Whatuora: Theorizing "New" Indigenous Research Methodology from "Old" Indigenous Weaving Practice

• Main Author: Hinekura Smith
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta 2019-02-01
• Series: Art/Research International
• Subjects: Indigenous methodology; Māori weaving practice; decolonising research; women’s art research practice
• Online Access: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ari/index.php/ari/article/view/29393

Despite Indigenous peoples’ deeply methodological and artistic ways of being in and making sense of our world, the notion of “methodology” has been captured by Western research paradigms and duly mystified. This article seeks to contribute to Indigenous scholarship that encourages researchers to look to our own artistic practices and ways of being in the world, theorizing our own methodologies for research from our knowledge systems to tell our stories and create “new” knowledge that will serve us in our current lived realities. I explain how I theorised a Māori [Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand] weaving practice as a decolonizing research methodology for my doctoral research (Smith, 2017) to explore the lived experiences of eight Māori mothers and grandmothers as they wove storied Māori cloaks. I introduce you to key theoreticians who contributed significantly to my work so as to encourage other researchers to look for, and listen to, the wisdom contained within Indigenous knowledge and then consider the methodologies most capable of telling our stories from our own world-views.