Academic Linda Tuhiwai-Smith says being honoured by the American National Academy of Sciences shows how Maori ideas can resonate internationally.
The academy’s 2000 members voted to award the professor at Whakatane’s Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi a lifelong foreign member for her distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Professor Smith says she wasn’t really aware of the academy, as most of her work has been in indigenous studies, indigenous knowledge and decolonising methodology.
“So it’s always good to be recognised, and to see how our ideas as Maori researchers do travel internationally. You know we’re often made to feel like evrything we do is – you know we just fit in a Maori box, here in Aotearoa. And yet we do world-leading research here, simply by focusing on the things that are important to us,” she says..
Professor Smith says part of decolonisation is unpacking what counts and knowledge, and for indigenous people to valuing the lived research of their ancestors.
