PhD Researcher: Symon Palmer (Ngāi Te Rangi) (UoC)
Primary supervisors: Professor Carl Mika (UoC)
Project summary:
Simon’s research is concerned with the imposition of Western thought on Māori which has displaced our ways of knowing and being. Colonisation is most visible in the political and biophysical spheres, however, less apparent is the damage to the less tangible – a Māori metaphysics – which underpins relation to the world, and importantly, our ways of existing. Te Ao Māori concepts like Papatūānuku and Ranginui, wairua, mauri, and mātauranga stem from a notion of Māori metaphysics. Western knowledge systems have taken precedent in society due to colonisation; the ‘man over nature’ view has led to extractive practices and environmental degradation, minimising Māori thought. Western philosophy has imparted a dominant metaphysics that distorts Māori being; academic theory has limited conception of non-Western realities. Crucial to addressing this problem will be the advancement of Māori philosophical theory by Māori researchers. Simon’s thesis contributes to this growing field by developing a Māori theory of ‘fragmentation’, meaning, the displacement of Māori thought caused by the imposition of Western thinking. To achieve this, Simon outlines fragmentary tendencies through an institutional critique of valid knowledges and speculate on the assumed Western ‘metaphysical pillars’: the self, world, and God, to champion Māori metaphysics.