Grad


Thank you parents!
Graduation last night. I can now put MSc after my name. Nice.
Way back when I last graduated, I had no interest in going to the ceremony – the pomp struck me as, well, pompous, even grotesque, and at a considerable remove from my values at the time. It didn’t strike me so much as a celebration of achievement, but rather an encoding of social difference, and one beholden to a foreign social system at that.
The big ol’ ceremony is still there with its crazy robes and hats and formalised interactions, and it doesn’t bother me so much these days. However, I was pleased by the beautiful waiata and resounding haka performed by family and friends in the audience when many of the Maori students took to the stage. They brought the whole ceremony to a standstill, disrupting the smooth process and the expected role of the audience. I liked that these mighty and heartfelt performances did not fit with the old-Europe ceremonial structure, and in fact seemed almost to be a response to it, an assertion that academic achievements do not belong to the old culture of Europe but to all peoples on their own terms. It was an uneasy fit, and that’s exactly as it should be at this stage of New Zealand’s bicultural development – an uneasy equilibrium, two parts pushing against each other, still working to find a sustainable balance.
Anyway, it was a nice event for me, I got to wear my kilt and remember the madness almost a year ago as I was racing to hand in. Here’s hoping for a relatively quiet summer for a change – been a long time since I’ve had one of those!

17 thoughts on “Grad”

  9. I love it. Great work.
    My question is what is your super hero name with that cape and hat on?
    The Psycho-Psyche?

  13. My 1st graduation was my PhD… I figure once you’ve written a thesis you TOTALLY deserve it… Well done mighty Morgue, master of the human mind!!

  15. Thank you everyone!
    Dr Derek, funnily enough I was just thinking about you the other day, and that time we went to yours for dinner. I’ll return the favour next time you’re in NZ…
    Derek and Frank – I don’t foresee a Dr Morgue any time soon… all the PhD students I see are in varying states of mental degradation and esoteric confusion, who needs that!
    HM, Nancy, Scott, Heather, sister, Steph, Naomi, Hebe, Karen, Marie – thank you so much!
    Gator – Psycho-Psyche is a great name… *googles* …and it isn’t taken either! *yoink*

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