Work · Indigenous Philosophies
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
Shows how Western research, from travel accounts to anthropology, took part in imperialism and still shapes the image of Indigenous peoples, and outlines a research practice that starts from Indigenous priorities, with twenty-five Indigenous projects as examples.
Introduction
Tuhiwai Smith published the book in 1999 with Zed Books in London and the University of Otago Press in Dunedin; revised editions followed in 2012 and 2021. The first part analyses how imperialism and research went together: travellers, missionaries and scientists described, measured and collected Indigenous peoples, and the knowledge they produced gave the West what Tuhiwai Smith, following Edward Said, calls a “positional superiority” that still frames how these peoples are seen. The second part sets out an Indigenous research agenda: research by and for Indigenous communities, guided by their questions and values, as in Kaupapa Māori research. A chapter on twenty-five Indigenous projects – from claiming and testimony to revitalising languages and reframing problems – shows its range. The book is widely cited in Indigenous studies and qualitative research and has been translated into several languages.
Connections
Builds on
- Orientalism1978 · Edward Said
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