Research and Indigenous Peoples
Linda Tuhiwai Smith
The book
This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research – specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as 'regimes of truth'. Concepts such as 'discovery' and 'claiming' are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonisation of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Now in its eagerly awaited second edition, published in New Zealand by Otago University Press, this bestselling book has been substantially revised, with new case-studies and examples and important additions on new indigenous literature, and the role of research in indigenous struggles for social justice, which brings this essential volume urgently up-to-date.
At the turn of the millennium Linda Tuhiwai Smith's trail-blazing book, Decolonizing Methodologies, was one of the greatest contributions towards instilling pride and dignity in indigenous peoples all over the world. Not only did she demonstrate beyond any question that indigenous research is important for building scholarship about our own cultures, she also showed in a convincing way that indigenous peoples' research has a place of its own in today's academia. This new, extended and updated version of the book brings the reader to the core of the matter, at the same time as it pays homage to indigenous ways of transmitting knowledge and promotes this knowledge's transforming power.
The author
Professor LINDA TUHIWAI SMITH is Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori at the University of Waikato, as well as Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and a professor of Education and Māori Development. The first edition of this book has become a seminal text in indigenous studies. Her other publications canvass a wide range of academic disciplines. She has worked with a number of Māori scholars, most notably her husband Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith. She has been President of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, a member of the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission, a member of the Health Research Council and Chair of the Māori Health Committee, Chair of the Social Sciences Panel of the Marsden Council and member of the Constitutional Review Panel. She has also been active in establishing Māori educational initiatives from early childhood to higher education, was an inaugural co-Director of the Māori Research Centre of Excellence, Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga, and is currently the Director of the Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato. Linda is a daughter, a sister and cousin, a mother and aunt and a grandmother in an extended family.
Reviews
'What used to be the voice in the margin is growing to become the decisive subject in the cosmopolitan research world.' – Harald Gaski, Associate Professor in Sami Literature at the University of Tromsø, Norway
'Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples is our recognized, not-to-be-messed-with standard of excellence.' – Margaret J. Maaka, Professor of Education and Director of Ho'okulaiwi Center for Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Education, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Publication details
Paperback, 216 x 138 mm, 256 pages, ISBN 978 1 877578 28 1, $45
2012