The value of maths

Essential in so much of what I do! The application of maths has supported my endeavours through all my projects and writing.  In research terms, this application is referred to as quantitative data. At the start of my manuscript, I had envisaged that most of my writing would apply a qualitative approach which is techniques used for documenting ‘human stories’ within daily life.  

However, as I progress what is emerging from my research/writing on the lives of father’s Kowhaea (mother) and Tupuna Wahine (grandmother and great-grandmother) is what is evident in the dates that define their lives. What are they telling me? To answer this, I needed to apply quantitative techniques and figures. 

By doing so has been enlightening, thought-provoking and confronting. More importantly, the need for a specific chapter leading into the actual “tale/s” about these three women. Their influential thread/s passed down that may emerge, in the shaping of father's formative years as I explore further.

For example, the three women ascendants in father’s Whakapapa, average lifetime was 40 years of age. His mother Keita died at age 46.

When I reapplied the maths to five of Keita's six daughters their average lifetime was also 46 years one generation on.  At the top end of that maths equation was daughter Atarangi (Ada) who lived till 74 and Keita's youngest daughter Rihi (Lizzy) died at 32 years of age. This is mirrored in the literature of their times.

In the context of this manuscript, these insights provide opportunities to link or establish a framework to gain a sense of father’s “truth”. They are telling statistics on a small but meaningful sample!

Raising my awareness about names and places over the last 2 months enables me to locate or align Father’s recordings and Aunty Rita’s letters to their whakapapa (family tree). More importantly, to join the dots as I travel this path of writing.

Reflection on the lives and times of these women and the journey it is taking me on is a privilege. 

Go well in the forthcoming week.

The art of listening, deeply

In the last two days, I have applied this practice in two very different contexts. The first was with  Leadership WA alumni member by, ‘answering the call’. This means you have been recommended or introduced as a possible mentor or have had compatible experience that another is moving towards.

Rekha and Viti 

Yesterday Rekha and I applied my mentoring with co-design facilitation. One of the elements in this process is to know what questions to ask and then ‘listening deeply’ whilst she is ‘telling her story’ or providing a slice of another.  The fun side of this process is the drawing or descriptive responses that emerge and inform. The most satisfying, for both, is how those very simplistic drawings inform and bring clarity. Invariably, ‘Lightbulb moments’ for the storyteller!

Scrolling paper frame

That evening I received a call from a cousin, Kate Aspinall in New Zealand. I had sent off an email with numerous questions in relation to my manuscript. Kate responded by phoning me, which I was grateful for. The nuances of a one to one conversation can never be written, or the exploration of a topic being discussed.

‘Listening deeply’ requires going to a level that tempers the desire to interrupt or bring forth an opinion because by doing so disrupts the speaker’s fullness of what they have been asked to share or wish to say. In this case, the knowledge of Kate’s Whakapapa (Family Tree) which she has been working on for many decades. What a wonderful call it was and once again the generosity of others to validate or add to the “Semi-autobiographical tale”, I am writing is valued.

More importantly, hearing the nuances of advice provided in another's points of view, on what is right in an interracial context and what is not!

May it be a restful weekend.

Standing on my grandparents block in Pakanae in 2003

Who would have thought when the above photo was taken on one of our trips to the Hokianga, that all of what is currently taking place in my writing, would come to be. It was not even on the radar back then. I am standing on the knoll of the hill above the area where Keita and Tere’s family home was located below.  

When this photo was taken I was in deep thought. I had just been shown the area where father’s mother had given birth to her children, in a tent not far from where I was standing. More will be written about this in the book. Later I sat nearby and took in the panoramic views of the Hokianga Harbour and the hills behind. Obviously, views were not in grandmother Keita’s mind while giving birth to her children. The resilience of these women!  I clearly recall a wave of admiration arise and at the same time, a wave of sadness. Grandmother seemed so close, yet so far.

On the other side of this tale, is the unexpected! Yesterday, I received a message from niece, Kiri. Aunty Robin is looking for any photos of Pop and his siblings? I texted back and said, excuse my ignorance but who is Aunty Robin? The next 24 hours turned into an Aladdin’s Cave of photos and messages exchanged. So, a new cousin I have met, through the wonders of technology.

