1. AIRA Conference, October, 2015
Exploring a Contemporary Māori Philosophy of Knowledge - A Māori Epistemology - From First Principles: The Journey So Far
Ian Stuart
AIRA Conference, October, 2015

2. The aims of this project 1)
The aims of this project 1) To outline the philosophical foundations of an Indigenous Philosophy of Knowledge which: i) Has the begins of some acceptance with the wider indigenous community ii) Provides a philosophical platform which begins to legitimate indigenous knowledge to the wider academy based on arguments the academy may accept. iii) Provides a philosophical base for the outlines of a Māori Philosophy of Knowledge

3. Background

4. The complete
project
We must place Māori worldviews and Maori epistemologies at the centre of everything we do
Dr Linda Smith

5. Māori Worldview

6. An evolutionary process
Relationships
People are part of the world
An evolutionary process

7. The Creation Story has not ended
The Creation Story has not ended. The world continues to evolve and unfold

8. In the Knowledge system of our European-derived cultures the Creation Period has ended and the world is a closed system

9. as Whorf states; “Western culture has made, through language, a provisional analysis of reality and, without correctives, holds resolutely to that analysis as final.”
(Carroll, J., Ed. (1956). Language Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Massachusetts, MIT Press., p. 244)

10. Aims at maintaining Te Ao Marama and creating
Axiology
Values-based ethics
Aims at maintaining Te Ao Marama and creating
Flourishing people

11. Ontology
Axiology
Epistemology

12. Truth
“I can’t promise to tell you the truth; I can only tell you what I know.”
Cree elder.
Cited from: Castellano, M. B. (2000). Updating Aboriginal Traditions of Knowledge. In G. Dei, B. Hall & D. Rosenberg (Eds.), Indigenous knowledges in Global Contexts; Multiple readings of Our World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p25

13. Truth is unknowable Put it aside

14. European-derived Epistemologies
There is no answer to Scepticism
Dancy, J. (1985). Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

15. A Level Playing Field Nothing privileges the knowledge of the European-derived cultures over the Indigenous Cultures

16. When we begin to ask such questions we already have a worldview – an epistemology and methodologies

17. Experiential, Relational, Holistic, based in our Axiologies, knowledge contained in the oral traditions ?

18. The things that exist are the things that we are forced to interact with

19. Is there something that Descartes missed?

20. We Interact
Before Descartes could formulate ‘cogito ergo sum” he interacted – he ate food, he interacted with his family. He learnt a language (at least two – French and Latin). He interacted.

21. The Interactive World (not the Cognitive World)

22. Interaction

23. In order to become philosophically interesting …he must do more than assert that higher standards of evidence are better. He must have some argument that the normal standards are inappropriate in some way. And that argument must be justified by appeal to our standards as well as his. (Dancy, J. (1985). Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology. Malden, MA: Blackwell. P8)

24. How should we interact?
Interaction

25. In Indigenous Worlds, this is always an ethical question
How Should We Interact?
In Indigenous Worlds, this is always an ethical question

26. Hopi Saying: When in a new situation when you do not know how to act, do nothing. You might be the one causing the danger
Beauchamp, T. (1991). Philosophical Ethics. New York, NY, McGraw-Hill.

27. The Māori answer is Tikanga Tikanga gives us all our behaviours

28. Tikanga
Interaction

29. This is a significant shift Shire says Ontology and Epistemology are the first two questions Sire’s Axiology Question is Question Seven from a list of eight Sire, J. (2009). The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalogue (5 ed.). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

30. Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

31. Experience
Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

32. Experiential Knowledge Brian Burkhart Burkhart, B. (2004)
Experiential Knowledge Brian Burkhart Burkhart, B. (2004). What Thales and Coyote Can Teach Us: An outline of American Indian Epistemology. Modern American Indian Thought. A. Waters. Malden, Ma, Blackwell:

33. As we grow and develop we have experiences of the world

34. These experiences are interpreted against the Worldview/Plausibility structure we learn from our interactions, relationships and experiences within our social groups

