Title: Negotiating Ethical Spaces for Indigenous Knowledge Production
1Negotiating Ethical Spaces for Indigenous
Knowledge Production
- Global Forum on Bioethics and Research
- 3-5 December 2008
2Outline of Presentation
- Te Hau Mihi Ata
- Indigenous knowledge production
- Negotiating ethical spaces
- Guidelines on Pacific Health Research
3Te Hau Mihi AtaMatauranga Maori Science
- Explores the connections between matauranga Maori
and science through progressive dialogue - Aims are to understand the interface between
knowledge systems AND - Develop tools to facilitate dialogue, and promote
transformational thinking and innovation
4(No Transcript)
5Indigenous Knowledge Production
- Draws on the indigenous reference
- Lived knowledge maintained through use
- Greater awareness of transmission rather than
production - Evolves in response to changing environments
- Timeless appearance despite generational
interpretation
6Negotiated Space
7Beyond Dialogue
- The truth revealed in dialogue is an impetus to
action a true idea is a principle of action.
This is why genuine dialogue leads to a change of
attitude (Mitias Al Jasmi 2004) - Knowledge exchange is an emotional as well as
cognitive process - It must foster interpathic as well as
intellectual understanding
8Principles for engagement
- Mana enhancing
- Meaningful relationship so that theres no
negative reaction. Pro-action - manaakitanga, whakawhanaungatanga, makohakoha,
houkura, ensuring safety - Respect (tootooaa) for knowledge, practice and
individual - - He pukepuke moana e eketia, he tihi maunga e
pikitia, he tihi tangata e kore e pikitia , he
tapu. - He pa tikapu e eketia, he paharakeke e kore, he
tapu
9Guidelines on Pacific Health Research (2004)
- Aimed to use Pacific world-views as primary
reference points - The term Pacific refers in this context to the
shared cultural heritage of a diverse range of
Pacific peoples resident in New Zealand, which is
predominantly Polynesian (94). - The largest Pacific ethnic groups in New Zealand
are (in order of size) Samoan, Cook Islands
Maori, Tongan, Niue, Fijian, Tokelauan and
Tuvaluan. However, the term Pacific also tends
to be inclusive of Vanuatu, New Caledonia,
Tahiti, Hawaii, Palau, Solomon Islands,
Bougainville, Palau, Papua New Guinea and other
Pacific populations who are from the wider
Pacific region, also known as Oceania.
10- Imagine, if you will, a worldview that
understands the environment, humans, the animate
and the inanimate all natural life - as sourced
from the same divine origin, imbued with life
force, interrelated and genealogically connected.
- In this worldview, the interrelationship between
all things between people, the land,
sea, sky, rocks, plants, surrounds is
sacred and cosmologically determined. - Equation and alignment with other people and
parts of life is integral to an ordered system of
interconnection - (Tamasese Efi 2007).
11Reconstruction / Negotiation
- Pacific research will be underpinned by Pacific
cultural values and beliefs and will be conducted
in accordance with Pacific ethical standards
values and aspirations
Obviously we cannot recreate our traditional
Pacific communities in New Zealand but we can
reclaim a sense of community through the
identification of core values that are
consistent with the rebuilding and reconstruction
of relationships that promote health and
well-being and for all our people (Dr Ana Maui
Taufeulungaki 2004)
12Restoration
Such work begins from ethnic-specific starting
points of cosmology language rituals protocols
narratives chants songs symbols
genealogies which provide rich sources of
analytical, theoretical and conceptual knowledge
and tools, as well as an abundant mine of Pacific
core values and ethics
- An exploration into Oceanias library, the
knowledge its people possess. - SUBRAMANI 2001, p.
150
- The process of appropriation by cultures of
their own rich genius. - OKERE, NJOKU AND DEVISCH 2005, p 1
What good is political independence if we remain
colonized epistemologically?
GEGEO, 2001, p278
13The nature of an ethical relationship
Va is the space between, the between-ness, not
empty space, not space that separates but space
that relates, that holds separate entities and
things together in the unity-in-all, the space
that is context, giving meaning to things. A
well known Samoan expression is la teu le va,
cherish/nurse/care for the va, the relationships.
This is crucial in communal cultures that value
group, unity, more than the individual person /
creature / thing in terms of group, in terms of
va, relationships. Wendt, 2002
- Relationship as the spatial site of all ethical
conduct - Va, the space between, not empty space but the
space that relates
14Overarching Principle
- RELATIONSHIPS
- To develop, cultivate maintain ethical
relationships is integral to all ethical practice
1510 principles
relationships
With the aim of articulating the features of
ethical research relationships
with Pacific peoples living in Aotearoa
New Zealand
- Rights
- Participation
- Protection
- Utility
- Capacity Building
- Respect
- Reciprocity
- Balance
- Meaningful engagement
- Cultural competency
16Negotiation
Neutral negotiated space for interaction connect
ion exchange innovation adaptation
Vitalisation and restoration of indigenous
knowledge systems
Other knowledge paradigms as source of
alternative ideas, values
Expansion, innovation, change and exchange
maintain the relevance, and therefore survival,
of a cultural knowledge, ethics and value system.
17 Participation
If research targets the Pacific population,
Pacific peoples should participate at all
levels of the research
18Protection
Recognising that Pacific research relationships
are often based on structural societal
inequalities, care must always be taken to
protect those less powerful
19Rights
Research should not be detrimental to research
participants, as individuals, or as members of an
identified ethnic group
20Rights
All research relationships are implicated with
both rights and responsibilities to the other
21Deliberation / Negotiation
- What should have continuing energy from
traditional paradigms? - What are our contemporary concerns regarding
social justice, participation in society? - What are the epistemic sources of the values we
are upholding as Pacific? - Do we have the power to redefine, re-imagine and
re-shape ourselves?
22Negotiated Space The relief of spatial
metaphors
- The use of space is a necessary accompaniment of
encounters, providing not only physical territory
but also the psychological space to rehearse
identity and to confirm the relationship between
self and others (Durie 200220).
23HRC GUIDELINES
- Despite sourcing and seeking to learn from
in-depth and coherent understandings of the
indigenous knowledge paradigms of the Pacific, it
was not constrained by what could be found there - A negotiation between two divergent and sometimes
incongruent knowledge and ethics systems
24Conclusion
- Within a neutral but purposeful space, the expert
panel was able to locate shared ideas and ethical
values, as well as identify and confront
contradictions. - The negotiated space between Pacific and
western ethical principles provided the
conceptual room and terms of engagement that
allowed for epistemic and cultural exchange,
expansion and the development of new
philosophies.