Three days last week I attended the MAI Doctoral Conference (MAI - Maori and Indigenous) with a bunch of other Doctoral students from all the Universities around our country Aotearoa - New Zealand. A group of us went up from Otago University (Dunedin) early Monday morning and met up with several others at the airport before heading over to the Marae at Victoria University. We began with the customary Pohiri/Powhiri (formal welcome) onto Te Herenga Waka before retiring into the whare where proceedings began.
Emeritus Professor Les Williams (from Nga Pae o te Maramatanga) was the keynote speaker for the first session. He said that the PhD was merely the beginning of a journey and not the end; he also said that the purpose of our current and future research was to solve problems. I had a feeling that he was right so I tracked him down for a korero (talk) about his remarks. He told me about the beginning of his journey and how he set out a 30 year plan for academic research. He encouraged me to do the same and so the journey for me is just beginning!
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