Pania Te Whaiti was born in the Wairarapa. Her marae is Te Kohunui. She attended Greytown Primary School, Kuranui College and a year at Makoura College. She began B.A. studies at Victoria University in 1986 and graduated in 1989 majoring in Anthropology and Education. She has worked as a lecturer/researcher at Victoria University in the Education Department and studied towards a M.Ed thesis. She writes non-fiction articles. Her publications were published under the name Pania McArdell but she has since changed her name.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence and phone conversation with Pania Te Whaiti: 19 March, 31 May 1993 and 30 July 1998.
Other
- "Whanaupani." Pania McArdell. Feminist Voices: Women’s Studies Texts for Aotearoa/New Zealand. Ed. Rosemary Du Plessis with Phillida Bunkle, Kathie Irwin, Alison Laurie, and Sue Middleton. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1992. 74-90.
- Pania states that her purpose in this essay is ‘to show how sexism and racism have influenced the education Māori women have received and continue to receive’ and that ‘Māori women as tāngata whenua should ultimately have equal status in all areas of New Zealand society.’ The essay begins with an autobiographical account of Pania’s childhood years and learning experiences which were positive within the family setting but demoralising in the state education system. Pania goes on to discuss sexism and racism, the Treaty of Waitangi and she cites various examples of racism in the New Zealand education system of the nineteenth and twentieth century. In conclusion she asserts that a form of anti-sexist and anti-racist education must be devised for Māori women where tikanga Māori and te reo Māori are taught, where the herstories of Māori women are included in the classroom teaching and where Māori people are involved in the decision-making processes as recognised in the Treaty of Waitangi.
- "He Aro Ke: Another Perspective." Excellence In Training Conference. Conference Proceedings. University of Dundee and Cornell University N.Y., USA. Paper 2. Scotland: Social Work Dept., U of Dundee, 1992. 1-35. No further details.
- Co-authored with Marie McCarthy and Jennie Harre-Hindmarsh.
- Maori Perceptions of the Police, 1998 – New Zealand Police. Wellington, N.Z.: He Pārekereke/Victoria Link, 1998.
- Co-authored with Dr Michael Roguski.
- Assessment In Kura Kaupapa Māori And Māori Language Immersion Programmes. Wairarapa Community Polytech and Ministry of Education, 1992. No further details.
- Co-authored with Michael Hollings and Richard Jeffries.