Indigenous Inquiry and Imperialism?

For most of us, attending university following high school was almost a no-brainer. It seems to be the logical next step for everyone – receive our niche degrees, eventually become an accountant after a lack of success in the job market, get into a mundane everyday routine, and work for the system until we die. That’s how it’s supposed to be… Right?

That was my general idea of higher education, until I attended Dr. Marama Muru-Lanning’s lecture in Week 9. Early on, she explained how she was one of the first people in her community to obtain a university degree, as young people from her Marae were dissuaded from being subjected to the colonial systems used by New Zealand universities. Although a minor detail in Dr. Muru-Lanning’s presentation, it immediately piqued my interest.

Earlier I had read a New Zealand Herald article reporting how an Ōtara high school refused to let their Māori and Pasifika students sit exams, which they too regarded as a colonial system. To them, the pressure of exams doesn’t benefit their students’ learning, nor does it accommodate their world view. As is seen in many former colonies, the disadvantages forced upon indigenous peoples has continued into the 21st century, and many students of lower socio-economic areas don’t have the same resources in order to succeed in Western education.

I find that these elitist Western mentalities extend to Dr. Muru-Lanning’s work as well – I wasn’t aware of all the ground-breaking research she and her team has done across the country. Perhaps this is because her research isn’t seen as relevant in adhering to Western notions of academia, as seen through her “real science” anecdote. It seems as when marginalised communities use what resources and world views they have at their disposal and try pair it with Western interpretations of research, it is often discounted as an anomaly as opposed to genuine work.

If we, the people who benefit from these colonial systems, force indigenous peoples to accommodate our perspectives into their world, why can’t we do the same for them?