Te Rita’s PhD thesis, Creating a Modern Māori Identity Through Māori Cultural Performance, is in a relatively new area of study. ‘My research is particularly interesting because there is little written material on Māori Performing Arts,’ she explains. ‘I am contributing to this field in its infancy, and this is very exciting in terms of growing the area of study based around the indigenous people of this country. As I am one of those indigenous people it makes the study very challenging.’

Te Rita chose to study towards a PhD because she was looking to broaden her academic skills. Now at the final stage of writing up her thesis, she says, ‘it has definitely up-skilled me in terms of research and writing techniques’.

She chose her subject because of her strong personal interest in kapa haka. ‘Māori Performing Arts is my passion and that was my other key motive to do my PhD.’

‘I chose Canterbury because of the great reputation that the Department of Theatre and Film Studies has, and because of the superb supervision I get from Dr. Sharon Mazer. She is extremely well-versed and well-written in the area of Performance Studies.’

Te Rita doesn’t hesitate to recommend UC to anyone thinking of studying theatre and film as performing arts and cultural processes. ‘Definitely choose Canterbury as a university but, more importantly, choose Theatre and Film Studies as a department of study. One reason is that you will be exposed to international conferences and networks which is really useful.’

She adds, ‘the great supervision I get here is one of the things I enjoy most about studying at UC. The collegiality among both staff and students in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies is very supportive for study’.