| Linda Tuhiwai Smith | |
| Birth Place: | New Zealand |
| Workplaces: | University of Waikato |
| Alma Mater: | University of Auckland |
| Thesis1 Title: | Ngā aho o te kakahu matauranga: the multiple layers of struggle by Maori in education. |
| Thesis1 Url: | https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/942 |
| Thesis1 Year: | 1996 |
| Influences: | Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o,[1] Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Paulo Freire |
| Spouse: | Graham Smith |
| Relatives: | Sidney Moko Mead (father) |
Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith (née Mead; born 1950), previously a professor of indigenous education at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand,[2] [3] [4] is now Distinguished Professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Smith's academic contribution is about decolonising knowledge and systems. The Royal Society Te Apārangi describes Smith’s influence on education as creating "intellectual spaces for students and researchers to embrace their identities and transcend dominant narratives".[5]
Smith was born in Whakatāne,[6] New Zealand. Her father is Sidney Moko Mead of Ngāti Awa, also a professor, and her mother is June Te Rina Mead, née Walker, of Ngāti Porou.[7] She was given the name Tuhiwai as an adult. Smith affiliates with the Māori iwi Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou from the east cape of the North Island in New Zealand.
When Smith was a teenager, she moved to the US while her father was completing his PhD. Her family lived in southern Illinois and she attended Carbondale Community High School. In her time in the U.S. education system, Smith gained a newfound confidence as a learner. Smith later moved to Salem, Massachusetts, where she worked as an assistant at the Peabody Museum of Salem, typing labels in the basement.[8] Upon her return to New Zealand, she applied her value of the confidence of students to New Zealand students, especially Maori students.
In the 1970s, Smith was a founding member of the activist group Ngā Tamatoa.[9] She was influenced by texts by Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon. Her role in Ngā Tamatoa was to communicate with Maori people about the Treaty of Waitangi. Smith saw education as the most important part the Maori struggle for freedom. She was a member of Ngā Tamatoa while a university student.
Smith earned her BA, MA (hons), and PhD degrees at the University of Auckland. Her 1996 thesis was titled Ngā aho o te kakahu matauranga: the multiple layers of struggle by Maori in education.[10] [11]
Smith is the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato.[12]
Smith's book Decolonising Methodologies, Research and Indigenous Peoples was first published in 1999.
In the 2013 New Year Honours, Smith was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and education.[13] In 2017, Smith was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[14]
In November 2016 she was appointed a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.[15] In the same year she retired Pro Vice Chancellor Māori and took a short-term contract as Professor of Māori and Indigenous Studies in the newly formed Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies.[16]
In September 2020 the hashtag #BecauseOfLindaTuhiwaiSmith went viral when Smith was one of a group of academics who wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Education on racism in education[17] and news that her contract would not be renewed. A report commissioned by the University of Waikato into claims in the letter found that the institution is structurally discriminatory against Māori[18] but did not support other claims in the letter.[18]
In 2021, Smith joined Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi as Distinguished Professor.[19] She became the first Māori scholar to be elected into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021.
The Rutherford Medal, the top honour from the Royal Society Te Apārangi was awarded to Smith in 2023, "for her preeminent role in advancing education and research for Te Ao Māori, her groundbreaking scholarship in decolonisation of research methodologies, and her pioneering contribution to transforming research for Indigenous Peoples globally".[20] She said of this award:
"I think it’s important for us for Māori, for indigenous peoples, to have our knowledge recognised, and to occupy and create spaces inside the big institutions of knowledge." (Linda Tuhiwai Smith, 2023)[21]
See main article: articles and Decolonizing Methodologies. Smith is the author of Decolonising Methodologies, Research and Indigenous Peoples (Zed Books, 1999, 2012, and 2021), a critical analysis of the role of Western scholarly research played in the process of colonization of indigenous cultures. This work is considered a major contribution to research methods in social justice research.[22] [23] [24] In a 2023 news item the Royal Society Te Apārangi notes it has been translated into five languages and has 283,000 citations to date.
Smith is married to fellow academic Graham Smith.