Becoming Tangata Tiriti
Author: David Hursthouse
Supervisors: Samuel Mann Kelli Te Maiharoa
10 August 2024
Hursthouse, D. (2024). Becoming tangata tiriti. [Doctoral thesis, Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga]. Research Bank. https://doi.org/10.34074/thes.6740
Abstract
Decolonisation is critical to addressing socio-ecological crises driven by colonial beliefs of supremacy and exploitation. The visionary intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) created a Relational Edge between Māori and non-Māori where interests converge, governance necessarily overlaps, and the potential for mutually beneficial exchanges lie. The historical dishonouring of Te Tiriti by non-Māori has led to widespread Māori land dispossession, cultural erasure and structural violence in the Relational Edge. This thesis seeks to understand how becoming tangata tiriti is an essential decolonising process which may enable and empower non-Māori to show up equitably within vibrant Te Tiriti partnerships that can ensure our collective descendants inherit a world of vitality.
The decolonisation of non-Māori and becoming tangata tiriti remain relatively unclear and undiscussed. While many non-Māori remain resistant and largely disengaged, Māori are leading conversations about decolonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand which rightfully focus on Māori reclamation, revitalisation and realisation of rangatiratanga, mana motuhake and mātauranga Māori. Simultaneously Māori are leading shifts at the level of State decolonisation and constitutional transformation. There are robust conversations about ethical engagement of non-Māori in kaupapa Māori spaces and Indigenous-led research, however, there is little discussion about non-Māori ethical practice on a day-to-day basis outside of research. This thesis looks to Māori and Indigenous leadership for guidance to stimulate widespread equitable engagement from non-Māori in the work of decolonisation at the personal and community level. As non-Māori recognise, understand and address their Te Tiriti complicity in coloniality, there is an increasing drive for non-Māori decolonisation with little supporting literature, research or practice frameworks.
As a non-Māori Edgewalking practitioner who intentionally works in the complex and unsettled Relational Edge, I have been learning from kaupapa Māori and Indigenous ethical research approaches and transferring them into applied ethical practice. I use autoethnographic storywork to share insights emergent from my lived experience applying ethical practice approaches. Simultaneously I use Critical Settler Family History to understand my positionality and to unpack the relationship between colonisation and socio-ecological degeneration. Intertwined with academic discourse to create a bricolage, this storywork demonstrates tangata tiriti resistance scholarship that leverages my colonially inherited privilege to challenge epistemic dominance, deconstruct colonial norms and disrupt the status quo.
Through applied ethical practice in the Relational Edge, I have developed He Ripo: a professional practice framework that enables me in becoming tangata tiriti. This ethical framework intends to both provoke and support non-Māori to decolonise themselves, to reorient as manuhiri, and contribute equitably to vibrant Te Tiriti relationships.
Keywords
decolonisation, edgewalking, tangata tiriti, ethical practice, autoethnography, critical settler family history, resistance scholarship
Licence
A copy of the thesis is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
This licence applies except where otherwise indicated, especially for images.