Robin turns out to be one of Dan Diamond’s daughter, my father’s eldest sibling. This is the first time I have seen a photo of Uncle Dan and been in actual contact with one of his children. Well, so I thought? In our exchange of photos, I included one I was not sure of who the couple were photographed with my father. I had my suspicions but reframed from saying. Yes, it turned out to be Robin’s younger brother, Mervyn who has sadly since passed away.  

It is like a spider’s web discovering which piece of the family tree connects to the other and how!

Trust you have a great week.

Another piece to the tale

What is so enjoyable about researching for a manuscript, in this instance, is who emerges along the way and the gems offered or pointed out. Cousin Susan Keys and I have been in contact in more recent times.

During our conversation, Susan mentioned I have two (2) copies of the book Kohukohu, by Eric Anderson.  She also mentioned there is a section on Frederick Maning (which is her great-great-great-grandfather) and his purchase of Kohukohu in 1834. She then offered me one of her copies?

I am grateful for her generosity.

Yesterday I received the above book and have immersed myself in its content and pictures. This book provides a wonderful insight into the daily life of communities and industries in the Hokianga from 1850’s to the earlier 1990’s. This extends beyond GGGF Maning’s ‘…semi-autobiographical Old New Zealand classic.’ (Anderson 2007, Pg. 5) This book provides information during the period father and his siblings would have experienced in their formative years.

My father Robert Tohu Diamond (Taimona) was born in Pakanae in 1916 and was the 11th child of, Tere Hohua Taimona and Keita Hauraki Maning. Keita had a daughter Sue prior to her union with Tere. They went on to have thirteen children of which my dad was the 4th youngest.

The book on Kohukohu provides material that ideally suits the sociological imagination framework I spoke about in my earlier posts. I can now take some of fathers recording and immerse them into that period in the Hokianga. This I am looking forward to!

During father’s later years he and I headed back to the Hokianga for a visit.  On the way, we stayed with his niece Cheryl in Whangarei. While there, she invited three (3) of dad’s nieces around who lived in the area.  He had not seen them for many decades.  It was fascinating observing him in the company of his four (4) nieces, all in their 60’s. Invariably, those questions and discussions were around the Hokianga.

That evening Kiwi, one of his nieces asked if she could head North with us. What a bonus that turned out to be as she spent her formative years in the Hokianga and was a source of knowledge throughout our trip.  It certainly opened conversations beyond what dad and I would have had. 

Heart-warming to drive these two around while they reminisced about each location we visited. Music to my ears! I will write more details about this trip in my book.

1st posting of this new series dated 3rd January 2018 and out of sequence - apologies!

I purchased this beautiful piece in Hokitika 2004 and its message wss
about Lifelong Learning.

My intent is to blog while developing my third manuscript is not an approach I did with my first two self-publications. Even though I have a deep sense that what has come before has brought me to this place of writing.

This manuscript's focus is a more personal endeavour and with historical beginnings of my lineage of Frederik Manning (Irish settler and in later years appointed a Land Court Judge) and his wife Moerangaroa a Maori woman during a period in the mid-1800’s, reflecting a changing ‘social landscape’ of intermarriage. The genesis of a simple tale of a relationship between a father and his daughter in the New Zealand context 100 years on. 

Do I feel equipped to write this? In my heart, yes but I know full well I am going to waver and hit roadblocks and will need to temper the voice in my head when I wake up, with the question, what are you doing Viti?

My intent to blog while writing this manuscript will assist me to keep moving forward throughout 2018.  After six decades I find myself still curious, still contributing and still creating environments to expand my knowledge and finding answers to questions. Why do we have so many questions?

Not having lived in New Zealand for four decades does generate uncertainties as I explore the New Zealand context.  Not one written from a source-critics perspective but experiences and observations with storytelling and from a daughter/woman’s perspective.

A pathway set by our parents from humble beginnings to provide opportunities for their children in the 1950’s – 1970’s away from economic dependence. No doubt this aspect of the book will generate questions as they emerge.

From a mixed genealogy that ebbs and flows like the tide.  Always has always will. In contemporary times that same genealogy, in some cases, has additional cultural layers with their children and grandchildren which reflects a growing trend.

In November 2016 I attended the 7th Biennial International Indigenous Research Conference hosted by University of Auckland’s, New Zealand Maori Research Centre of Research Excellence. and contributed a research paper under one of the four themes, Healthy Indigenous Economies. A week like no other and left with a new-found awareness, bag full of resources, memories and questions.

