Luke Fitzmaurice
Meet Luke and find out why he chose to study a Master of Indigenous Studies with Te Kawa a Māui.
Current Master of Indigenous Studies student
Luke is from Te Aupōuri, grew up in Taupō and has lived in Wellington for the past 12 years.
Luke chose to do postgraduate study in Indigenous Studies at Te Kawa a Maui to help inform a lot of the other mahi he was doing on children’s rights, child welfare and law. He had got to a point where he believed that we need Māori solutions to lots of the big problems in society, but he didn’t quite know how to find those solutions. He wanted to build his knowledge and expertise in how to approach those issues in a Māori way.
He now has so much more confidence about kaupapa Māori research and matauranga Māori. It has completely shifted the way he approaches the issues he cares about. He is now doing a PhD looking at Māori perspectives on child protection and children’s rights.
"It has also been really fulfilling for me personally. I used to worry a lot about whether I was ‘Māori enough’ to do this sort of work. But studying at Te Kawa a Maui really built my confidence around that, both as a Māori researcher and also in my own personal journey."
"A whakataukī that has affected my learning the most is ‘ahakoa he iti, he pounamu’. One of the things that I have got the most out of my study is that it doesn’t matter if we are still learning the reo or still finding out more about our whakapapa, every small step along that journey is important and worth celebrating. For anyone thinking about taking those first few steps, I would highly recommend it."