March 28, 2014
12:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Ponderosa G Lounge, 2044 Lower Mall
Dr. Carl Mika (Tuhourangi/Ngati Whanaunga) is a senior lecturer in Policy, Culture and Social Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand.
In Aotearoa/New Zealand, alongside appropriating land and language from Maori, colonisation has framed things in the world to Maori as being ‘present’ and available to being objectively known through the senses. Where Maori traditionally theorised about what was hidden from the senses about a thing, now it is generally assumed, in Western institutions such as law, health and education, that such inquiries are either nonsensical or simply quaint. In my presentation I discuss the nature of Maori metaphysics and explore through Maori terminology how there was an emphasis on what was concealed about a thing as much as what lay before the self. Western institutions’ disregard for a thing’s autonomy, and the language they invoke, I argue, lie at the core of a kind of philosophical
colonisation that Maori experience in everyday life.
Carl Mika has a background in legal practice (Waitangi Tribunal and criminal), indigenous and Maori studies, and German studies. His PhD examined a possible Maori ontology in light of the Early German Romantic poet and philosopher Novalis’s works. He currently lectures in the philosophy of education, indigenous studies, and Maori
studies in education.
WERA Global Ethics International Research Network and The Centre for Culture, Identity & Education (CCIE). Co-sponsor: Department of Educational Studies (EDST).