35. This links Group and Self Identity with Land and with Knowledge

36. “Albert Marshall, Mi’kmaq elder, told me that we will never understand a Navajo coyote story unless we are Navajo” Lambert, L. (2014). Research for Indigenous Survival: Indigenous Research Methodologies in the Behavioral Sciences Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press. p30
Only a Navajo shares the particular set of experiences, in a particular place and social group, which create the story and continue to give rise to its meanings

37. Experience
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

38. Michael Polanyi. Polanyi, M. (1958)
Michael Polanyi . Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Polanyi, M. (1966). The Tacit Dimension. Chicago, University of Chicago Press

39. Interaction Relationships Experience Tacit Knowledge Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

40. Relationships Shawn Wilson Wilson, S. (2008)
Relationships Shawn Wilson Wilson, S. (2008). Research is Ceremony; Indigenous Research Methods. Winnipeg, Fernwood Publishing.

41. Answer to Nietzsche
The I and the Thought are not separate things. They arise in interaction (relationships and experiences) with the social and physical environment

42. We Interact

43. The world is an interactive system
The world is an interactive system. We are an interacting part of the world.

44. Experience
Relationships
Interaction
UNDENIABLE

45. The Cartesian Thinker does not arise.

46. Repositions the concept of the “self” as part of a group

47. Interaction Relationships Relationships Experience Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

48. Interaction Shared experiences Relationships relationships Experience
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

49. Interaction Narratives Shared experiences Relationships Subjectivity
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing people
Interaction

50. Narratives The stories of the experience of all the people who have gone before us that were considered worth keeping Burkhart, B. (2004). What Thales and Coyote Can Teach Us: An outline of American Indian Epistemology. In A. Waters (Ed.), Modern American Indian Thought (pp ). Malden, Ma: Blackwell.

51. Interaction Narratives Historicity Shared experiences Relationships
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing People
Interaction

52. Interaction Discourse Narratives Historicity Shared experiences
Relationships
Relationships
Experience
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing People
Interaction

53. In Sami society, "epistemological truth" is created and restored by storytelling, discussions, evaluation of previous activities, memorized experiences and phenomena as well as through intuition Kuokkanen, R. (2000). "Towards an Indigenous paradigm from a Sami perspective." The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 20(2): p12

54. Discourse occurs within a Knowing Community to produce meaning

55. Meaning Interaction Discourse Narratives Historicity
Shared experiences
Relationships
Relationships
Experience
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing People
Interaction

56. Poutama

57. Meanings
Interaction
Meanings
Interaction
Meanings
Interaction
Meanings
Interaction
Meanings

58. Flourishing People
Interaction Meaning

59. Research is both a meaning-making and an ethics-making activity (Paraphrasing Burkhart, B. (2004). What Thales and Coyote Can Teach Us: An outline of American Indian Epistemology. In A. Waters (Ed.), Modern American Indian Thought (pp ). Malden, Ma: Blackwell.)

60. The Knowing Community Meaning Interaction Discourse Narratives
Shared experiences
Relationships
Experience
Tikanga
Interaction

61. Theories and Concepts are the shared explanations of the interactions we observe and that we participate in

62. All objects in the Universe attract al other objects in the Universe
Gravity
All objects in the Universe attract al other objects in the Universe
A theory because we have not seen “all objects in the universe”.

63. Gravity is an Interaction that we experience and explain through our relationships and knowledge systems

64. Gravity is not a theory It is something real (Though, of course, ‘gravity’ is a name that human beings have given this interaction – the word itself is not part of the real world)

65. Pythagorus The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides
32 x 42 = 52
(3x3) + (4x4) = 25 5 3 4

66. Pythagoras is explaining a relationship – which matches our experience
Pythagoras is explaining a relationship – which matches our experience. People use this formula every day in their interactions with the world

67. This is not a theory It is knowledge grounded in an interactive reality

68. Grounding Knowledge in this way gives intellectual and academic legitimacy to that knowledge

69. Indigenous Knowledge sits in the centre

70. Next? What are the protocols within Māori Communities for the creation of Knowledge?

71. Meaning Interaction Discourse Narratives Historicity
Shared experiences
Relationships
Relationships
Experience
Tacit Knowledge
Tikanga
Flourishing People
Interaction