BEYOND ETHICS TO MORALITY: CHOICES AND RELATIONSHIPS IN BICULTURAL RESEARCH SETTINGS

Knowledge of ourselves as cultural beings, of the values and beliefs of those with whom we work, and of the history of relations among those in our work settings are essential for community and applied social psychologists. In New Zealand, research by non-Maori involving Maori has often mirrored the harmful colonising practices of the nation’s wider history. In response, several frameworks have been developed setting out conditions and guidelines in which non-Maori might conduct research in Maori settings responsibly and usefully. Nevertheless, views differ on the ways, and extent to which, nonMaori might be involved. Most guidelines do not provide answers to ethical nuances that may arise. This article discusses the experiences of a non-Maori community psychologist engaging in research with Maori participants in a bicultural, but predominantly Maori, school-based community education setting. Insight is provided into how kaupapa Maori approaches were applied in research that was valuable to the community. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman led an expedition of “discovery” that partially mapped and revealed the islands which would later become known as New Zealand. After a bloody encounter with Maori in Golden Bay, he left without ever going ashore. Following in Tasman’s wake, in 1769 and again in 1777, Captain James Cook of Britain led a scientific voyage to witness the Transit of Venus and to explore, document and collect resources that might benefit the motherland. Among the crew sailing with Cook were naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. They made journals and collected specimens that were later deposited in the Royal Gardens at Kew. Also on board was artist Sydney Parkinson who created many beautiful sketches and water colours producing a window through which to view not just the natural environment but its people and artefacts. Many of these artefacts were taken and are now stored at the British Museum. If we fast forward to this century and reflect on these voyages with a critical eye, we might construct Abel Tasman’s activity as a research scoping exercise, where researchers go forth and collect knowledge about a context, people and place with an intention of some future activity. Of note was his experience in Golden Bay serving to warn others of the local inhabitant’s displeasure and resistance. Cook’s activities can be viewed as scientifically systematic and deliberate and mostly qualitative although not exclusively so. Journal entries made by crew members reveal methods such as ‘walk-along’ interviews, observations, specimen collection and description and auto-ethnographic reflection – all very modern data gathering tools! But, like Tasman’s experience, Cook too encountered resistance, the result being the deaths of six Maori in what is now known as Poverty Bay. Taken by themselves, these voyages did result in fantastic scientific discoveries, yet these achievements are crushed beneath the insidious agenda and competition amongst European nations to expand their empires to exploit new lands, resources and peoples, a fact of which both Tasman and Cook were well aware and had seen its consequences. There are some very salient lessons for today’s researchers in this early encounter history of New Zealand. However, it was not until the 1950s and 60s, when the urbanisation of Maori people was at its height, that a social justice consciousness began to be articulated amongst social science researchers in New Zealand. Here, psychologists like Ernest Beaglehole, Ivan Sutherland, James and Jane Ritchie, and their respective students featured prominently (Nikora, 2007; Ritchie, 1992). Perhaps because