Decoloniality in Being Māori and Community Psychologists: Advancing an Evolving and Culturally-Situated Approach

“This isn't a fairy tale we're talking about; this is our real lives”: Community‐orientated responses to address trans and gender diverse homelessness

“…To date, deeply collaborative approaches have been underutilised in psychological research with minoritized communities (Espinosa & Verney, 2020). As such, we join Rua et al (2021) in calling for scholars and practitioners to carefully consider how they "reside" in the communities in which they intend to practice. This necessitates detaching ourselves from the top-down tendencies of WEIRD psychology, instead prioritising collaborative projects that are rooted in our own communities and with a focus on "studying up," rather than seeking out easily extractable knowledge from already minoritized groups.…”

“…As Tandon (cited in Watkins & Shulman, 2008, p. 283) writes, "Dialogue becomes the vehicle for critical consciousness and praxis … [It] acts as a method to integrate inquiry and intervention." The tearing down of boundaries to provide the opportunity for dialogue is foundational to the cultivation of an engaged, community centred and relevant plan of research and action (Rua et al, 2021;Watkins & Shulman, 2008). The article is completed in the following section through a discussion of how research into TGD homelessness should move beyond exploitative practices symptomatic of poverty tourism.…”

“…This article details a bricolage research orientation rooted in Indigenous, community, and liberation psychologies which allows us to create a methodology that forges possibilities of re-imagining a world in which trans and gender diverse people not only survive but thrive. Consistent with scholar-activist traditions (Rua et al, 2021), we seek to reinvigorate community psychology as a discipline through which we can confront social exclusion and oppose broader structural and systemic constraints implicated in the daily subjugation of trans and gender diverse people. In doing so, we respond to calls for more community-orientated psychologies embedded within scholar-activist traditions to understand and address the impacts of poverty and homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond, to stimulate opportunities for trans liberation.…”

“…TGD people experiencing homelessness are often framed through the lens of being “at‐risk” and positioned as passive and vulnerable victims by service providers and society at large (Shelton, 2016; Shelton et al, 2018). People who are homeless are rarely given opportunities to frame their own experiences (Hodgetts et al, 2011; Rua et al, 2021). A narrow focus on homelessness as the absence of physical shelter and as evidence of social pathology in urban settings, effectively detaches TGD experiences of homelessness from the broader socio‐political context of colonial societies.…”

“…Nelson and Prilleltensky (2005) suggest the failure of community psychology to produce structural and social metamorphosis reflects adherence to “rational‐empirical problem‐solving” (p. 144). This orientation, originating from WEIRD (Western Eurocentric Industrialised Rich and Democratic) psychology's (Henrich et al, 2010) individualistic orientation, ethnocentrism, and fixation on measurability has resulted in superficial analyses of social problems and diminishes our ability to meaningfully serve the needs of minoritized and displaced communities (Rua et al, 2021; Watkins & Shulman, 2008). While WEIRD academics find comfort in a preoccupation with insular theoretical debates, number counting, and reflexive self‐flagellation, those living with the realities of poverty, colonisation, and oppression are left to forge their own pathways to survival and resistance (Rua et al, 2021).…”