Abstract
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present a decolonising research methodology. The first section of this paper problematises western knowledge production, using Aníbal Quijano’s colonial matrix of power. The second section theorises how an epistemological pluralism that is critical, decolonising and performative could address western knowledge production and the colonial matrix of power. The third section discusses how this methodology has been applied to Butoh to develop Critical Butoh. The final section presents He rawe tona kakahu/ She wore a becoming dress, a Butoh performance exploring the intersection of gender and colonisation, as a practical application of this methodology.
Highlights
RÉSUMÉ – Représenter le trait d’Union – Cet article vise à présenter une méthodologie de recherche décolonisatrice
Māori and indigenous education scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith states that it was through the western construction of the concepts of line, centre and outside, which were used to define the spatial relationships of colonisation, that indigenous space was colonised (Smith, 1999)
In 2008, I facilitated the development of a performance project that examined the intersection of gender and colonisation, employing a decolonising epistemological pluralism that I had developed through my practice as an artist and performer
Summary
My research methodology developed through my practice as an artist and performer. This methodology seeks to overcome the dualisms that are the foundation of western knowledge. Arts-based research was one of the methodologies that developed as a result of, as activist, artist and author Susan Finley describes, the activist turn in social sciences and the search to make research participatory and relevant to the researched and their community (Finley, 2005) Kester finds that this “activist aesthetic [is] based on performativity and localism” and describes performativity as “a practice that is adaptive and improvisational rather than originary and fixed”, concluding that “the work of art is less a discrete object than it is a process of dialogue, exchange, and even collaboration that responds to the changing conditions and needs of both the viewer and maker” I developed this methodology – and its theoretical foundation – as a way to positively respond to and begin to address Māori concerns about western knowledge production and academic research. Such findings support the validity of this body-based practice
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