“If heroism is driving your mission trip, stay home.” 1
Power and inequity are uneasy themes that dictate life for people across all sub-sections of Aotearoa. Our in-class panel discussion regarding how these two topics are treated in cross-cultural academic research reinforced our own privileges and perhaps, disadvantages. Tracey McIntosh’s academic work reveals the role of scholars in a settler state, and that we must confront New Zealand’s colonial past when dealing with issues significant to Maori 2. The effects of colonialism through systematic racism has had a devastating effect on Maori. This post-colonial age has reinforced the power of the hegemony, and it is necessary as scholars to consider the historical foreground of our chosen areas of study. The post-colonial perspective is one we are all influenced by, even in our perception of what is an ‘objective’ truth. The researchers on our panel affirmed that the first step to conducting fair research, in its most objective capacity, is to acknowledge cultural differences and the “trust, mistrust, knowledge, and deception” that underscore New Zealand’s social, economic and cultural landscape 3.
The discussion panel really interested me with its similarity to the themes surrounding religious ‘mission trips’, a trip whereby predominantly white, wealthy college-aged students go to impoverished nations to help build schools, houses and hospitals. The charity of these trip-goers have been criticized as glorified 21st century colonialism, in a way that researchers too may conduct their academia. Who is to say that researchers- like those on mission-trips, are any better tasked to help the people they’re ‘working’ for than people from those groups themselves… Dominican builders, Maori scholars? Carisa Showden’s belief that research is important to participants is vital, as we are using their lived experience for academic purposes. The co-construction of research with a peoples is a co-production of knowledge- they should reap benefits from it too. As Tracey writes, the research is nearly always more powerful than the participant, especially when research is focused on oppressed groups who have been inter-generationally silenced and ignored. The panel shed light on the sensitivity and vulnerability with which we must approach respondents in regards to their experiences with power and inequity.
- If Heroism is Driving Your Mission Trip, Stay Home. Is There a Problem with Mission Trips? https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201705/if-heroism-driving-your-mission-trip-stay-home-30999
- McIntosh, Tracey. Maori and cross-cultural research: Criticality, ethicality and generosity [online]. New Zealand Sociology, Vol. 26, Special issue, 2011: 61-75.
- McIntosh, Tracey. Ibid.
