REPRESENTING her cultural heritage, Ngaio Stobbs will don her late mother's korowai - a traditional Maori cloak made of wax and feathers - on Wednesday when she graduates with a Doctor of Philosophy.
"My mum was one of my biggest supporters. She always said to me 'I can't wait 'til you graduate'," the University of Newcastle student said.
The korowai has made the journey across from New Zealand along with Ms Stobbs' family to celebrate the 54 year-old's PhD in Communication and Media Arts at the University of Newcastle.
"Having the korowai is like having a piece of her [my mum] with me and culturally, the significance of it coming from New Zealand is not lost on me," Ms Stobbs said.
Ms Stobbs will graduate along with 1200 students across six graduation ceremonies this week kicking off from July 17.
It's a momentous time for the Maitland resident, who started her study journey in her 30s while raising three daughters and graduated from Open Foundation in 2008 before pursuing an undergraduate degree and honours.
"When I embarked on my honours I had a phone call from a relative in Auckland who said there was a young boy, an emerging talent, who's playing for the Newcastle Knights and asked me to check on him," she said.
"His family were in New Zealand, he was reportedly homesick adjusting to professional life, so I contacted the Knights but it was really hard to get in contact with him, they wouldn't let me in," she said.
That's when she started researching cultural framework and analysing the representation of Maori and Pasifika players in the National Rugby League.
She finished her studies with first class honours in 2012, launching her into a doctoral degree, where she remains researching in sport and other areas.
"My passion lies with the cultural framework. There's up to 50 per cent of Maori/Pasifika players in the cohort and I couldn't really see anything that was culturally supportive of them," she said.
"There's a whole lot of research that's come out of not only in my work, but my colleagues as well who started to look into this space."
After years of research, Ms Stobbs read her PhD results with tears in her eyes expecting to be told she needed to rework her thesis.
But to her surprise, it was an award.
"I was really surprised by that. I was so relieved. It's just so emotional. It's hard work, there's no doubt about it," she said.
"You go through years of study, the grind of writing to get to the end and be told it's an award ... to actually read it on paper, in black and white."
"It's been a significant body of work that you put together, people have examined it and that they like your work and it's just validation and relief."
Ms Stobbs said she was excited to celebrate her success with her family and was looking forward to graduating with almost 200 other PhD and Master of Philosophy students - the highest ever number of students graduating with Doctoral degrees at UON.
