Words Between Us - He Kōrero

This session from Going West 2011 is based on an exhibition and subsequent award winning publication Words Between Us -  He Kōrero by Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins, which won the 2012 Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards. 

Both the exhibition and the book traced the first Māori conversations on paper from 1769  to 1835. As the authors’ wrote, “it is hard to imagine the shock experienced by Māori who first heard written words spoken in the local language. The startling fact about writing was that Pākehā marks could ‘say’ Māori words; Pākehā texts could have Māori meaning.”

As the speakers note, the first book ever printed in New Zealand was in Māori. 

Alison Jones is a professor at Te Puna Wānanga, the School of Māori and Indigenous Education, University of Auckland and was awarded the NZARE McKenzie Award in December 2011 for her significant contribution to educational research. She has worked with Māori scholars and students in the field of education for 25 years and has a fascination with the complexities of Māori and Pākehā educational relationships. She has written a number of books in the area of sociology of education and Māori education.

Kuni Jenkins is a professor with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi where she teaches and conducts research. She has had a long-term interest in literacy, and her PhD involved archival study of early Māori written documents and the relationships between Māori and Pākehā. She has written a number of books in the area of sociology of education and Māori education.

The session is introduced by Rose Yukich, a Going West Trustee and academic at the University of Auckland.

Check out Going West writers with our friends Unity Books.

Photography: Kuni Kaa Jenkins by Liz March and Alison Jones by Mei Hill courtesy of Bridget Williams Books, 2020.