Decolonizing the Colonizer: The Role of the Non-indigenous Educator Teaching in Hawai’i and Aotearoa

This research study set out to identify how Teacher Education Programs in Hawai’i and Aotearoa can support processes to decolonize and indigenize mainstream education, and what roles non-Indigenous kumu/kaiako (educators) might play in supporting Indigenous resurgence. The research weaves together Indigenous and Western theories and methodologies to demonstrate a culturally pluralistic approach with the intent of honouring and upholding the mana of the people and places where the research was conducted, meet the guidelines of academic study, and represent this researcher’s positionality and passions. The Indigenous Empowerment Theory (IET) developed by Keaomālamalama (Kawaiʻaeʻa et al., 2018) was used to guide the literature review and provide a framework for the historical analysis of education systems in Hawai’i and Aotearoa with a focus on colonization, decolonization, indigenization, and allyship. Interviews were conducted with 21 Indigenous education leaders from Hawai’i and Aotearoa to gather responses to the research questions from a Hawaiian and Māori perspective. Through the analysis of the interviews, it was found that the introductions were so rich in context that they were used to offer an oral literature review, or first-hand narratives, to enhance the literature review. The interview analysis also revealed the metaphor of a three-whiri wahakura (three-braid harakeke bassinet) to serve as the methodological framework and metaphor for the findings. This presentation will provide a high-level overview of the research process that led to the creation of the wahakura methodology, present the findings of the study via a framework to decolonize and indigenize mainstream teacher education in Hawai’i and Aotearoa, and discuss the concept of transformational allyship, which starts with turning the gaze inward and asking, “Who am I in this place?”