Pūtahitanga: te reo Māori (in the Māori language) which describes a community coming together to work together on a specific idea, topic or challenge. The word embodies the ethos of the research project that uses it as a title: The Pūtahitanga Project. This is a project that explores popular music, language and identity in the Welsh and Māori contexts.
As part of the project, Dr Elen Ifan from Cardiff University received an Innovation Grant from the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to hold workshops in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Wales with musicians who use Māori and Welsh in their work. This resource shares clips from the workshop in Cardiff and includes activities to involve you in our research as well. It is mainly designed for higher education students, but it is also relevant to anyone interested in Welsh popular music and the worksheet is suitable for AS and A level as well.
The project essentially aims to find connections between the experiences of musicians who use two minority languages (Welsh and te reo (the language) Māori), trying to understand the various challenges facing these musical communities , but without directly comparing. The project uses creative research methods and involves audiences in the research. This resource forms part of that work.
The video files include a presentation by the lead researcher and clips from a workshop held in Cardiff in November 2023. The worksheet guides the person using the resource through the activities, encourages them to engage with the themes of the project, to think about what is relevant or important to them, and invites creative responses to the research.
