Te Karaiti in Mihingare spirituality: women's perspectives

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, to establish a suitable research framework for christology in a Mihingare women's context. Second, to present an indigenous christology of healing and reconciliation for the 21st century. The study investigates the question of Jesus, "who do you say I am?" in relation to contemporary views in Mihingare christology, and Mihingare women's christology specifically. The survey and analysis have included the relevant themes concerning Christ's identity in several other contexts, namely: the 19th century missionary/Maori cultural terrain, the wider Mihingare Church, the two similarly colonized minority nations of Australian Aboriginal and Native American, and contemporary western. A survey is conducted of literature in the areas of postcolonial feminist theory and theology, missionary records, contemporary writings by western male theologians, writings by Mihingare theologians, and writings by indigenous womanist theologians. Seventeen Mihingare women from Te Hui Amorangi o Te Tairawhiti are interviewed, fifteen from Ngati Kahunugunu ki Wairoa and two from Ngati Porou. Two theoretical frameworks are applied. Kaupapa Maori theory is a strategy for resisting continuing colonial imperialism. The theory contends that Maori have strategies that have ensured survival of Maori within Maori contexts, and privileges the voices of Maori as the authority for their own ways of knowing and for building their own strengths. Postcolonial feminist theology, similarly, demands that imperial strategies are continually addressed and new strategies for theological empowerment and freedom are developed. The thesis concludes, first, by claiming a Mana Wahine research framework of "whakapapa" as an appropriate framework for the development of a Mihingare women's christology. Second, by claiming that Mihingare, and in particular Mihingare women, have employed subtle cultural strategies that have resisted colonial Christianity, and shaped a unique indigenous christology of empowerment, one that is fully supported by christologies from the other contexts surveyed. The strategies and strengths add to the postcolonial voice of other indigenous and third world women who address the christological question: "Who do you say I am?"