Decolonizing Methodologies

Decolonizing Methodologies

Soyeon Kim

Imperialism, colonialism, the West, white people…Is there anything similar in all these words? In the very interesting book “Decolonizing methodologies: research and Indigenous peoples” by Linda Tuhiwai Smith there are many chances to think about the contribution of imperialism and colonialism to the human progress and emerging of research of indigenous people.

The author contemplates on the important thing is that our world is more often named as post-colonial. What does it mean for the indigenous population? The first evident thing is that no more colonizers remain on the indigenous’ land. However, we can agree that the colonialism can be reflected in other common things: weakness of the fight for independence and self-determination; use of technologies and other achievements of mankind; socialization of the indigenous leaders and elites. Continuation of the colonization of indigenous people can be seen in many spheres of their actual life and using the declaration of the improvement of their living conditions and human rights are the best way to lead such unseen process.

What is more, Linda Tuhiwai Smith explains how the modern imperialism continues colonizing indigenous people considering it like a process of research. Patents, use of cord blood, Human Genome Diversity Project are small examples of this giant process.

The author Linda Tuhiwai Smith argues that the process of decolonization has not been finished and many indigenous people struggle against negative effects of imperialism, “white” progress and globalization. Paradoxically, the native population of many countries has to prove its right to live and occupy the lands of its antecedents.

This catastrophic situation of the indigenous population all over the world could become a huge danger for the indigenous identity and survival capacity. That is why indigenous people understood that two very effective ways to stop this process are social movements and the development of new agenda for action. Lately, it spiraled into social and political protests, recognition of citizenship, civil rights etc.  At the international level, it resulted in lots of changes, especially in implementing the new agenda of indigenous problem. Apart from, existence of international indigenous movements, brotherhoods, communities, one of the most significant things was the adoption of the Convention concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent Countries by the International Labor Organization. The most important issue in this Convention is the recognition of the indigenous right of ownership of the lands.

Doing researches of indigenous and tribal population is an important part of their protection, recognition and sustainability. One of the novel approaches in the global indigenous research is the development and training of researchers of indigenous origin.

On the other hand, in the current research emphasis is made on the problem of indigenous people in New Zealand – Maori. This can provoke a contradiction between the problem of indigenous people in New Zealand and in the rest of the world. Many of the mentioned problems can be observed not only among indigenous population but among the population of the Third World countries. We are entering the era of globalization, robotics, economic expansion, multiculturalism.

While reading some chapters of the book it seems like the author is not completely objective in her statements. Taking into account her origin and some uncompromising viewpoint about the significance of indigenous people and destructive mission of the West, there is a critical estimate of the author in some of her ideas.

Another point is that we cannot make a generalization that all the indigenous people are suffering from the offensive of the progress and the Western powers. In some Western European countries governments endeavor to support indigenous population in such way that minimises the risk of impact on their development.

Talking about highly developed culture and proper perception of the world is not always a good example of showing a contrast between white people and aboriginals. Being very subjective in such judgments could create another misunderstanding. The author mentioned that the most fundamental clash between Western and indigenous belief systems, in Jerry Mander’s view, stems from a belief held by indigenous peoples that the earth is a living entity, Mother Earth. However, in many modern-day examples we can argue that indigenous population of one country or another behave like the earth is a big waste deposit but not a mother. In some countries, like India or Panama some indigenous people explain such fact as incomprehension that their behavior can harm the earth.

A question of self-determination cannot be a central and primary issue of any discussion. Of course, if we talk about fairness and equality we should declare that any nation, any indigenous community has a sacred right of deciding its own destiny. This means that none of the Western powers, international or supranational organization can deprive of a right of self-determination. Practically this could cause complete chaos in the international order and throw the world back to medieval times.

Finally, the author indicates that it is truly important to combine both insider and outsider research. The field of indigenous requires using different methodologies but what makes such a research more full-blooded is an amazing capacity to manipulate the insider and outsider research when it is needed most of all. Working on indigenous issues requires a long-term process of education, training and preparing of a great professional in such progressive area.

 

 

Works Cited

Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Decolonizing methodologies: research and Indigenous peoples, Zed books, 1999.