Purposeful Voyaging

When Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith spoke about the purposeful voyaging of her ancestors, our Māori cousins to Aotearoa, and Pasifika peoples beyond, I couldnʻt help but think of our research and projects being like those waka/waʻa/vessels. Our Indigenous research has purpose, not only for what, but for whom, which I believe in many ways is our “why”. I also watched parts of Dr. Joseph Goneʻs presentation and at first it was hard to think (as he suggested for the contexts of his remarks) of Academia as a “sense of place”; I had a difficult time at first. But, when thinking of our research as ceremony (Wilson) and that each inquiry is a purposeful voyage, my mind and naʻau seems more at ease….because in order to know our destination, we must know where we are coming from.