Achievement Unlocked! PhD Journey Completed 2022

Just a very late post to share the link to my doctoral thesis, which was completed May 2022:

Thesis cover image. (c) copyright Zak Waipara 2022

Te Mana a Māui: The Magic of Māui: Transforming and Shapeshifting Pūrākau Māori

Abstract

This practice-led thesis is concerned with writing, illustrating, and designing a trilogy of stories for contemporary young readers. The study addresses the question: How might a philosophy drawn from the Māui cycle be applied creatively to transform and shapeshift pūrākau Māori? In researching the project I designed and applied Te Mana-a-Māui, a method drawn from the Māui story cycle of Aotearoa, to creatively transform traditionally oral narratives into picture book/comic hybrid forms.

The resulting Tuakore Trilogy comprises three contemporary graphic books which adapt pūrākau Māori (creation narratives) as guides for the future. Couched in metaphor, the creation stories of old offer useful perspectives on the social, environmental, economic, and cultural problems facing the world today. In the exegesis, the Māui saga and specific pūrākau Māori are analysed in depth as part of the shapeshifting practice. In addition, whakapapa (genealogy) is used to link traditional Māori storytelling and introduced forms: illustration, picture books, and comics, in order to indigenise these media and engage with a modern audience.

I posit Te Mana-a-Māui as an attitudinal approach to making unconventional creative choices. Māui provides an example of a liminal being who bridges the worlds of gods and humankind. I approached this research as a descendant of Māui, drawing on the knowledge of my East Coast iwi (tribes). Our inherited gifts come to us from the ancestors and the atua (primal ancestors), and we hold them in trust for the next generation.

Road to PhD Part 3: 2019

My PhD confirmation of candidature was completed successfully in early January. But with that now finished, and it being the only formal milestone, apart from six-monthly progress reports, the remaining time and thesis writing is essentially self-directed. With this in mind, I once again endeavoured to find academic avenues to present research but also prep material that could find its way into the larger thesis document. Since the thesis is huge and covers a range of diverse topics and areas, each of those aspects presents the opportunity to target specific conferences or journals, and develop those in smaller formats, for later use as thesis material.

These included: A poster outlining an indigenous approach to creative methodology for the AUT Postgraduate Research Symposium 2019, an animated storytelling presentation for Mai Ki Te Ao (Pre Doctoral conference to NAISA), a keynote for the WaiPRU conference - Taniwha, Gods and Monsters, the inaugural Toroa Conference discussing the intersection of Research, Teaching and Creative Practice, and finally a presentation for Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga MAI Doctoral Conference 2019, hosted in Karitane.

In addition there were a range of creative projects and childrens book activities - Comic Workshop for AUT Zine Club, a giant format book for Huia Publishers called E Ngē, Pekepeke E!, a Live Drawing session with Miriama Kamo reading for Storylines (in conjunction with What Now), NZ Book Awards Finalist, Storylines Notable Book Award Winner for The Stolen Stars of Matariki, the TVNZ Goodnight Kiwi version of Stolen Stars read by Stacey Morrison (Māori & English), and the adaptation of Stolen Stars into a bilingual audio book, using new Alexa software.

Road to PhD Part 2: 2018

At the end of the first 12 months of a PhD, a formal document (usually 10,000 words) and a presentation of about 40mins are required to summarise the research to date. At AUT it is referred to using the term PGR9. It forms a checkpoint and milestone, after which, if successful, the provisional PhD student becomes a PhD candidate. One thesis type is thesis by publication (pathway 2), pathway 3 is through practical work artefact and thesis. But presenting work-in-progress can assist in prepping work and refining ideas (almost as thesis by presentation). Two main academic events acted as milestones to my present work, which in turn creates material for the thesis: the AUT Symposium 2018 and the Nga Pae o te Maramatanga MAI Doctoral Conference 2018.

In addition, I undertook a number of activities and creative projects that occur in the intersection of comics, children’s books and indigenous storytelling.

Creative projects and activities. Copyright Zak Waipara 2018

The Stolen Stars of Matariki with Miriama Kamo, Penguin’s Oh Boy: A Storybook of Epic NZ Men (with a bunch of epic NZ illustrators), Cardboard Campus from AUT Makerspace, a Comics Workshop in Rawene (Hokianga Book Festival), the Ko Rongowhakaata Exhibition book, and a shout out from Te Papa Museum.

Road to PhD Part 1: 2017

In April 2017 I enrolled in a PhD in Art & Design at AUT, but the road to actually beginning was long - it took most of the year to find suitable supervisors and write the proposal (PGR2). However, once the proposal was submitted in October it was accepted within two weeks, with an official start date of January 2018. Two main events contributed to formulating directions for the research project: the 3rd Asia and Oceania Regional IBBY Meeting in Thailand, and the Storylines National Children's Writers and Illustrators' Hui 2017, which led to me writing a well-received article for The Sapling.

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara. Bangkok road, presentation

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara. Sapling article, Hui illustration.

In addition, I undertook a number of activities and creative projects that occurred in the intersection of comics, children’s books and indigenous storytelling, which also fed into my PhD journey. These include: a Maui comic book for the Auckland City Council Book Bus, a Storylines Notable Book Award for  the Maui - Sun Catcher book, a writing and drawing workshop for Auckland Writer's Festival, the Chromacon Indie Arts Festival, a Auckland City Council Matariki Story event, the Storylines South Auckland Tour, moderating an Auckland Library Comic Panel talk, an Auckland Game Dev Meetup panel on indigenous voices, and an animation for Te Papa Tongarewa on Rongowhakaata’s first encounters with Captain Cook.

