Maori visitors helping connect Indigenous research globally

The University of Saskatchewan welcomed scholars from halfway around the world to connect and share in Indigenous knowledge.

A group of professors and students from New Zealand’s University of Waikato gathered for a welcoming event in the Gordon Oakes Red Bear Student Centre on the U of S campus on Wednesday.

The guests from New Zealand included renowned Maori scholar Dr. Linda Smith, who specializes in Indigenous research and decolonization.

Smith said forging connections between the universities of Saskatchewan and Waikato was crucial to better understand how to approach decolonization.

“What we’re trying to do with our students is have them engage in a sort of knowledge exchange and relationship building ... to share research and inspire each other,” she said.

One of the researchers who helped spearhead the visit is Derek Jennings in the faculty of Community Health and Epidemiology, who lived in New Zealand for a time with his wife and fellow U of S researcher Michelle Johnsonjennings.

He said the ability to communicate and share with other Indigenous groups in the world promotes diversity and gives new perspectives to people with similar histories.

“These connections, I think, are much bigger than most people recognize. Being able to have Indigenous thought not just housed in Indigenous studies ... it’s looking at the big picture.”

The comparison has already been the subject of intense study. Alison Green recently finished her PHD research in New Zealand, which focused on the presence of Indigenous words and concepts integrated

into health-care policy in the New Zealand government and compared it to the Saskatchewan government.

“What I’ve seen in this study is that New Zealand may have made gains in one area ... but First Nations and Metis people will have made gains in another,” she said. “Through that process of comparing and contrasting, we can learn in terms of what works and what doesn’t.”

Green also pointed out a number of similarities between the Maori and the Indigenous people in Saskatchewan: both have a similar percentage of Indigenous population, both were colonized primarily by the British, and both are now primarily English-speaking.

Smith said Saskatchewan and New Zealand have their own “contexts” regarding their Indigenous populations, but sharing in knowledge would help research and tangible action in the future.

“Relationships, relationships, relationships,” she said with a smile. “It’s really critical to what we do.”