Pioneering Māori scholar, Mākereti Papakura, will receive a posthumous degree from the University of Oxford nearly 100 years after she began her studies.
Born in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1873, Mākereti is believed to be the first indigenous woman to matriculate to the University, and news she would be posthumously awarded the degree of MPhil was announced by the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography on Wednesday 30 April.
Pioneering scholar
Studio portrait of Mākereti Papakura, dated c.1893 © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
Mākereti formally matriculated in 1927 to read Anthropology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, where much of the teaching was conducted at the time, and at the Society of Home Students, now St Anne’s College. In her groundbreaking research for her studies at Oxford, she explored the customs of her people of Te Arawa from a female perspective. Her scholarship, combined with her indigenous worldview, earned her the respect of many Oxford academics at the time, and has gone on to be celebrated by members of Māori communities and researchers worldwide.
Tragically, Mākereti died in 1930, just weeks before she was due to present her thesis. With the agreement of her family, Mākereti’s good friend, Rhodes Scholar and fellow Oxford anthropologist T.K. Penniman, posthumously published her work in a book titled The Old-Time Māori. It became the first ethnographic study published by a Māori author and is recognised as such by the New Zealand Royal Society.
The School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography applied to the University of Oxford’s Education Committee to request that Mākereti be posthumously awarded the degree of MPhil in Anthropology. The application was supported by St Anne’s College and the Pitt Rivers Museum, to which Mākereti and her family donated numerous artefacts and papers both during her lifetime and after her death. The Education Committee’s decision to grant the request has been warmly welcomed both in Oxford and in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Māori community
The degree will be awarded at a ceremony presided over by the University’s Vice-Chancellor later this year in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. Members of Mākereti’s family and representatives of the Māori community are expected to attend.
It is a testament to the lasting power of education, culture, and the determination of one woman to ensure that Māori stories would not be forgotten
June Northcroft Grant, on behalf of Mākereti’s family and tribe (Tūhourangi – Ngāti Wāhiao)
Professor Clare Harris, Head of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography said: ‘We are delighted that the extraordinary achievements of Mākereti, the first indigenous woman to study at Oxford, have been recognised by the University of Oxford with the award of a posthumous MPhil degree. Mākereti is an inspiring figure, not only to many in Aotearoa New Zealand but to students and scholars around the world.’
June Northcroft Grant, on behalf of Mākereti’s family and tribe (Tūhourangi – Ngāti Wāhiao), said: ‘We are grateful to Oxford University for this tribute to Mākereti’s memory and to all those who have supported her story in the years since her passing. It is a testament to the lasting power of education, culture, and the determination of one woman to ensure that Māori stories would not be forgotten.
‘We have always known the sacrifices she made to pursue education and the strength it took for her to continue, often in the face of considerable challenges. We are especially humbled that her customary tribal practices and the scholarship she possessed have been acknowledged with such careful and respectful consideration by the University’s Education Committee.
‘This recognition belongs to Mākereti, to our ancestors, and to the Māori community worldwide.
‘He toi whakairo, he mana tangata (Where there is creative excellence, there is human dignity).’
“The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second-oldest university in continuous operation.”
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