Carl Mika

The Status of Oral Traditions in the History of Philosophy: Methodological Considerations

7.-9. September 2023, Universität Hildesheim

Carl Mika

Orality and the All:

Wananga and its philosophical implications

Maori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand, have a long traditional of passing on knowledge through wananga (often translated as forums or places of learning). A deeper analysis of the term wananga and its potential association with wa (time/space/nowness), however, can yield some insights into a deeper spiritual philosophy of language – one that considers the widely acknowledged Indigenous notion of the All, or oneness, which refers to the complete interconnection of all things that exist and have existed (Mika, 2017). In this paper, I propose that wananga can be to do with teaching and learning or human deliberation, but the manifestation of a concern or idea to be discussed wouldn’t have existed without ‘nowness’ taking place in the first instance. I speculate on the relationship of the All to a Maori philosophy of language, and hence to modes of discussion that take place within formal wananga and beyond.

References

Mika, C. (2017). Indigenous education and the metaphysics of presence: A worlded philosophy. Oxon, England: Routledge.

Carl Mika is Maori of the Tuhourangi iwi and Professor in Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, University of Canterbury, specialising in Māori and Indigenous philosophy, with a particular focus on its revitalisation within a colonised reality. Committed to investigating indigenous notions of holism, he wrote Indigenous Education and the Metaphysics of Presence (2017, Routledge), along with several articles and chapters, on the issue of colonisation and reductionism. He is currently working on the Maori concepts of nothingness and darkness in response to an Enlightenment focus on clarity, and speculating on how they can form the backdrop of academic expression. He is also contributing to philosophical discussions arising around matauranga Maori and science. He has experience teaching and researching in education and mātauranga Māori, the law, and global studies. Internationally, he has held an adjunct professorship at RMIT and involved in projects that engage with Indigenous philosophy: Sámi mánná jurddavázzin – Sámi Children as Thought Herders: Storytelling and critical philosophical inquiries in Indigenous Early Years Education (Swedish Research Council); and Understanding Indigenous Ethics and Wholism within Academic and Aboriginal Community Research Settings (SSHRC, Canada). He welcome inquiries from doctoral students interested in diverse methods and delving into Maori and other Indigenous philosophies. His publications include "Surviving academic Whiteness: Perspectives from the Pacific" (in Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2023), "Why Give Up the Unknown? And How?" (in Journal of World Philosophies, 2022).