Not long after, while fossicking in a small bookshop in Paihia, Northland I came across, At the Margin of the Empire, by Jennifer Ashton, first published in 2015 by Auckland University. One that has provided the platform alongside other material I have gathered over time.

A sociological imagination is a framework I will explore. C. Wright Mills (1959) refers to this as, focusing on the individual in the larger scheme of things. My undergraduate studies were in Sociology and Women’s Studies and these continue to be the areas that I engage with. In this case a simple tale of the relationship between a father and his daughter. On reflection, I was in many ways given equality in my childhood - a family unit with two older brothers.  

It was a ‘gift’ either intentionally or unintentionally I am not sure. That feeling of equality can best be described as the ability to breathe deeply throughout those formative years. The ability to take those deep breathes faltered as I ventured beyond.  

Great-Great-Grandaughter

I first picked up a copy of Old New Zealand while studying in 1995. Anecdotally, I had heard extended family members speak intermittently about Maning. However, never really understood the significance of this Great-Great-Grandfather in the context of New Zealand’s early settlement and the term Pakeha-Maori. It has only been in more recent times that I have engaged with his writings.

When exploring one's own truth, it requires looking back and understanding what has come before. This I have found captivating. More importantly, my interest in the three women on the maternal side of my father’s descendants, all Maori women.

Maning wrote under the pseudonym of, “a Pakeha Maori”. Although not uncommon, he took a Maori woman as his wife. Moengaroa was a sister of Chief Hauraki Hikutu (TBC) from the Hokianga. There were benefits of such a union. Known as a notable early settler of Irish descent Maning settled in the Hokianga in 1833 and established himself as a trader of timber and flax. 

While reading my Great-Great-Grandfathers book I was intrigued by the language of his time. One such example is referring to his arrival by ship. “I am landed at last, certainly, but I am tattered and wet, and in a most deplorable plight; so to make my story short - for I see, if I am too particular, I shall never come to the end of it – I returned to the ship, put myself to rights, and came on shore next day with all my taonga, to the great delight of the chief and tribe. (1900, Pg.30) Taonga in Maori means a person’s property, possessions or goods.

The value of blogging while writing a manuscript creates an environment for ‘reflective practice’. In the context of my endeavours, I find this very beneficial. Although distracting from the writing itself I intuitively believe that the book, when completed, will be enriched by this practice. Time will tell!

  

Magic not sorrow

In 2003 I interviewed my Dad. Qualitative research has always been my bent since I commenced my mature-age studies. With bias, my generation, dad's grandchildren and great-grandchildren recall his ability to tell a tale with such fondness. It is only now that I have gained a ‘full appreciation’ of his life and that I feel equipped to tackle this project.  

Along with his tapes, letters were written, material gathered – snippets on paper – photos – articles etc all contained in a folder emblazon across the front, don’t throw this folder out – My dad’s material. It was being kept. At some-time, I thought I would get around to putting something together for the generations that follow done this lineage.

Well as time has shown, a passion for research seeps into your bones and for me always being captivated by the bigger picture and possibilities. Being Brave, with this project is about finding peace with the idea that I am going to tackle a project that will write my truth. Delighted to say in a short space of time I have arrived. What enabled me to do so was transcribing my father’s tapes yesterday and I will finish off today. 

Hearing his voice after an absence of 13 years, proved to be soothing. Our exchanges, so familiar, laughing, father singing at my request, tales of his childhood and early employment years in the Hokianga and King Country. The mischief he got up to but allowing him space, to digress prompted by our exchanges. Being able to merge his truth into the sociological, historical and cultural history of his time in the Hokianga and King Country will move me towards a “fuller appreciation” of his truth and how that influenced the way I was raised during my formative years.

Circumstantially the photo on the screen to my left is me standing on the Opononi Wharf during one of our visits to the Hokianga.  Paul suggested I go and stand out on the wharf so he could take a photo. I recall being resistant and how poignant his insistence has become. It will remain during the development of this manuscript.

Go well!

TODAY I COMMENCE MY THIRD MANUSCRIPT

To celebrate starting my manuscript I headed off to Kings Park. The morning was beautiful and crisp. The sun rising between the gum trees at the Subiaco entrance to the park. How interesting that I have not noticed the Pohutukawa Tree so symbolic to all New Zealanders and known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree.  

