Harkness Fellow off to Harvard

Tu Tangata, Issue 12, 1 June 1983, Page 16

Harkness Fellow off to Harvard

‘‘The land wars are over, the war now is being waged inside the head”, could be apt words to describe the achievements of Maoridom’s latest Harkness Fellow, Ms Pauline Kingi. ‘Very competitive’ is how Pauline describes the motivation that led her to the Harkness Fellowship which will take her to the United States for two years.

She’ll be studying the policies of the U.S. Government regarding ethnic minorities, both indigenous i.e. Indians and transplanted i.e. Cuban and Puerto Rican. Pauline will first attend the University of New Mexico studying Pueblo and Navajoh Indians, then Harvard University to complete a Masters in Law, then on to Florida area looking at the settlement of Cubans and finally to San Francisco to evaluate Asian re-set-tlement programs.

Pauline will be taking her two daughters, Orewa Chantal aged 2 and Aroha Mercedes aged 10. They’ll be in the care of Beatrice Kerr, an aide to Queen Atairangikaahu. Pauline says she was quite humbled at the offer to be kaitiaki for the family whilst overseas, especially because of the strong Waikato/Maniapoto links on her grandmother’s side.

Pauline says although she’s fiercely competitive now, it wasn’t always that way and it was only because of the strong support of her father (Ngati Pikio) and others that she developed.

At school at Sacred Heart in Hawkes Bay I was known as a shy plodder. Instead of academic studies I turned to sport, swimming, tennis, netball, where I was successful. With encouragement from my father and a teacher, Mr Scott, I tackled the professional course and went on to university where I really became aware of being the only Maori. It had never hit me before and I became more determined to succeed”.

“I think if this Harkness Fellowship carries any meaning for the Maori people, it’s that we owe it to our children especially our daughters to inspire them to raise their sights higher. This was the consensus at a recent hui at Urenui, to encourage Maori women to strive harder”.

To the suggestion that some people may not identify with her achievements Pauline says she came from humble beginnings, her father having several jobs one of which was a wharfie. From a family of seven children she says they were all encouraged to try things.

“I think the word ‘can’t’ should be expunged from dictionaries. Don’t let people tell you there is something you can’t do’.” What Pauline did after university

was enter the law profession and in 1978/79 took out the professional women’s club Zonta award as woman of the year. And in 1979 she won the Law Society’s bi-centennial scholarship. Pauline works for Maori Affairs in Auckland as district solicitor and leaves in July to take up her Harkness Fellowship.