devoted herself to the subject of rural-urban migration of the Māori (incorrectly called urban drift ) for two years from 1953 . Via the Department of Māori Affairs , she was given the opportunity to work as a writing assistant ( Māori Welfare Officer honorary) for the newly founded Māori Women's Welfare League and to establish contacts with Māori households, whom she asked for their consent as part of her study.

In 1955, with a grant from Carnegie Social Science Research, Metge spent five months in a rural community that was seriously at risk of urban migration. According to her own account, she learned more about the social life of the Māori during this time than she did during her two years in the city.

Her work was not only seen as a positive advance in understanding, but also criticized. The Reverend Maharaia Winiata (1912–1960), a PhD in social anthropology and political Māori activist, criticized her publicly during a presentation of her data in 1955 that, as Pākehā, she neither had the right to portray Māori culture nor could she understand understand them at all.

Since no anthropology doctorates were possible in New Zealand at the time, Metge went to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for a little over two years in September 1955 . During her stay, she had the opportunity to learn from the leading British anthropologists and was particularly impressed by Max Gluckman (1911–1975), Mary Douglas (1921–2007) and Victor Turner (1920–1983). In 1958 she completed her doctorate with A New Maori Migration under New Zealander Raymond Firth and her doctoral thesis was published jointly by the university publishers in London and Melbourne in 1964.

Professional career

Metge decided against an academic career in England and returned to New Zealand in 1958. She did occasional work for Piddington and expanded and revised her own research, supported by a grant from the American Carnegie Foundation. The results of these studies were published later.

University of Auckland

In 1961 she accepted the only offer she received: Suburban Tutor / Organizer in Adult Education (for example: Organizer and tutor of adult education in the urban area). So she was employed by Auckland University and carried out half administrative, half teaching activities. She worked with Matiu Te Auripo Te Hau (1912–1978), a noted educationalist and Māori community leader, and later with Te Kapunga Matemoana "Koro" Dewes (1930–2010), a pioneer in Māori education and an advocate of the Māori Language . Metge gave courses on the society and culture of the Māori for non-Māoris and during these years built a network with younger Māori tutors that included many Iwi.

Victoria University of Wellington

Dissatisfied, having no way of tracking the efficiency of her adult education teaching activity, Metge accepted an offer to teach at Victoria University in Wellington in 1965. Together with Wiremu Parker , a Māori broadcaster, translator and teacher in adult education, she planned and gave courses for beginners on Māori studies. She expanded this program further over the next few years.

In 1967 the Dutch anthropologist Jan Pouwer (1924-2010) was appointed professor at the Victoria University of Wellington, a follower of the school of Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009). Metge discovered for himself the anthropological concepts of structuralism , correlation and opposition, mediation and transformation (of myth models). Metge developed a different perspective on the latter subject. Under Pouwer, Metge designed lectures for the third year of studies ( Anthropology in Complex Societies , Contemporary Māori Society and Culture ). In 1976 Jan Pouwer returned to the Netherlands and the American anthropologist Ann Chowning took over his chair.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a change in the relationship between Māori and Pākehā. Young Māori activists demanded reparations for the violation of Tino rangatiratanga (the complete independence of the Māori) in the Treaty of Waitangi . In 1981 Metge examined with a Captain James Cook Fellowship the current role of the Whānau, an extended family association, among the Māori. As an innovation, she recorded the interviews on a tape recorder and had the copied texts checked by her interviewees. Nevertheless, she was again exposed to isolated attacks on the part of the Māori, who accused her of advancing her academic career by "exploiting naive Māori".

In late 1987, Metge left Victoria University of Wellington and went into early retirement.

Activities as a private person

Metge moved to Kotare , in the southwest of the North Island. She participated in the Te Runanga o Te Rarawa and Te Runanga o Muriwhenua arguments of land and fishing claims that were brought before the Waitangi Tribunal. In this context, Metge was formally incorporated into the Māori tribe Te Rarawa.

She has pursued other book projects since the late 1980s.

From her comes the metaphorical image that "the relationships between the people of New Zealand are like a rope with many fibers that, when woven / worked together, creates a strong nation."

Private life

Metge never married and had no children, but over the years she was whāngai ( foster mother ) to four teenage boys, three Māori and one pākehā. Regarding the families of her adult pupils, she describes herself as "grandmother" and "great-grandmother".

Quote

“The opposition and challenges I faced from a few Maori were more than outweighed by the co-operation and aroha of the many. The more I have listened and learned, the more I have come to understand the anger and appreciate the patience and graciousness of the majority. From the beginning I received more support and guidance from Maori mentors than I found among anthropologists. Sadly, part of my experience has been a disjunction between the Maori world in which I continue to move and the world of anthropological academia. "

“The opposition and challenges I experienced from some Māori were more than outweighed by the cooperation and aroha of the many. The more I listened and learned, the more I understood the anger and I appreciate the patience and courtesy of the majority. From the beginning I received more support and guidance from Māori mentors than from anthropologists. Sadly, part of my experience is a disconnection from the Māori world I am in and the world of anthropological science. "

