Te Kawehau Hoskins
Ngāti Hau, Ngāpuhi
I am an Associate Professor in Te Puna Wānanga (The school of Māori and Indigenous Education) and Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland. I research in the areas of Indigenous – Māori philosophies, including kaupapa Māori and the politics and ethics of indigenous-settler relations. I have a longstanding focus on research and practice in Te Tiriti and Māori community leadership in educational governance and policy spaces.
Getting on with practicing indigeneity
"Getting on with practicing indigeneity, Te Kawehau Hoskins:
I often think the project of ‘decolonsing’ is dominantly understood as forms of ‘critique’ framed within particular ways of thinking about power, social identities and relations. Though important to struggles for recognition, such decolonising approaches alone can also maintain our (indigenous) identification with colonizing logics and can separate us from our powers. Those unique, always relational ways of being and doing in the world - from which Indigenous practices in education and beyond can flourish.
Sovereignty, governance and indigeneity, Vanessa Lee-Ah Mat:
All too often we hear the word sovereignty, or its intention, thrown around in policy like a loose rag in the ocean with no consideration for the process that needs to be appropriately adopted to ensure Aboriginal-Torres-Strait-Islander people have control of their lives. Sovereignty aligns with governance and good governance aligns with integrity and when an institution publicly announces to ‘work in genuine partnership’ or to have ‘developed in partnership’ or ‘will be delivered in partnership’ etc. the public roll their eyes. The question is: do these institutions know the meaning of their words, is it another ‘tick-a-box’ exercise as they have no desire to relinquish power and control to an Indigenous population? Or is it just fear? The excuse is often “it has to be within the guidelines of the institution” while they blatantly ignore the guidelines of an age-old culture defined by the construct of an ancient social system."