What I have found previously, when writing, is the heightened awareness that comes when your researching or gathering data for a specific purpose.  In this instance, when I lifted my head and saw flowers on the Pohutukawa Tree I made the connection.  

 

The historical component of my manuscript will commence in the mid-1830’s in New Zealand. During this period the pohutukawa’s timber was used for ship-building during New Zealand’s early settlement period. It was also used by Maori for medicinal purposes.

Invariably, projects I undertake have an environmental engagement/component to them. Whether that be walking trails, tracks, national parks or trekking.  This time I only need to walk up the road. Over time I have gathered a growing collection of Images which become a resource to make connections beyond the obvious. This then opens up my thinking!

Why I took this specific photo which includes the gum tree was the awareness of two halves makes a whole. From a sociological perspective, this refers to my Maori-Pakeha heritage. 

From an environmental perspective, the symbolism of these two trees is representative of my life’s journey. My formative years of growing up in New Zealand and then our move to Australia where we raised our family. Symbolically, here are these two trees, side by side, in the park just down the road.

No more delaying tactics Viti, time to get on with it…😉

Trust you have a great day!

Sociological Imagination

When I first started my undergraduate studies in Sociology and Women’s Studies, as a mature-age student, I remember the Introduction Sociology unit thinking, OMG this fits like a glove.

I am a fan of C. Wright-Mills (1959) who defines Sociological Imagination (SI) as ‘…an imagination which focuses on the individual in the larger scheme of things; the relationship between the individual and society, between the biography of individual members of any particular society…’.

it also ‘…focuses attention on the social structure of the society in which we live…’ which underpins the questions we ask ourselves and others.

Thirdly, ’The uniqueness of the discipline lies in the way which explanation is sought, in the way society is organised as a whole and the experience of individuals understood in that context.’ (Willis, E 1993, p.10-11).

Husband Paul had not heard of the concept of an SI. This morning I shared the above explanations with him. He nodded his head. I replied this is what sits under many of the questions I have raised over the years. He nodded his head! 

My third manuscript will apply an SI lens. Currently, I am reading, gathering and totally absorbed in Maori-Pakeha history in the Hokianga, New Zealand.

The genesis of this book commences with the marriage of Judge Frederick Edward Maning (Irish Settler) and Moengaroa Te Hikutu (sister of Hauraki - surname to be confirmed) a Maori woman (Ngapuhi tribe) in the Hokianga.

During my informative years and anecdotally I had heard names mentioned but with no clear understanding until yesterday when I finally sat at the table with all the pieces to the above family tree. I suspect that part of this was due to our relocation to Australia, not taking the time to engage with the family tree that does exist and anecdotally information that was shared as time went by. 

Nonetheless, the name Maning was mentioned over time.

I read Frederick Maning’s book Old New Zealand while studying. More from curiosity than the absolute wonder and engagement that is going on right now!  

What a moment to actually see the above visually. Jennifer Ashton's History Thesis, At The Margin Of Empire John Webster and Hokianga, 1841-1900 has been a find as has other material I have gathered since my last trip to New Zealand, November 2017. Looking forward to all what evolves. 

Heartfelt thanks to niece Kiri Diamond (caretaker of our Family Tree) since her parents passing. 

Sir Mason Durie continued

HUMAN FLOURISHING and HUMAN LANGUISHING

Continued from my last blog... 

  One slide per post from Professor Durie's presentation at the Conference.

'Professor Durie is one of New Zealand's most respected academics, and was knighted in 2010 for services to public and Maori Health.  I was captivated by his presentation and in particular the research questions he posed after each element of his expansive presentation.

Cultural Pathways was one such element and the emphasis on generational transfers that enable Human Flourishing for Maori. 

Other PATHWAYS presented:

• Family and Whanau Pathways
• Societal Pathways
• Environmental Pathways 

(1) Cultural Pathways - Native languages to be spoken in houses and communities.
Research Question
Language revitalization and social media?

(2)  Generational transfers.
Research Question
International transfers in a global world?'

When I launched my 2nd book in New Zealand May 2016 one of the common threads of conversation - as I traveled - was the disconnect Maori people can experience when they move away from their Iwi's for work opportunities in larger town, cities or overseas. Professor Durie raised the question how, do we ensure that those Whanau connections - so important - be sustained?

Just how important the Biennial International Indigenous Research Conference is in a Global Context became very evident by the end of the Conference. I highly recommended it for those who work in this space or have an interest in these areas.