One of his most well-known books is听He Pukapuka T膩taku i ng膩 Mahi a Te Rauparaha听Nui 鈥 A Record of the Life of the Great Te Rauparaha, published by Auckland University Press in 2020. The work held deep personal significance for Calman who is a descendant of Te Rauparaha. He describes the book as a 鈥減innacle鈥 in his career.
鈥淔or me, Te Rauparaha was a remarkable leader who was also involved in some very violent campaigns,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 important to understand the historical context for those events and to explain those nuances and provide more information for people trying to interpret these events today.鈥
Calman鈥檚 expertise with te reo M膩ori is even more impressive considering when he enrolled at UC as an undergraduate, he had only a superficial understanding of his whakapapa and very little te reo M膩ori. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in English in 1994.
鈥淲hen I started at UC in 1990, I didn鈥檛 really know what my whakapapa was,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 until a couple of years later after talking to my grandmother that I found out about my iwi, and that I was descended from Te Rauparaha.鈥
While he was studying in the University library, he came across a bound photocopy of a manuscript about the Ng膩ti Toa leader written in te reo M膩ori by his son T膩mihana Te Rauparaha. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥楾his would be amazing, I need to read this鈥, so it sent me off on a quest to learn te reo M膩ori, over many years really.
鈥淚t was over 20 years later before I picked up that manuscript again, in 2014, and started trying to decipher it. The resulting book is my biggest achievement and the thing that means the most to me and has the most personal significance in terms of the journey I鈥檝e been on.鈥
Calman鈥檚 wife Ariana Tikao, who is a writer and taonga puoro musician, has shared parallel interests to his own, he says, and been a huge support to his career.
Calman is currently working on adapting听He Pukapuka T膩taku i ng膩 Mahi a Te Rauparaha听Nui 鈥 A Record of the Life of the Great Te Rauparaha听into a podcast series and is also translating other historical M膩ori manuscripts and letters with a view to publishing them as a follow-up work.
UC Ng膩i Tahu Centre Pou Whakarae | Te Maire Tau, says over the past two decades Calman has become a pre-eminent researcher, editor and translator who has enriched New Zealanders鈥 understanding of the M膩ori past.
He says Calman鈥檚 career is all the more remarkable given that he only had a superficial understanding of te ao M膩ori when he first came to UC.
鈥淗owever, in collaboration with his wife, Ariana Tikao, who is also Ng膩i Tahu and prominent in related disciplines, Ross is now a leading scholar in the field of M膩ori history.鈥
Professor Tau says it is entirely fitting that UC, supported by Te Ng膩i T奴膩huriri, recognises Calman with an Honorary Doctorate in light of his 鈥渙utstanding intellectual trajectory鈥.
