Indigenous knowledge, methodology and mayhem LINDA TUHIWAI SMITH, TE KAHAUTU MAXWELL, HAUPAI PUKE, POU TEMARA [electronic resource] : what is the role of methodology in producing Indigenous insights? A discussion from Matauranga Maori /

The emergence of an academic discourse called Indigenous knowledge internationally, and matauranga Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand, presents some substantive challenges to concepts of knowing and being, of knowledge creation, knowledge work and the making of meaning. These challenges engage us across philosophical, disciplinary, institutional, inter-generational, territorial and community boundaries, presenting an opportunity to imagine this field anew, and the theories and methodologies that inform contemporary Maori or Indigenous Studies. This article raises some discussion about ‘research methodologies’ being used when discussing matauranga Maori and Indigenous knowledge (hereafter referred to as IK matauranga). Research methodologies are often associated with specific disciplines of knowledge and viewed as the primary if not singular way in which knowledge is generated. Arguably, IK matauranga occupies a different knowledge space from traditional academic disciplines, including their transdisciplinary interstices. This article speaks to a gnawing sense that mayhem is at play, as the academic work around IK matauranga begins to consolidate and become institutionalised away from its indigenous communities and contexts, where it began and where it still informs identities, ways of living and being.