Abstract

As a Pākehā creative arts tutor and practice-led researcher working for the regional polytechnic Waikato Institute of Technology, I have often been aware of what Tolich calls ‘Pākehā paralysis’— which is the tendency by Pākehā not to engage with Māori, because it is ‘too hard’ due to an inability “to distinguish between their role in Māori-centred research and their role in research in a New Zealand society, which involves Māori among other ethnic groups.”. The default position is often one of avoidance, or worse, positioning Māori within a ‘mainstream’ education framework that frequently makes universalist assumptions in a manner that has been called “whitestreaming”. Intellectually being aware of these issues, is however, quite different to doing something about it as a Pākehā schooled and practising within the same liberal humanist traditions one is attempting to be critical of.