One of the “new wave” of Māori thinkers will spend the next several months focused on whose knowledge is prioritised in Aotearoa today, for a new book of essays about the tension between indigenous and settler knowledge systems.
Kaupapa Māori scholar, Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman, will assume a three-month residency for emerging Māori writers at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington in February, with joint support from Creative New Zealand.
The book of essays is titled Whose Knowledge Counts? From Warp Drive to Waka Huia.
Dr Aikman has ancestral ties to Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa and Ngāti Uenukukōpako.
Damien Wilkins, the director of the university’s International Institute of Modern Letters, said they are “delighted” to support Dr Aikman.
“Pounamu is part of the new wave of Māori writers and thinkers re-drawing the cultural map of Aotearoa. His writing is witty, sophisticated, penetrating and highly accessible.”
Dr Aikman said he is excited by the opportunity.
“Nōku te tino hōnore kia tū ki tēnei tūranga, kia mahi tahi ai kai te taha o ngā tuākana o te ao tuhi auaha, i ahau e tuhi ana i Whose Knowledge Counts? Kua pokea ngā whare wānanga o konei, o te ao whānui ki ngā ua taumahamaha, ana, he hōnore anō mōku te hoki hapori mai ki Te Herenga Waka, ki tēnei wāhi kua manaaki mai i ahau, kia manaakitia anō ai. Kia mahi tonu a Ngākau ki te whāngai i te mauri o te whare wānanga nei.”
(“It is an honour to be appointed, and I am excited to work alongside tuākana in creative writing as I develop Whose Knowledge Counts? With universities subjected to increasing pressure throughout Aotearoa and the world, I am privileged to return to a community that has nourished me in the past, and does so once more, so I may contribute to the mauri of Te Herenga Waka.”)
In 2021, Dr Aikman received a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga award to study at Harvard University and the University of Hawai’i.
He completed his PhD at the Australian National University in 2020, following a Master of Arts in Anthropology at the University of Otago, where he also completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Māori Studies.