The statement Tracy McIntosh made at the week four round table panel discussion around power and inequality in research – “research is a dirty word because of invasion into indigenous lives” – really stood out to me. When we consider research as telling a story, it is more often than not someone else’s story. In the New Zealand context, research into Māori history has been largely conducted by Pākeha, and furthermore Pākeha males – Paul Moon, James Belich, Michael King. A perfect example of the problem with the way power has, in the last several hundred years of colonisation, exercised its rights to tell the stories of this country. Input or opinion might well be sought from the Māori perspective, but this doesn’t alter the fact that there is someone else telling their stories and invading their experiences – especially when you consider that Māori don’t see history as something that exists in the past but a very present, very visceral extension of their own lives (consider the importance of a pēpeha).
Professor Tracy McIntosh said that power in research is in the ability to erase or exclude, and the Pākeha domination of Māori history is surely the easiest way to ensure, whether malintent exists in the space or not, that a eurocentric way of viewing te hītori ō Aotearoa is what is delivered to the public. Therefore, should it not be key to create spaces for Māori to share their stories and their knowledge where it can be accessed as a primary source, unadulterated by an intermediary? Could academia accommodate Māori oral traditions and storytelling into the way they approach research and, with a restructure of delivery format, encourage more Māori and Pacific peoples to come into the academic realm?
