July 29, 2021
Science used as tool of colonisation…still
Auckland University Māori academic Daniel Hikuroa says it’s important to acknowledge both the good and bad of science – and to see it from outside a purely western frame.
The university’s Professor of Psychology, Douglas Elliffe, has stepped down from his role as acting faculty dean in response to the backlash over a letter he co-authored saying mātauranga Māori falls far short of what can be defined as science.
Dr Hikuroa says science is a method for generating knowledge, and much of mātauranga Māori including maramataka and astronomy is knowledge generated using the scientific method.
While science has many good outcomes, it was also used to justify colonisation and suppress indigenous thought.
"And then it was the tool that was used to categorise and put grids and lines and what Michel Foucault calls 'the order of things,' and it was absolutely science that assisted in that place or the tool of science and applied and so I think it's important when teaching our Māori rangatahi that they know all the good parts of science as well as all the challenging parts of science," Dr Hikuroa says.
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