Contemporary attitudes to traditional facial ta moko: A working paper

Until it came under serious attack from nineteenth century missionaries, ta moko was an integral part of traditional Maori society. Facial moko conveyed important information about identity, whakapapa and status. The process of receiving a moko was tapu and highly regulated. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of Maori receiving ta moko. Moko have been seen as a symbol of Maori pride and identity and have often been associated with political activism. This study set out to investigate the contemporary meaning of ta moko, the reactions wearers encounter from others and the ways wearers cope with those reactions. Three case studies are presented. These show that the issues of personal identity and whakapapa were central to the meaning wearers attached to their moko. Receiving a moko was often associated with significant personal changes and an increased political commitment to Maori self determination. On the whole, positive reactions were more common than negative reactions but wearers did find themselves subjected to racist and antagonistic responses. Wearing moko was also reported to mean that others, particularly other Maori, placed certain expectations on the wearer, notably to be fluent in te reo and to be able to exercise leadership. Participants considered that there was a need for education about the significance of ta moko and recommended that those contemplating receiving a moko ensure that they are reasonably fluent in te reo

Approximation of invariant measures for a class of maps with indifferent fixed points

Certain dynamical systems on the interval with neutrally stable repelling points admit invariant probability measures which are absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure. These maps are often used as a model of intermittent dynamics, since they exhibit polynomial rather than exponential decay of correlations (due to the absence of a spectral gap in the underlying transfer operator). This paper presents a class of these maps which are expanding (with convex branches) for which the invariant probability measures can be rigorously approximated by Ulam’s method (a sequence of finite rank approximations to the transfer operator). L1–convergence of the scheme is proved, and some numerical experiments are reported

Existence, mixing and approximation of invariant densities for expanding maps on Rr

This paper generalises Gora and Boyarsky’s bounded variation(BV) approach to the ergodic properties of expanding transformations, and analysies the convergence of Ulam’s method for the numerical approximation of absolutely continuous invariant measures. We first prove an existence theorem for BV invariant densities for piecewise expanding maps on subsets of Rr; the maps must be C2, but may have infinitely many branches and need not be Markov. Under and additional “onto” assumption, explicit bounds on the spectral gap in the associated Perron-Frobenius operator are proved. The corresponding contraction rates are in the BV norm, rather than a projective metric. With this quantitative information, we are then able to prove convergence and explicit upper bounds on the approximation error in Ulam’s method for approximating invariant measures. Because the BV approach is rather concete, the methods of this paper can be applied in practice; this is illustrated by an application of the main results to the Jacobi-Perron transformation on R2

Waikirikiri Marae: Shared experiences of the wharemate

In Te Urewera, wharemate (shelters in which the deceased receive their final farewells) have traditionally been temporary structures. In the 1980s, a new practice was introduced in the Ruātoki valley with the erection of permanent wharemate facilities. One was erected at Waikirikiri marae (tribal meeting grounds and associated buildings) in 1989. Knowledge and discussion regarding wharemate at Waikirikiri marae have changed over the years, and a whole generation has not been fortunate enough to experience tikanga (correct procedures, customary practices) that prevailed prior to the introduction of the permanent wharemate building that is there today. These changes are recorded in this paper through the shared stories of three kaumātua (elders) from Waikirikiri. This paper is a summary of Hare Rua’s thesis study, the data for which was collected in 2009. This work forms part of the Tangi Research Programme, a collaboration between the School of Māori and Pacific Development and the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

A Wavelet Approach for Factor-Augmented Forecasting

It has been acknowledged that wavelets can constitute a useful tool for forecasting in economics. Through a wavelet multiresolution analysis, a time series can be decomposed into different time-scale components and a model can be fitted to each component to improve the forecast accuracy of the series as a whole. Up to now, the literature on forecasting with wavelets has mainly focused on univariate modelling. On the other hand, in a context of growing data availability, a line of research has emerged on forecasting with large datasets. In particular, the use of factor-augmented models have become quite widespread in the literature and among practitioners. The aim of this paper is to bridge the two strands of the literature. A wavelet approach for factor-augmented forecasting is proposed and put to test for forecasting GDP growth for the major euro area countries. The results show that the forecasting performance is enhanced when wavelets and factor-augmented models are used together.

Measuring comovement in the time-frequency space

The measurement of comovement among variables has a long tradition in the economic and financial literature. Traditionally, comovement is assessed in the time domain through the well-known correlation coefficient while the evolving properties are investigated either through a rolling window or by considering non-overlapping periods. More recently, Croux, Forni and Reichlin [Review of Economics and Statistics 83 (2001)] have proposed a measure of comovement in the frequency domain. While it allows to quantify the comovement at the frequency level, such a measure disregards the fact that the strength of the comovement may vary over time. Herein, it is proposed a new measure of comovement resorting to wavelet analysis. This wavelet-based measure allows one to assess simultaneously the comovement at the frequency level and over time. In this way, it is possible to capture the time and frequency varying features of comovement within a unified framework which constitutes a refinement to previous approaches.

Polynomial decay of correlations in the generalized baker's transformation

We introduce a family of area preserving generalized baker's transformations acting on the unit square and having sharp polynomial rates of mixing for Holder data. The construction is geometric, relying on the graph of a single variable "cut function". Each baker's map B is non-uniformly hyperbolic and while the exact mixing rate depends on B, all polynomial rates can be attained. The analysis of mixing rates depends on building a suitable Young tower for an expanding factor. The mechanisms leading to a slow rate of correlation decay are especially transparent in our examples due to the simple geometry in the construction. For this reason we propose this class of maps as an excellent testing ground for new techniques for the analysis of decay of correlations in non-uniformly hyperbolic systems. Finally, some of our examples can be seen to be extensions of certain 1-D non-uniformly expanding maps that have appeared in the literature over the last twenty years thereby providing a unified treatment of these interesting and well-studied examples.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

An evaluation of the effectiveness of social equity strategies for Maori students in the School of Science and Technology

In 1991 the School of Science and Technology (SOSAT) at the University of Waikato had a very low participation rate of Maori and students from other non-dominant ethnic groups. This situation was serious enough to concerned the then Dean of the School and strategies were developed to change this situation. Four major strategies are used to encourage, support and retain Maori students to successfully pursue and complete a degree in Science. They are: the Te Putahi o te Manawa programme - a mentoring programme; a scholarship and grant writing strategy (in particular assistance with Tuapapa Putaiao Maori Fellowships(TPMFs) administered by FRST); school visits; and field trips with secondary schools in the Waikato region that have a high proportion of Maori students. The Maori & Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) was contracted by Gary Bramley of the Equity Office of the SOSAT to conduct this evaluation. Evaluative information was gathered through administering questionnaires, completing key informant interviews, and completing focus group interviews. In this evaluation we sought to determine the effectiveness of the social equity strategies for Maori students in the SOSAT at the University of Waikato