Indigenizing Psychology - disrupting settler-colonial ideologies of sameness

Abstract

Indigenous psychologists in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Turtle Island have, for decades, challenged the dominant role of Western-derived psychological knowledge. Unpacking the monocultural paradigm underpinning psychology is necessary if we are to address the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. Despite the proliferation of Western, white-normative psychological theories, the reality for Indigenous peoples is that their standards of health and wellbeing have got worse, not better. Yet Western psychology continues to promote its theoretical traditions as universal, foundational, and applicable to all peoples and situations across the globe. While as Indigenous people we grapple daily with entrenched racism in psychology, many also practice transformative and regenerative methods of wellbeing and healing. Indigenous-informed methods of healing and theories of the nature of being have been in existence since the creation of the universe. I advocate for a psychology curriculum that embeds understanding of settler-colonialism and racism and its role in creating and maintaining intergenerational inequities; psychological practice that enhances rather than appropriates Indigenous knowledge; and importantly, a distinct discipline informed by Indigenous Maaori knowledge to create transformative life pathways. These topics will be discussed in the context of Aoteroa New Zealand and its place in the Pacific - Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa.