Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith (née Mead; born 1950) was a professor of
indigenous education
Indigenous education specifically focuses on teaching Indigenous knowledge, models, methods, and content within formal or non-formal educational systems. The growing recognition and use of Indigenous education methods can be a response to the er ...
at the
University of Waikato
The University of Waikato ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato), is a Public university, public research university in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand established in 1964. An additional campus is located in Tauranga.
The university perfo ...
in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
, New Zealand
[Eminent Education Leader Appointed to Top Post at Waikato University]
9 March 2007 and is now
Distinguished Professor
Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs.
In the United States
Often specific to one institution, titles such ...
at
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi is a wānanga (indigenous tertiary education provider) in based in Whakatāne, New Zealand, established in 1991 by Ngāti Awa.
Faculty
* Taiarahia Black
* Mera Lee-Penehira
* Te Kani Kingi
* Ron Taiapa
See ...
. The daughter of
Sidney Moko Mead, she affiliates to the
Ngāti Awa
Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...
and
Ngāti Porou
Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...
iwi
Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...
.
Academic career
Smith earned her
BA,
MA (hons), and
PhD degrees at the
University of Auckland
, mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work
, established = 1883; years ago
, endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021)
, budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021)
, chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant
, vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...
. Her 1996 thesis was titled ''Ngā aho o te kakahu matauranga: the multiple layers of struggle by Maori in education.'' She was a member of the
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
political group
Ngā Tamatoa while a university student.
[
Smith is the author of '']Decolonizing Methodologies
''Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples'' is a book by Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Originally published in 1999, ''Decolonizing Methodologies'' is a foundational text in Indigenous studies that explores the intersections of colonia ...
'' (Zed Books
Zed Books is an independent non-fiction publishing company based in London, UK. It was founded in 1977 under the name Zed Press by Roger van Zwanenberg.
Zed publishes books for an international audience of both general and academic readers, co ...
, 1999 and 2012), a critical
Critical or Critically may refer to:
*Critical, or critical but stable, medical states
**Critical, or intensive care medicine
*Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences.
*Critical Software, a company specializing in ...
analysis of the role of Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
scholarly research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
played in the process of colonization
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
of indigenous cultures
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
. This work is considered a major contribution to research method
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
s in social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
research.
Smith is the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato.
In the 2013 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2013 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Hon ...
, Smith was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for those ...
for services to Māori and education. In 2017, Smith was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...
", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.
In November 2016 she was appointed a member of the Waitangi Tribunal
The Waitangi Tribunal (Māori: ''Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi'') is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. It is charged with investigating and making recommendations on cla ...
. In the same year she retired Pro Vice Chancellor Māori and took a short-term contract as Professor of Māori and Indigenous Studies in the newly formed Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies.
In September 2020 the hashtag #BecauseOfLindaTuhiwaiSmith went viral when Smith was one of a group of academics who wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
on racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
in education and news that her contract would not be renewed. A report commissioned by the University of Waikato into claims in the letter found that ''the institution is structurally discriminatory against Māori'' but did not support other claims in the letter.
In 2021, Smith joined Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi is a wānanga (indigenous tertiary education provider) in based in Whakatāne, New Zealand, established in 1991 by Ngāti Awa.
Faculty
* Taiarahia Black
* Mera Lee-Penehira
* Te Kani Kingi
* Ron Taiapa
See ...
as Distinguished Professor.
Personal life
Smith was born in Whakatāne
Whakatāne ( , ) is the seat of the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand, east of Tauranga and north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatāne River. Whakatāne District is the encompassing territorial authority, whi ...
, New Zealand. Her father is Sidney Moko Mead of Ngāti Awa
Ngāti Awa is a Māori iwi (tribe) centred in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand. It is made of 22 hapū (subtribes), with 15,258 people claiming affiliation to the iwi in 2006. The Ngāti Awa people are primarily located in towns ...
, also a professor, and her mother is June Te Rina Mead, née Walker, of Ngāti Porou
Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...
.[ She was given the name Tuhiwai as an adult.]
When Smith was a teenager, she moved to the US while her father was completing his PhD. Her family lived in southern Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
and she attended Carbondale Community High School. In her time in the U.S. education system, Smith gained a new found confidence as a learner. Smith later moved to Salem, Massachusetts
Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
where she worked as an assistant at the Peabody Museum of Salem
The Peabody Museum of Salem (1915–1992), formerly the Peabody Academy of Science (1865–1915), was a museum and antiquarian society based in Salem, Massachusetts. The academy was organized in part as a successor to the East India Marine Socie ...
, typing labels in the basement. Upon her return to New Zealand, she applied her value of the confidence of students to New Zealand students, especially Maori students.
In the 1970s, Smith was a founding member of the radical group Ngā Tamatoa. She was radicalized by texts by Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
and Frantz Fanon
Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have be ...
. Her role in Ngā Tamatoa was to communicate with Maori people about the Treaty of Waitangi
The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...
. Smith saw education as the most important part the Maori struggle for freedom.
Smith is married to fellow academic Graham Smith.[
]
Selected works
* Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books Ltd., 2013.
* Denzin, Norman K., Yvonna S. Lincoln, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, eds. Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. Sage, 2008.
* Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. "On tricky ground: Researching the native in the age of uncertainty. N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.) The Landscape of Qualitative Research." (2008): 113–143.
* Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. "Kaupapa maori research." Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision (2000): 225–247.
* Cram, Fiona, Linda Smith, and Wayne Johnstone. "Mapping the themes of Maori talk about health." (2003).
* Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. "Building a research agenda for indigenous epistemologies and education." Anthropology & education quarterly 36, no. 1 (2005): 93–95.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Linda Tuhiwai
Living people
New Zealand educational theorists
21st-century social scientists
New Zealand Māori academics
University of Waikato faculty
Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Decolonization
Ngāti Awa people
Ngāti Porou people
New Zealand Māori women academics
1950 births
Members of the Waitangi Tribunal
Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi faculty