Not at the Same Time: Lalanga/weaving Indigenous, Anti-ableist and Geological Temporalities to Re-think Time in Higher Education

Abstract: In this article, we consider the oft-made critique of the slow pace of change in higher education (HE) against the fast-paced expectations of productivity. Using talatalanoa 1 as a methodology, we reflect on our experiences of being and working in HE in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and the conflicts between pace, speed and time (space). Understandings of time in HE often sit in tension. Espoused meanings of time – rapid, bounded by semesterisation, linear, and focused on timeliness – sits against actual passages of time in HE, where institutional progress can be ponderous and glacial. How, then, do the diverse humans who make up the University navigate these contrasting temporal modes, given that the ‘time’ that is described here accords to specific, dominant cultural understandings? By weaving together experiences from [colonised] Indigenous and disabled scholars, we offer our lalanga (weaving) of time conceptualisations, to help to transform HE by making real shifts in parameters such as time. We consider our experiences through the overlapping lenses of Indigenous knowledges, Deep Time, and Crip Time to illustrate how different conceptualisations of time (and space) can determine and influence how we experience HE. This approach intends to provide other non-traditional scholars with examples of how to consider critiquing and acting to contest and shift perspectives on temporality within their own HE settings.