Mo'o Lono: Searching for an Authentic Dissertation Model to Tell a Hawaiian Story of Transformation, Timeliness, Perpetuity, and Hawaiian Epistemology

• In Event: 60.073 - Women and Race in Hawai'i: Educational Enactments and New Possibilities

Abstract

Although there is a growing group of scholars that are responding to the call for contributions to the study of Indigenous methodologies, (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012; Kovach, 2009; Wilson, 2001) there is not enough research on Indigenous models to tell the Indigenous story. Specifically, the scholarship around Indigenous methodologies has not done enough work around Indigenous dissertation models. What is the use of creating Indigenous methodologies only to tell that community’s story through a Western dissertation model that honors a Western lens? My paper addresses the issue of Indigenous dissertation models as a way to privilege Indigenous methodologies and Indigenous voices. I pay special attention to one dissertation model, the moʻo lono, as a model that privileges native Hawaiian manaʻo, thought, as well as moʻowaiwai, or the lineage of valued Hawaiian practices into the dissertation. I argue that this dissertation model can address the same necessary elements of a Western dissertation model while still honoring the moʻowaiwai of Hawaiʻi and Hawaiian manaʻo. Although I am not suggesting that this is the only model for Hawaiian culture-based dissertations, I am offering this moʻo lono as one possible framework in order to open up discussion around other Indigenous dissertation models. In conclusion, this paper, by closely examining the framework of the moʻo lono, sheds new light on little recognized issues of Indigenous research.

Author

• Cathy Kanoelani Ikeda, University of Hawaii - West Oahu