by Aaron Tuckey, Uppsala University
At the second Matariki Forum, delegates again gathered to explore themes relating to global citizenship in the context of higher education. As the discussion progressed, some delegates felt that we lacked the perspective of citizens beyond our seven founding universities who all come from the Anglo or West-European world, which got me thinking about the namesake for the network which may provide further guidance and inspiration for future forums.
‘Matariki’ refers to a star cluster known as the Seven Sisters in English due to the presence of seven bright stars (hence the seven universities). However, this star cluster is in fact much denser than the naked eye perceives. There are in fact 1000s of stars present in Matariki beyond these seven most noticeable. Whilst this network began with a group of seven engaged and ambitious universities, perhaps it is also time for the network to now expand and promote a more inclusive global citizenry to help us achieve the goals of the Matariki network.
