menu

Thinkers

Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Indigenous · Oceania · born 1950

Māori scholar from New Zealand whose work is about decolonising research methods and Indigenous education.

What it is

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Māori scholar from New Zealand, of Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou descent, and a distinguished professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Her academic work is about decolonising research methods and knowledge, and about Indigenous education.

Her book Decolonizing Methodologies is described as a seminal text in Indigenous studies. She has held senior posts at the University of Waikato, including pro-vice-chancellor Māori, and she has served on the Health Research Council.

The main ideas

  • Research and colonialism. Her book is a critical look at how Western scholarly research took part in the colonisation of Indigenous peoples.
  • A decolonizing approach. The book offers what it calls a decolonizing approach to research methodology, and it is considered a major contribution to research methods.
  • Indigenous education. She was a professor of Indigenous education at the University of Waikato, and her work on Indigenous education is part of what she is known for.

What it looks like in practice

Imagine a university team planning a study of a community that has been studied many times before. Smith's line of questioning would ask who asked for this research, who will own what it finds, and what the community has seen come of earlier studies. She would want to know whether people from the community helped to shape the questions, or only answered them. This is an illustration of her line of questioning, not a passage from her writing.

Books and moments

  • Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples was first published in 1999, with new editions in 2012 and 2021.
  • She was the founding co-director of Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga, the Māori Centre of Research Excellence.
  • She was appointed to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2016.
  • She is a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has honoured her.
  • She has served on the Health Research Council.

Questions and criticism

  • What would a different research practice need? If research has often served those in power, it is fair to ask what changes in practice would make it serve the people studied, and who decides.
  • Who benefits? If research has been bound up with exploitation, it is fair to ask how a community can tell, before a study begins, whether it will serve its own interests.
  • Whose methods? Whether Indigenous and Western ways of knowing can share a single research practice, or need separate ones, is an open question.

Close neighbours

The pages on Vine Deloria Jr., Frantz Fanon and Paulo Freire are nearby reads on colonialism and knowledge.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced by

  • Frantz Fanon · She draws on Fanon's account of how colonial rule works on the mind. (scholars disagree about this link)
  • Paulo Freire · She draws on Freire's view of education as a practice of freedom. (scholars disagree about this link)
  • Vine Deloria Jr. · Writers on decolonising knowledge, such as Smith, draw on his work. (scholars disagree about this link)

Other Indigenous thinkers

Sources we used

See where you stand Find them on the map

Something wrong or missing on this page? Tell us.