November 17, 2016
Indigenous researchers seeking local solutions
Indigenous researchers have been told there are no simple solutions for what are complex problems affecting their communities, but the solutions need to come out of those communities.
Almost 500 researchers from Aotearoa and around the world are in Auckland for a conferecne organisaed by Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, the centre for Maori research excellence.
One of the organisers, Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith from the University of Waikato, says the themes addressed by Nga Pae resonate with other indigenous groups, including self determination, the environment, and how to create flourishing whanau, communities, and economic activity.
She says governments alone can't solve problems, and in many cases they create them, which is why having an indigenous research voice is so important.
"Communities and indigenous communities in particular have a role in just themselves trying to act and exercise their agency and their creativity to do those things on the ground they can actually control in their own lives," Professor Smith says.
The conference represents a sort of indigenous collective mind working away at the issues.
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