Abstract
This thesis is a literary critical exploration of Māori leadership from before the impact of colonialism and follows with critical analysis and discussion of Māori leadership during and post-colonial era.
The methodology of this thesis draws, in part, on the use of autoethnographic practices and these reference points are fused through the body of the writing. The research also attempts to connect the characteristics of the pīwairaka (fantail) as a framework or metaphor for kaihautu or tangata whenua Māori leadership in both the pre and post-colonial eras. Various narratives of the pīwairaka from waiata, mōteatea, storytelling, pūrākau and tāhūhū kōrero will be drawn on to affirm the metaphor.
Chapter Two considers the literature that tracks the transformation of leadership from leadership based strongly on whakapapa imperatives to leadership models that are ongoing and ever-changing direction, like the pīwairaka.
Chapter Three will examine the filters of western critical theorists in the postcolonialism period. Religious, political, environmental and ideological factors will be examined as part of the colonialism impacts, including the postcolonial adoptions based on mimicry and cultural hybridisation. This chapter will also highlight whether there is an emerging bourgeois within Māori leadership resulting from mimicry, and what is sacrificed in the act of being what might be characterised as indigenous leaders. The need to absorb
the national and global impacts on social, economic and environmental imperatives have required leadership to assume a constant change of direction without losing balance, not dissimilar to the pīwairaka.
The thesis will, in Chapter Four, conclude with a critical discussion on the current status of Māori leadership and proposes some ideas for sustained tangata whenua leadership into the future. Again, the notion and metaphor of pīwairaka are central to the discussion.