Masters in Applied Indigenous Knowledge exhibition...

On the weekend, I took my class to to view our first Master's in Applied Indigenous knowledge degree exhibition called "He Waka Hiringa - transforming communities". It's an exhibition that celebrates creative indigenous knowledge as well as academic paradigms and is currently open at the Mangere Arts centre until 20th of January 2018.

It was neat to see the culmination of 2 years work of indigenous knowledge shared with our communities through paintings, weaving, visual and audio media etc. and it was particularly interesting to see a wealth of knowledge shared from different cultures i.e. Maori, Tonga, Samoan etc. 

I'm also very interested in the next cohort of Masters students starting their studies next year as some of them were graduates from the two classes that I taught in the Cert. in Indigenous Research and they are more than capable of contributing new knowledge to the academic community which often upholds Western theories above indigenous knowledge.

And I am so grateful for having had the opportunity to teach and learn from this indigenous research course as it helped me to value the knowledge that was passed to me by my parents, relatives, Samoan church community etc. growing up in South Auckland. 

It also allowed me to draw from my own early experiences as an indigenous researcher reclaiming Samoan indigenous stories in Samoa in my 20s although initially in the field of Geography and later as an educator teaching youth mainly from indigenous Pasifika and Maori cultures. 

It also helped me in being able to contribute to my Granma's final faaSamoan rituals before her burial last week in honouring her memory of being able to walk in tri-une worlds and then passing that understanding onto me of her embracing the faaSamoa, Christianity and Western perspectives. 

It has been my journey of the past few years and now I'm privileged in seeing so many students understanding and redefining their cultural identities more positively. Definitely an exhibition to consider viewing with much more to come...