‘Angry natives’ and indigenous scholarship: The racializing of academic dissent in New Zealand Universities

Associate Professor Joanna Kidman

Victoria University of Wellington, NZ
When: Wednesday 1 June 3.00-4.30pm
Where: VU City Flinders Campus, FS9015

Much of the intellectual labour of indigenous Maori scholars in New Zealand universities is informed by the broader history of political and cultural struggle that has been waged over the past 175 years since the British Crown first declared sovereignty over the country. In many respects, the micro-geographies of academic communities and departments reflect these wider tensions; the uneasy and entangled epistemological relationships that have subsequently emerged; and, the gendered and racialized hierarchies that frame the everyday working lives of many indigenous academic staff. In this seminar, some of the findings of a two-year ethnographic study about Maori senior academics in universities across New Zealand are presented. In particular, the notion of the indigenous scholar-activist as an expression of Maori academic identity is explored.

A/Prof. Joanna Kidman is an indigenous Māori sociologist with tribal affiliations to Ngati Maniapoto, Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Toa. She works in the field of indigenous studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand where she is based in the School of Education. Her research centers on the politics of education, particularly as it affects Māori and indigenous youth in the Pacific region but she also does research in the domain of higher education. She is committed to establishing collaborative research ventures with indigenous communities and over the past twenty-five years she has worked extensively with Māori research partners and community-based tribal groups in different parts of New Zealand. In the past, she has partnered with indigenous communities in Taiwan and the USA to establish indigenous knowledge systems in schools with high numbers of Native students.

Contact cidrn@vu.edu.au or Catherine.manathunga@vu.edu.au