Full bibliography

This research focuses on the period 1830 to 1992 and is a descriptive account as well as an analysis of Ngati Piritai interaction with Pakeha over that time. This thesis details a history of struggle for control over the legitimacy and validity of the Ngati Piritai cultural imperative within a social context characterised by dominant Pakeha and subordinate Maori relations. It draws upon a range of sources and brings together the experiences of an historical sampling of Ngati Piritai whanau members covering a six generation framework of Maori - Pakeha interactions. An examination of Pakeha efforts to establish hegemonies of colonisation over Maori through educational indices is made using the critical frameworks of educational theorists such as Giroux, Bernstein, Bourdieu, Gibson, Apple, Marcuse, Shuker, and Dale. Conversely Maori efforts to maintain their cultural identity and their culture, 'per se', through counter hegemonic processes such as the control over educational frameworks are also examined. For example the control over knowledge and how such control relates to enhancing social mobility, attaining outcomes of social justice, and delivering more equitable educational outcomes are also explored. A major argument is that Maori - Pakeha inter-relations can be more clearly understood through a critical appreciation of the fundamental opposition; a Pakeha imperative for cultural dominance: assimilation on the one hand, and a Maori imperative for cultural recognition: survival, on the other. Of significance are the ways in which the dialectic between these fundamental oppositions are mediated and transformed by Ngati Piritai as they live out their lives in a societal context of contested power relations.