What Personal Stories Tell Us About the Indigenous Psyche

• In Event: 30.056 - Achieving the Promise for Indigenous Peoples: Research on the Politics of Storytelling

Abstract

Indigenous researchers have long been engaged in conversations about what constitutes indigenous research and who gets to conduct it. Royal (1999) likens Māori (indigenous) research to an adventure; “there is a great big Māori adventure unfolding: it is being played out in the institutions of the iwi and in the hearts and minds of individual Māori” (p. 78). In short, indigenous research methodology is created by indigenous peoples, from indigenous worldviews, to explain indigenous experiences. At the center of indigenous research lies genealogy as a research methodology. According to Royal, genealogy is an analytical tool employed by indigenous peoples to understand the origin and nature of phenomena. Central to this methodology is storytelling.

Authors

• Margaret J. Maaka, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Patricia Maringi Gina Johnston, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi