By Leighton Williams
Earlier in May, Te Tumu hosted Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maru ki Tainui) from AUT for a special wānanga on peace, organised by Associate Professor Liana MacDonald. The wānanga was well attended by Te Tumu staff, postgraduate students, and friends from across the university, all of whom came to share rich stories about how they related to peace in varying ways. Centring Māori and Pacific notions of peace, the session explored what these perspectives might reveal about the limits of how violence, conflict, and peace are currently imagined.
The session began with a storying of peace within our own worlds, facilitated by Georgina with input from Professor Patrick Vakaoti, focusing on how peace is imagined and realised in Māori and Pacific contexts. Drawing on the rich knowledge traditions that shape our work in Te Tumu, Georgina reflected on how Indigenous understandings of peace must constantly negotiate with colonialism, modernity, and institutional forces, including the university itself. This discussion generated considerable engagement as colleagues reflected on how peace features in their own scholarly work, and considered where Māori and Pacific worldviews may offer philosophical alternatives to mainstream discussions of peace, conflict, and violence.
Some discussed the presence of Indigenous peace-making traditions within their own whakapapa, giving voice to practices and methods that few encounter today. Others reflected on the ways Indigenous understandings of peace can collapse under imposed categories such as ‘Indigenous knowledge’ and ‘mātauranga Māori’. Together, these conversations offered rich perspectives and suggested a deeper commitment by Indigenous peoples to enduring principles and practices of peace-making.
While the wānanga was initially planned as a discussion of peace through Indigenous frameworks, the conversation soon drifted toward rethinking peace in alternative terms. Do we recognise peace in Indigenous worlds? Is peace temporary, or is it imagined as a continual process of restoring balance? When considering peace for Indigenous peoples, in both our lives and our work, are we centring peace or centring violence, and what difference does that make? The wānanga left us with many unresolved questions that we hope to continue working through together.
Most excitingly, the wānanga also presented a unique opportunity for colleagues and students not only to discuss what peace means within Māori, Pacific, and Indigenous worlds, but also to contribute to the development of a polyphonic article. The article will be submitted for the upcoming special issue of AlterNative and will be led by new Peace and Conflict Studies doctoral student, Mai Ly, curating everyone’s diverse reflections on the wānanga discussions.
We are humbled by Georgina’s generosity and look forward to sharing our time with her again!
