Our Stories

Roimata's Story

My journey towards a PhD begins in my college years. It was a rule in our household that we had to stay at school until we turned 18, and because my birthday fell in the later half of the year I ended up doing 7th form. I got entrance into university and also because some people were stereotyping me because of my race and culture, that is Māori, I decided to prove them wrong, and go to university. But at this stage I was looking towards doing a BA degree and had no ambition to do a PhD.

I enrolled at Victoria University to do a BA degree in Māori and History, but also a LLB degree in Law. While attending university I changed my degrees overtime and decided to just focus on Māori and History. I got my BA degree and was encouraged to do a post-graduate degree. At first I thought that I did not have the potential to do a higher degree, but different people encouraged me and I decided to give it a go.

I originally enrolled in a MA (Honours) programme, because I knew if I just decided to do Honours I would not complete it, because I would look for a job. This degree changed into two degrees to a BA (Honours) degree and a MA degree.

The reasons for the changes were problems staying focus when friends who were doing the same degree were leaving for work, isolation, studying fulltime and working fulltime for financial reasons, but also due to illnesses in my family.

What kept me going was the determination that I could complete these degrees and the support of my whānau. Although my MA degree took slightly longer than normal because of the challenges, I was absolutely thrilled to complete it.

I decided by this time that I had enough of studying, relying on student loan, manaaki tauira and the odd grant, and decided to find fulltime employment.

Although I have been working fulltime I have kept in contact with people at Victoria, and they have been encouraging me to a PhD. The group Mai ki Poneke has given me the support and information to think about and also start working towards a PhD.

Roimata