Decolonizing Methodologies : Research and Indigenous Peoples

by Smith

• ISBN13: 9781856496247
• ISBN10: 1856496244
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-15
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

From the vantage point of the colonized, the term 'research' is inextricably linked with European colonialism; the ways in which scientific research has been implicated in the worst excesses of imperialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world's colonized peoples. Here, an indigenous researcher issues a clarion call for the decolonization of research methods. The book is divided into two parts. In the first, the author critically examines the historical and philosophical base of Western research. Extending the work of Foucault, she explores the intersections of imperialism, knowledge and research, and the different ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and methodologies as 'regimes of truth'. Providing a history of knowledge from the Enlightenment to Postcoloniality, she also discusses the fate of concepts such as 'discovery, 'claiming' and 'naming' through which the west has incorporated and continues to incorporate the indigenous world within its own web. The second part of the book meets the urgent need for people who are carrying out their own research projects, for literature which validates their frustrations in dealing with various western paradigms, academic traditions and methodologies, which continue to position the indigenous as 'Other'. In setting an agenda for planning and implementing indigenous research, the author shows how such programmes are part of the wider project of reclaiming control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. Exploring the broad range of issues which have confronted, and continue to confront, indigenous peoples, in their encounters with western knowledge, this book also sets a standard for truly emancipatory research. It brilliantly demonstrates that 'when indigenous peoples become the researchers and not merely the researched, the activity of research is transformed.'

Author Biography

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is an Associate Professor in Education and Director of the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education at the University of Auckland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(18)
Imperialism, History, Writing and Theory	19	(23)
Imperialism	20	(5)
On being human	25	(3)
Writing history and theory	28	(1)
Is history important for indigenous peoples?	29	(4)
Contested histories	33	(2)
Is writing important for indigenous peoples?	35	(2)
Writing theory	37	(5)
Research Through Imperial Eyes	42	(16)
The cultural formations of Western research	43	(2)
The intersections of race and gender	45	(2)
Conceptualizations of the individual and society	47	(3)
Conceptions of space	50	(3)
Conceptions of time	53	(5)
Colonizing Knowledges	58	(20)
Establishing the positional superiority of Western knowledge	59	(6)
Colonizing the disciplines	65	(3)
Disciplining the colonized	68	(1)
Colonialism and `Native' intellectuals	69	(3)
The `authentic, essentialist, deeply spiritual' Other	72	(6)
Research Adventures on Indigenous Lands	78	(17)
They came, They saw, They named, They claimed	80	(3)
On the road to ... research	83	(2)
Organizing research	85	(3)
Trading the Other	88	(2)
Defining the indigenous `problem'	90	(5)
Notes from Down Under	95	(12)
The end of one part the beginning of another	95	(2)
The new language of imperialism	97	(2)
Ten ways to be researched (colonized)	99	(4)
The new millenium	103	(4)
The Indigenous People's Project: Setting a New Agenda	107	(16)
The social movement of indigenous peoples	108	(4)
International mobilization	112	(3)
An agenda for indigenous research	115	(3)
Ethical research protocols	118	(5)
Articulating an Indigenous Research Agenda	123	(19)
Community research	125	(3)
Tribal research	128	(1)
The case study of an indigenous research initiative	129	(5)
Training indigenous researchers	134	(3)
Insider/Outsider research	137	(5)
Twenty-five Indigenous Projects	142	(21)
The Projects	143	(18)
Claiming	143	(1)
Testimonies	144	(1)
Story-telling	144	(1)
Celebrating survival	145	(1)
Remembering	146	(1)
Indigenizing	146	(1)
Intervening	147	(1)
Revitalizing	147	(1)
Connecting	148	(1)
Reading	149	(1)
Writing	149	(1)
Representing	150	(1)
Gendering	151	(1)
Envisioning	152	(1)
Reframing	153	(1)
Restoring	154	(1)
Returning	155	(1)
Democratizing	156	(1)
Networking	156	(1)
Naming	157	(1)
Protecting	158	(1)
Creating	158	(1)
Negotiating	159	(1)
Discovering	160	(1)
Sharing	160	(1)
Summary	161	(2)
Responding to the Imperatives of an Indigenous Agenda: A Case Study of Maori	163	(20)
Western critiques of Western research	164	(1)
The challenge of feminist analyses	165	(3)
The Waitangi Tribunal and Te Kohanga Reo	168	(1)
Research as an extension of knowledge - whose knowledge?	169	(3)
The validity of Maori knowledge	172	(3)
Negotiating new relationships with non-indigenous researchers	175	(3)
Setting the boundaries to research by non-indigenous researchers	178	(5)
Towards Developing Indigenous Methodologies: Kaupapa Maori Research	183	(13)
Research by Maori	184	(1)
A local approach to critical theory	185	(4)
Kaupapa Maori research and positivism	189	(2)
How does Kaupapa Maori research proceed?	191	(1)
Setting strategic directions	192	(4)
Conclusion: A Personal Journey	196	(4)
Index	200