Weekly Blog post 11

Both Ani Mikare's "Māori women: Caught in the contradictions of a colonised reality" and Naomi Simmonds' "Mana wahine: Decolonising politics" discuss some of the concepts that underpin the differences between a Māori and a Western approach to gender, explain what these are using the readings to support your discussion: (183 words)

Mana Wahine is often translated to Maori feminism however it is much more complex than that, Mana translates to power and wahine translates to women but Naomi Simmonds explains that it is much deeper and more complex than this, to understand it fully one must comprehend the culture and history behind Maori, not just women. The meaning of Mana Wahine is dependant on the individual woman and her stage in life. Defining mana wahine by western standards would not fully capsulate the idea of it to a Maori woman.  In recent years the government has acknowledged Maori views but has focused mainly on men and almost neglected Maori women. Women were often treated solely as property in the past as their fathers gave them away to be the property of their husbands, and to some extent, women are still seen as property. White women do have similarities to Maori women under the rules of patriarchal western society but white women must also understand the privilege they have as  Annie Mikaere states “this commonality of interest should not, however, disguise the differences in experience”.

Works Cited:

• Mikaere, Annie. " Maori Women: Caught in the Contradictions of a colonised reality".Te Piringa - Faculty of Law, vol. 2, 2014, pp. 1-9
• Simmonds, Naomi. "Mana wahine: Decolonising politics". Women's Studies Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, 2011, pp. 11-25.