Universities can be a difficult location for Indigenous researchers who face a system that honours print more than oral traditions and rewards those who play it safe more than those who are honest in speaking the truth to power. Over time, Indigenous research can become more institutionalised and less connected to the communities who should benefit from this research, especially when colonialist narratives are replaced with others that are left unchallenged. Second language learners of Indigenous languages also face the difficulty of relying on stock phrases when native speakers have full command of the subtleties of the languages spoken.

This workshop offer researchers a space for reflection on the history of decolonisation with specific local examples from various parts of the world and among different types of Indigenous peoples working with their own communities and with non-Indigenous groups. The focus is on the leadership that Indigenous have provided in moving their mixed communities toward self-determination through healing, mobilisation, transformation, development and decolonisation in its varied phases, languages, traditions and waves with always unanticipated outcomes.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou) is Professor of Education and Māori Development, Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. She was a founding Joint Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Her book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples has been an international best seller in the indigenous world since its publication in 1998 and last year the second edition was released.