“This paper represents the first attempt to deploy Pacific Research Methodologies (PRM) as its grounding methodological approach to knowledge generation in a Korean studies project. I posit that as a Sāmoan researcher, my positionality gives me unique opportunities to negotiate communication with Korean informants.”
Dr Patrick Thomsen, p.19 in ‘Coming-Out in the Intersections…’
Recently, I was sitting up late with a close friend and fellow second-year law student, when we stumbled across a topic of conversation that happened to complement the work we are doing in Arts Scholars with surprising clarity. In last year’s Legal Foundations course (LAW141), we were asked to write a paper on a pivotal case Takamore v Clarke, which had interesting legal and societal implications on the application of tikanga Māori in statutory and common law settings. Being of both Māori and Pakeha descent, my friend had some interesting and at times controversial thoughts on the case itself, which led to a discussion on the practical elements of the incorporation of Māori law into statute, but also the relationship between, and at times imposition of Western beliefs on Māori custom. To be Pakeha-presenting with Māori ancestry is a tricky duality, but provides a very interesting viewpoint regarding systemic gaps, addressing equity and redress and to what extent there needs to be greater communication between iwi and government. It also raised several questions for me around the tricky subject around cross-cultural research practices and criticism, for how does one begin to research and to write about a culture that is not your own sensitively? Is it possible to adopt research practices from other countries in a way that is not cultural appropriation? Dr Patrick Thomsen’s lecture in Week 3 gave us a lot of insight into these issues, including the ways we can use our own positionality as researchers to guide us, and how to navigate differences in cultural perspectives and practices.
“You hot? I’m hot too!” (queer)
The quote above comes from Dr Thomsen’s explanation of the Pacific methodologies he was able to employ throughout his research, which I found incredibly interesting. Throughout school we are taught to be cautious of ‘bias’, to be continually critical of the ways in which our values and assumptions can cloud our writing, and to avoid generalisations. At the university level, to be taught to use our background to enhance our research practices and to acknowledge them is something incredibly unique and freeing. I agree with Thomsen that there is an inherent bias toward Western knowledge in academia – this makes it all the more important to critique our own relationship with our research objectives, and to embrace scholarship that comes from a range of different vantages. Possibly one of the most important things I took away from the lecture was the notion of having flexibility and avoiding pre-determined outcomes in research; as Deborah pointed out, there are times where a list of interview questions are not going to yield the personal and often challenging responses which have the potential to shape the focus of our research in an unexpected way. Thomsen himself went through a period of reworking the focus of his thesis, which I find incredibly heartening – it is a fluid and dynamic process, with the power to change as our knowledge base does. He also pointed out the importance of not claiming research as one’s own, as the knowledge genealogy is the product of years and years of lived experience which is shared to us; we are merely the facilitators. And finally, the lecture reminded me to look for gaps and to be critical of research that exists already. Models such as The Cass Homosexuality Identity Model remind us that Western approaches are not a one-size-fits-all perspective to people’s experiences across the world, and that Thomsen described with such aplomb, “just because gay culture is shielded in some cultures, does not mean that it doesn’t exist”.
Patrick S. Thomsen (2019): Coming-Out in the Intersections: Examining Relationality in How Korean Gay Men in Seattle Navigate Church, Culture and Family through a Pacific Lens, Journal of Homosexuality, DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2019.1695423