- Joan Metge

Awards and honors

  • 1987: Appointment as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services in anthropology on the occasion of the Queen's Birthday Honors
  • 1997: Awarded the first Te Rangi Hiroa Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand for her research in the social sciences
  • 2001: Awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Letters, LittD) from the University of Auckland
  • 2006: Awarding of the Asia-Pacific Mediation Forum Peace Prize in Suva, Fiji
  • 2015: Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement for Non-fiction
  • In 2006, in recognition of her contribution to the social sciences, the Royal Society of New Zealand established the Dame Joan Metge Medal . It is awarded every two years to a New Zealander for excellence in teaching, research and / or other social science activities that help build capacity and create positive relationships between research participants.
  • In addition, there is a Dame Joan Metge & Professor Charmian J O'Connor Post-Doctoral Research Award , which is designed for New Zealand women who want to finish a project and have a professional connection with a research institute in Auckland.

bibliography

Joan Metge:

  • A New Maori Migration. Rural and Urban Relations in Northern New Zealand. Berg Publishers, Oxford 1964, ISBN 1-85973-899-0 .
  • with P. Linlioch: Talking Past Each Other. Problems of cross-cultural communication. Victoria University Press, Wellington 1978, ISBN 0-7055-0670-3 .
  • In and out of touch. Whakamaa in cross-cultural context. Victoria University Press, Wellington 1986, ISBN 0-86473-030-6 .
  • Kia tupato! Anthropologist at work. In: Oceania , 69 (1), pp. 47-60 (1998).
  • Korero Tahi. Talking together. Auckland University Press, Auckland 2001, ISBN 1-86940-254-5 .
  • Tuamaka. The Challenge of Difference in Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland University Press, Auckland 2010, ISBN 978-1-86940-468-0 .
  • Tauira. Maori Methods of Learning and Teaching. Auckland University Press, Auckland 2015, ISBN 978-1-86940-822-0 .

Income from the books goes to the Kotare Trust (Research and Education for Social Change) founded in 1974.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Dale Husband: Joan Metge: On Maori and Pakeha , E-Tangata, June 28, 2015; accessed on February 16, 2017.
  2. ↑ Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: The Depression of the Thirties ; accessed on February 22, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d Catherine Masters: Cultural explorer helps bridge divide , NZ Herald, July 10, 2010; accessed on February 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ For example, Māori were not allowed to buy alcohol or only visit color bars , which resulted in an alcohol black market with excessive prices.
  5. ^ A b c d Dame Joan Metge: Whakapapa - New Zealand Anthropology: Beginnings , Sites - A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (2013), Vol. 10 (1).
  6. ↑ NZ university graduates 1870-1961: Me-Mo . Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  7. ↑ Because of the research in the cities on site, she had to postpone some university courses and Piddington pushed for this special permit.
  8. ^ Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Maharaia Winiata ; accessed on February 16, 2017.
  9. ↑ He had completed his doctorate in Edinburgh .
  10. ↑ Melbourne took care of the payment.
  11. ^ Joan Metge: The Maoris of New Zealand , London (1967), Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 173-201.
  12. ↑ Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Wiremu Parker ; accessed on February 21, 2017.
  13. ^ Joan Metge: Myths are for Telling , presented orally at Cambridge University (1971), published as Time and the Art of Maori Storytelling , The Journal of New Zealand Studies, Vol. 8 (1), pp. 3–9 (1998 )
  14. ^ Royal Society of New Zealand: Captain James Cook Fellowship ; accessed on February 21, 2017.
  15. ^ Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Tribal organization: Whānau ; accessed on February 21, 2017.
  16. ↑ Dame Silvia Cartwright's address at a Garden Party at Government House, Wellington, to commemorate the 164th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi . The Governor-General of New Zealand. February 6, 2004. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved on February 22, 2017.
  17. ^ Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Whāngai - customary fostering and adoption ; accessed on February 17, 2017.
  18. ↑ Maori language: affection, sympathy, compassion, love, empathy
  19. ↑ London Gazette (supplement), No. 50950, June 12, 1987 . Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  20. ↑ Te Rangi Hiroa Medal - Recipients . Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  21. ↑ 2006 Asia-Pacific Mediation Forum Peace Prize . In: Scoop , July 3, 2006. Retrieved February 22, 2017. 
  22. ↑ Dame Joan Metge Medal . Royal Society of New Zealand. 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  23. ^ Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust - Post-Doctoral Research Awards . Auckland University of Technology , accessed April 20, 2019 (formerly known as Dame Joan Metge & Professor Charmian J O'Connor Post-Doctoral Research Awards ).
  24. ↑ Bloomsbury Publishing: A New Maori Migration ; accessed on February 16, 2017.
  25. ↑ Auckland University Press: Tuamaka: The Challenge of Difference in Aotearoa New Zealand ; accessed on February 23, 2017.
  26. ↑ Joan Metge's Tauira : Māori Methods of Teaching and Learning at the Faculty of Education and Social Work . (No longer available online.) University of Auckland , June 24, 2015, archived from the original on February 23, 2017 ; accessed on April 20, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
personal data
SURNAME Metge, Joan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Metge, Dame Alice Joan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand social anthropologist, educator, lecturer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Auckland