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210 Tū Rangaranga
Course Pre-Reading

Welcome to Tū Rangaranga
In 2017, as part of Massey University’s redesigned Bachelor of Arts (BA), the College of
Humanities and Social Sciences launched the second-year compulsory core course: Tū
Rangaranga: Global Encounters. Tū Rangaranga, which in Te Reo means ‘to weave together’ or
establish connections, explores citizenship from a global perspective with a particular focus on
rights and responsibilities. Guided by Māori Development academic Dr Margaret Forster
(Rongomaiwāhine, Ngāti Kahungunu) as a key member of the teaching team, and working in
consultation with Māori staff, the course design incorporated a whakataukī (proverb), drew on
the harakeke (flax plant) as central design metaphor, and aimed to weave together indigenous
and western epistemologies (theories of knowledge) in the course content. The metaphor of
weaving is used to symbolise unity, togetherness and strength as reflected by the following
whakataukī/ proverb:

E kore e taea e te whenu kotahi ki te raranga i te whāriki

kia mohio tātau kia tātou

mā te mahi o ngā whenu

mā te mahi o ngā kairaranga

ka oti tēnei whāriki i te otinga

me titiro ki ngā mea pai ka puta mai ā tana wā

me titiro hoki ki ngā raranga i makere

mā te mea, he kōrero kei reira.

‘A strand of flax is nothing in itself but woven together it is strong and enduring. Let us
look at the good that comes from it and, in time we should also look at those stitches
which have been dropped, because they also have a message’.

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 The different ‘parts’ of the harakeke, such as Te Take (the
base), Te Rito (the central shoot), and Te Puawai (the flowers)
were used to organise the course content into three inter-
connected modules. Moreover, the whakataukī was a
reminder that collective efforts often result in more
meaningful and enduring outcomes. In the context of Tū
Rangaranga, this whakataukī challenges us to focus on how
multiple strands are brought together to create enduring
connections that shape our rights and responsibilities as
citizens of the wider world. Another key message that emerges
from this whakataukī is that there are lessons to be learnt
from those stitches that have been dropped. Not all encounters
are positive or enduring – many are violent and disruptive.

Citizenship and Global Citizenship

The first-year core citizenship paper, Tūrangawaewae, explores citizenship in relation to
identity and belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand. As you should recall from Tūrangawaewae,
while the term ‘citizenship’ is commonly used to in a narrow, legal sense to refer to membership
of a nation state or a particular geographical or political context, in the citizenship core we use
it in a broader sense, to refer to membership of any community. This may be a workplace,
educational institution or family. Membership in a community brings a range of consequences,
including fostering a sense of belonging and legitimising participation and voice. In
Tūrangawaewae, citizenship is explored at an individual level in terms of the threads that
comprise our personal identities and the relationships with others that help shape our sense of
self, and at a societal level where it critically examines some of the things said to define Aotearoa
NZ’s national identity.

While Tūrangawaewae focuses on citizenship as identity and belonging, membership of a

community or group also confers certain rights and obligations, and results in particular sets of
responsibilities. In Tū Rangaranga concentrate on this, examining citizenship as a set of rights
and responsibilities. We also broaden our conception of citizenship even further, taking account
of the way globalisation has changed the way we live and how we connect with others (and who
we can connect with). Many of us now have connections and allegiances well beyond our
national borders and beyond the communities in which we live and work, and we utlise
products and services that connect us with communities and individuals across the globe on a
daily basis. As a result contemporary globalisation provides new opportunities to make
societies richer and more connected, but it also links us to global concerns, from environmental
degradation and climate change, to conflict, inequality and injustice. These global connections
complicate notions of citizenship and have significant implications for how we understand the
rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

This course therefore explores global citizenship and as means of examining how we think, act,
relate, and respond to global issues. The topics we introduce in this course are examples of
global issues that make claims and require a response that goes beyond narrow state- and

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locally based conceptions of citizenship. Throughout the course we will present the rights
concerns related to each topic and will discuss the responsibilities these might entail. You might
disagree with some of these, or approach things differently. Regardless, our challenge to you is
to think about the implications of the global changes and connections discussed in this course,
and what this means in terms of rights and responsibilities – for New Zealand as a nation, for
our communities, and for ourselves as individuals.

Key Values
In order to help you navigate this course we have developed a set of key values to guide
interactions and learning in this course which are strongly linked to the way in which we
approach the concepts of citizenship, rights and responsibilities.

Listening and respecting other voices

A key decision in the development of this course was to incorporate a wide range of voices and
perspectives on the issues we cover, including indigenous and marginalised voices. This
includes poetry from Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (poet and climate change activist from the Marshall
Islands), art by Ai Weiwei (contemporary artist and activist from China), and stories from
indigenous groups in North America, Aotearoa and the Pacific. A diverse range of people and
voices are also shared though class social media accounts, where we regularly share posts by
indigenous and other groups related to class topics and current events.

You will also be working through the course with students and staff from a diverse range of
backgrounds and who hold a variety of perspectives and beliefs. We encourage you to share
your thoughts and ideas – indeed, this is integrated into the course though the participation
assessment. But before you do, ensure you have taken some time to listen carefully to the views
of others, including those presented in the course materials and the views of fellow students
expressed in the forums or in class. And when you do respond, we ask that you are respectful
and courteous, and ensure your thoughts are informed and critical.

Heeding the dropped stitches and tangled threads

The whakataukī quoted at the beginning of the paper reminds us to also look for the lessons to
be learnt from stitches that have been dropped. Throughout the course you will be exposed to
some confronting and sometimes challenging material – the dropped stiches and tangled
threads of globalisation and colonisation. There will be a range of perspectives on these in the
class and some may feel uncomfortable, particularly if those issues threaten or challenge our
understanding of the world. If you do feel uncomfortable some useful strategies might be:

• Take time out. If you are really struggling you might need a break!
• Become more informed – find out what the issues are, the positions for and against
• Write down how you feel and reflect on what you have written. Are you feeling angry,
horrified, ambivalent, guilty, dismissive etc? Why?
• Share your thoughts with staff, other students or people you trust– talking through your
understanding of the issue, your concerns and anxieties can help clarify your opinion and
eventually develop an evidenced position

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Manaakitanga
As noted at the beginning of this reading, the harakeke is used in Tū Rangaranga as a design
metaphor, to organise content, and as a weaving metaphor to emphasise a key intent of global
citizenship. According to Māori thought the harakeke represents the family unit and the key
roles and functions of family. This visual imagery emphasises the importance of looking after
members of the family and manaakitanga, which means to care and protect. In Tū Rangaranga,
manaakitanga forms the foundation of our approach to teaching and learning. The course
lecturers in the Tū Rangaranga family have a responsibility to direct, care and protect the
academic development of students. As part of the ‘family’ everyone associated with the course,
including students, have a collective responsibility to each other, including treating people with
respect and working together to ensure all have the opportunity to flourish.