Copyright 2017/2016: Photo - Storylines, Book - Oratia

Copyright 2017: Photo - Chromacon, Comic- Zak Waipara

Copyright Zak Waipara 2017

Copyright 2017 Storylines

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

Copyright 2017 Auckland City Council

Copyright 2017 Auckland Game Dev

Copyright 2017 M. Mulipola, L. Chen, S. Orchard, Z. Waipara

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

The End is the Beginning

NZIBBY asked me if I would be able to provide them with a Season's Greetings card to end 2017. I opted to depict my favourite summer destination - Waiotahe Beach, Opotiki.

Postcard. Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

I also added in an appropriate Maori proverb, well-loved by my father, the poetic version of the English translation is also his.

The real deal! Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

Ōhakō Exhibition

Last year I was involved with an exhibition celebrating the Rongowhakaata iwi. Te Papa Tongarewa museum has for the last few years been hosting exhibitions from different tribal regions around NZ. Now it is the turn of the Rongowhakaata iwi. 

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

The first stage was local exhibitions at each of the marae around Manutuke and Gisborne, which I affiliate to all of them through my iwi connections, but our family was asked to contribute to Ōhakō Marae. The wharenui, Kiko-ote-Rangi (open unto the heavens), is unadorned by carvings, so there was some concern about what we could exhibit. The hapū decided that since many of the uri (descendants) were artists and musicians that we could show both traditional and contemporary examples of our craft. 

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

I decided my contribution could be a motion graphics piece to illustrate a short piece of oral history. It could also double as a very low-key proof of concept project, essentially using motion graphic techniques e.g. mixture of animated elements, kinetic type, to tell non-fiction stories, which is something I have become more interested in. The process involved listening to an hour’s worth of audio recorded at a whakapapa wānanga session, to find a short section that would work as a self-contained story, then transcribe that part of the audio. I edited the audio down further, to remove some extraneous sounds, and some tangential stories that might work better in another style. This became a three-minute piece, but also has the potential be developed more fully at a later stage (for instance, using those other excised stories). The style I adopted was based on modified carvings with an illustrative approach (flat rather than 3D), but also to have these located on a physical plane, mimicking the walls of a house. The various font treatments were meant to replicate tukutuku weaving panels. 

Copyright 2017 Zak Waipara

The second stage was to curate items from all the marae into a smaller exhibition at Tairāwhiti Museum, that opened September 15th 2016. The third and final stage for this exhibition opened at Te Papa in Wellington in September of this year. I was asked to contribute an animated project to this – which I will talk about in a later post!

IBBY Congress & Storylines 2016

IBBY (or the International Board on Books for Young People) “is a non-profit organisation representing an international network of countries and people, mostly volunteers, dedicated to bringing books and children together. It is the only international body working comprehensively for children’s books.” 

Design for the conference home page.

Many years in the organising, New Zealand was lucky enough to be the host country this year. The theme of this conference was “Literature in a multiliterate world” with three sub-themes - Global, local and indigenous literature, Diverse literary forms and formats, and Engaging readers. 

Opening ceremony. Photo copyright Zak Waipara

Given my own interest in all these areas, I was keen to be involved and was accepted to present a poster (a visualisation of the presentation I gave in the UK) and also asked to appear on a panel: Illustration Unbound: Narrative Art Across Genres, Age Groups, Cultures, and from Paper to Pixels and Beyond. It was chaired by Leonard Marcus a “historian, critic, exhibition curator, and lecturer in the field of children’s books and their illustration.” 

Poster display. Photo copyright Zak Waipara

Leonard took great care in chairing the panel – contacting us all ahead of time to consider the purpose and how best to make use of our time. I was lucky enough to meet him and have a chat beforehand as well. You can hear a Radio NZ interview with Leonard here: 

A treatise on the importance of picture books by Leonard Marcus.

My fellow panellists were Roger Mello (Brazil) and Bronwyn Bancroft (Australia). I was tasked with being a minder for Guest Delegate Bronwyn Bancroft, It was very heartening to hear about her work involving her Aboriginal community. Here is a link to an interview on Radio NZ. 

Some of Bronwyn's amazing work. Photo copyright Zak Waipara

Roger Mello discussed his children's work dealing with serious themes in his home country, such as child labour. It echoed a point raised by Witi Ihimaera in his rousing keynote address (a real call to action) on the first day of the conference, when he advocated for stories that tackled the pressing issues facing the next generation! He asked, "who is writing the story for the child whose island is about to be swamped by rising sea levels?"

Peter Dowling of Oratia Press (looking after Roger Mello at the conference) was in the front row of the audience and reports on the panel here, and the IBBY UK delegation also has a nice summary of the event and Katarina Kokanović from Croatia reports here: 

The best thing about any conference like this is being surrounded by a vast group of new and interesting people from all over the world who are passionately interested in this one area. For me it was personally inspiring, and I feel following on from the experience, all this time later, I am still coasting on a new wave of creativity. 

Giant pop-up book. Photo copyright Zak Waipara

STORYLINES 2016 

The following week, I hit the road as part of Storylines 2016 Northland Tour, with Anne Dickson, Tim Tipene, Maria Gill and Lesley Dowding. What a fantastic group of people to be on tour with! It was a slightly surreal departure in Auckland seeing Henry Rollins in the hotel foyer in which we were gathered. As always we were shown the hospitality of Northland schools, and met with passionate teachers and creative and talented children. It all wound up with a Family Day event hosted at the Kaitaia library.

The amazingly designed Kaitaia library.