Embodying Decolonization: Methodologies and Indigenization

Abstract

This article explores the role of the body in decolonizing and Indigenous methodologies through the experiences and perspectives of four researchers and research teams living and working in different contexts in Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. A methodological overview of these approaches is provided and stories are shared of working with theatre with Indigenous youth; of a pedagogy which affirms the centrality of the body in Indigenous teaching and learning; and an autoethnographic reflection on decolonization in relation to Māori birthing practice or traditions. The threads that are common to all these narratives are the commitment to centring the body in the process of decolonization and indigenization, and an affirmation of bodily wisdom and experience as a critical component of Indigenous methodologies.

Performing Pimâtisiwin: The Expression of Indigenous Wellness Identities through Community‐based Theater

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Body Sovereignty and Te Matatini

“…Body sovereignty is complex and involves an intersection of identities, power and agency. Often the ways in which people and bodies are re-presented, read and gazed upon are dictated by societal and colonial discourses, and "norms" (Ritenburg et al, 2014). However, from a kaimätakitaki perspective, Te Matatini Ki Te Ao provides a space that creates an alternative to that narrative.…”

English studies: Decolonisation, deparochialising knowledge and the null curriculum

“…Viewed within this framing, decolonisation needs to strive for an ecology of knowledges that recognises and is premised on epistemological pluralism: it needs to recognise the interdependence (and not the dependency) of knowledges, or interknowledges (see Andreotti, Ahenakew & Cooper, 2011;Santos, 2007). Moreover, it has to endeavour for what Perez (1999) refers to as a decolonial imaginary -which is a zone in which various types of relationships and dilemmas can be negotiated and renegotiated (see also Ritenburg et al, 2014). In keeping with this framing, decolonisation requires to entail epistemological diffidence (Appadurai, 2000: 4;Koh, 2007: 189).…”